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]

Dick of the Week: Mitt Romn Rudy Giuliani!

And I quote...

"I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers. I was there working with them...I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them." [link]

Rudy has long been an asshole, a serial exaggerator, and the worst kind of opportunist, but a statement like that is astounding—even for him. If there was any doubt as to whether or not there could be a worse President than Bush, look no further than this man. He's everything wrong with Bush, but actually motivated and driven, and even more of an authoritarian—he's actually Bush combined with Cheney—and he clearly suffers from a Dubya-like self-aggrandizment and is insulated from reality and surrounded by a layer of sycophants thick enough that nobody ever told him how repulsive a comment like that would be.

And this wasn't an off-the-cuff moment, he was actually making statements to defend himself against criticism from victim's families about mismanagment during and after 9/11. So, he goes before the press to "fire back" at those critics (probably not wise to begin with), but the defense he comes armed with is that he was there more than some of the workers and felt the same experiences?

He's fucking nuts! How do you think that would go over if he walked into Ladder Co. 10 and tried that on the guys who literally sifted through rubble for weeks and months for their fallen brothers.

It makes Mitt Romney equating his five sons' campaign work to serving overseas in the military during a war look like a mispronounciation.

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Meanwhile, The Village Voice lays waste to the "Myth of Rudy" this week:

Rudy Giuliani's Five Big Lies About 9/11
On the stump, Rudy can't help spreading smoke and ashes about his lousy record
Nearly six years after 9/11, Rudy Giuliani is still walking through the canyons of lower Manhattan, covered in soot, pointing north, and leading the nation out of danger's way. The Republican frontrunner is campaigning for president by evoking that visual at every campaign stop, and he apparently believes it's a picture worth thousands of nights in the White House.

And, if you haven't seen this video yet, there's no better context than this.