Friday, August 17, 2007

Rudy Does His Digging at the Microphone

Last week, Rudy Giuliani earned D.O.W. honors for claiming to have been "one of them" referring to 9/11 rescue workers. It wouldn't be the first time either... In Septemper 2006:
“I spent as much time here as anyone… I was here five, six times a day for four months. I kind of thought of it as living here.”

"[...] On at least three occasions, in responding to accusations that the city failed to adequately protect the health of workers in the wreckage, he has boasted that he faced comparable risks himself. In one appearance he declared that he had been in the ruins “as often, if not more” than the cleanup workers who logged hundreds of hours in the smoldering pile.

Another time he brushed aside safety claims by asserting that his long hours at the site had left him susceptible to “every health consequence that people have suffered.”

The New York Times went back and checked.
A complete record of Mr. Giuliani’s exposure to the site is not available for the chaotic six days after the attack, when he was a frequent visitor. But an exhaustively detailed account from his mayoral archive, revised after the events to account for last-minute changes on scheduled stops, does exist for the period of Sept. 17 to Dec. 16, 2001. It shows he was there for a total of 29 hours in those three months, often for short periods or to visit locations adjacent to the rubble. In that same period, many rescue and recovery workers put in daily 12-hour shifts. […]

When these guys lie like this do they really think they will get away with it? I mean, it is easy to check this stuff.

What? You mean they do get away with it? Oh. Now I see...

Even in the Times piece which just lays waste to Giuliani, they wrap up with this:
Alan I. Abramowitz, a political science professor at Emory University who specializes in voter behavior, said the Giuliani campaign’s focus on his Sept. 11 record has raised the stakes for any mischaracterization of his actions during that period.

“Its sort of like John Kerry making his war heroism a central focus,” Mr. Abramowitz said, “which may have contributed to the attention that was given to the swift boat veterans’ attacks on him.”

"Sort of like John Kerry?" You mean that as a candidate Kerry was a documented war hero, and the lies were told about him? By the Republicans? Yeah, same fucking thing, "Professor."

[h/t Carpetbagger]

6 comments:

Rickey said...

How dare you question the credibility of America's Mayor? And if he wasn't at ground zero as these silly stories suggest, perhaps he was doing something more important. Such as joining Bernie Kerik for a little late night stakeout.

Mr Furious said...

Best quote I saw last week while all this unfolded?

"On 9/11 all [Giuliani] did was run. He got that soot on him, and I don't think he's taken a shower since," - deputy New York City fire chief Jimmy Riches, who spent months digging for his firefighter son at Ground Zero.

Noah said...

Mr. F. The title of this post is perfectly hyterical, especially given the quote from the Deputy Fire Chief. Bra-VO.

This guy is Dangerous-with-a-capital-D.

Anonymous said...

The picture of Giuliani that's rapidly emerging is that he's nearly as incompetent as George W. Bush, but with a flakiness all his own.

On the positive side, Giuliani doesn't claim divine guidance. At least not yet.

Mr Furious said...

He's worse than Bush, in my opinion, because he is actively and aggressively authoritarian.

I don't think that's Bush's nature, it's just the way things have work best for him.

It's what Rudy gets up in the morning thinking about.

Mrs Furious said...

you went too far with your labels on this one! Poor taste Mr. F