Posted on 08/24/2006 3:03:32 AM PDT by Eagle Forgotten
It's the unexamined question of 9/11: What if Rudy Giuliani wasn't quite the hero everybody thought?
....
But what if Rudy's take-charge image was mostly a load of bravado and PR? What if the actual decisions he made - before, during and after the terror attacks - were directly responsible for the city's inability to deal effectively with crucial aspects of the crisis?
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With dozens of exclusive and previously unreleased interviews, Barrett and Collins show how the ambitious ex-mayor has spent recent years revising his own truth of 9/11 - and profiting handsomely from it. Casting himself as a prescient terror hawk who wisely prepared his city for the inevitable, Giuliani in fact ignored repeated warnings from the experts, including his own commissioners and aides.
Instead of confronting the looming danger, they tell how he grew increasingly distracted by pet projects, political turf wars and an extraordinarily messy personal life.
(Excerpt) Read more at amny.com ...
I've always thought that Giuliani has gotten a free pass from the media simply because he seemed calm and statesmanlike on that awful day. Granted, he was indeed good on TV, but so was Clinton after the Oklahoma City bombing. That much is just image.
When it comes to substance, Rudy really fell down. A lot of people have heard how the firefighters and police couldn't communicate with each other, a problem that had been known at the start of Giuliani's mayoralty but that he hadn't fixed in eight years. Nor is it pure hindsight to say that he shouldn't have located the city's emergency command center at the WTC -- at the time he did it, plenty of people pointed out that the WTC, having been attacked once, had to be considered a prime terrorist target.
Judging from the article, this book develops those examples and adds quite a few others.
The WoT looms so large that many people may be willing to overlook Giuliani's obvious weaknesses on other issues. There seems to be a school of thought that says he's a great candidate because he happened to be Mayor of New York on 9/11, so he must know all about this key issue. I hope those people will look into his record a little more deeply.
As the author of the article says, "You can bet national political reporters will be combing though these chapters as the 2008 presidential campaign season revs up."
I'm sure the author is greatly saddened by that. By the way, just how much did the 'non ideological' author contribute to Hitlery over the years? Enquiring minds want to know...
"But what if Rudy's take-charge image was mostly a load of bravado and PR? What if the actual decisions he made - before, during and after the terror attacks - were directly responsible for the city's inability to deal effectively with crucial aspects of the crisis?"
Bravado...PR...other than a lust for power and desire to control, of what other use is ANY polititian?!
No polititian is to be trusted.
Congressman Billybob
Latest article: "Bad Judges Make Bad Law."
Please see my most recent statement on running for Congress, here.
I don't trust one (1) word Ellis Henican writes or speaks.
Congressman Billybob is right. Hennican is a liar and shilll for the Rats. I am not certain that Rudyy is the best candidate, but this article comes pretty close to blaming him for deaths at the WTC, which I find despicable.
As for the book, one of the co-authors, Wayne Barrett, has been an ardent Giuliani foe for years. Your concern that the book is a hit piece is certainly a reasonable one, but that's why I mentioned that the book seems to address managerial competence rather than ideology. I mean, there's no dispute that the radios didn't work. That's the kind of thing that isn't a liberal-versus-conservative issue.
Wait... we might have been too hasty in our judgements. The authors work for the Village Voice and CBS. It must be fair and accurate. /sarcasm
I fear that Giuliani's private life will not be front and center in the primaries and if he wins the nomination it will be all we hear from then till the election. Giuliani as nominee would smooth Mrs. Clinton's path immensely because there is a tremendous lot of Republicans who will not vote for Giuliani because of that private life and Mrs. Clinton does not have to worry about such things. Her voters consider sexual scandal to be a badge of honor.
That's so petty. Maybe Guliani was focusing on the thousand other things that improved NYC from the disaster that Dinkins left it in?
The dims are threatened to death by Rudy. This will be the first of many attempts to diminish his star power.
I award zero credence to anything that comes from the Village Voice but that private life will severely limit Giuiliani's possibilities in the Bible Belt which has been the Republicans' main reservoir. Can we gain enough from the homosexual vote and from illegals to make up for it?
So you make your point by posting an Ellis Henican column... pure genius.
They are terrified of a Rudy/Hillary race because Rudy would clean her clock.
I see the Clintons' hands in this.
Sadly, of the four leading GOP contenders for the White House, we have: a gaffe-prone Mormon from Massachusetts who rides the laurels of his family name (Mitt Romney); a certifiable kook who’ll sell his soul for positive coverage from the Washington Post (McCain); a(nother!) gaffe-prone intellectual featherweight whose main claim to fame is a famous dad names George (George Allen); and a press-hungry dictatorial prosecutor who’s never even held statewide office (Rudy). While I still have my doubts about whether Giuliani will run . . . this field stinck.
(2) Yes, I know all about Henican. He's awful. But's he's more right than wrong on this one.
(2) Yes, I know all about Henican. He's awful. But's he's more right than wrong on this one.
Probably the main transmission towers came down with the Towers. They always use the high ground...with subs in dead spots. I'm making a semi-educated guess.
Oh, brother. The leftists just can't stand that people have heroes and look up to certain people.
It would have been much better if Rudy had acted like Nagin and gone into hiding when the hurricane hit New Orleans or worried about what he was going to wear on television like LA's governor Blanco. /sarcasm
I'm sure the writer understands that without purchasing hugely expensive satellite phones, there wasn't (and maybe still isn't) a phone in existence that doesn't have coverage issues.
Regardless, I think Rudy is a hero; the way he comported himself in the days after 9/11 will be always fresh in my mind and I personally don't know anyone who doesn't look up to him.
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