The 9/11 Widows

Times columnist Frank Rich noted approvingly Kristen Breitweiser's anti-Bush criticism of the Showtime TV movie "DC 9/11: Time of Crisis." Rich writes: Kristen Breitweiser, a 9/11 widow, characterized one of the movie's many elisions in Salon. To show the president continuing to sit and read with elementary school kids 'while people like my husband were burning alive inside the World Trade Center towers,' she wrote, 'would run counter to Karl Rove's art direction and grand vision.'"

Breitweiser has also said: "Three thousand people were murdered on Bush's watch."

From right, Kristen Breitweiser, Mindy Kleinberg, Lorie Van Auken and Patty Casazza, who have dogged the Sept. 11 inquiry. "We simply wanted to know why our husbands were killed," Ms. Breitweiser said. (NYT Photo/Suchat Pederson)

BECAUSE TERRORISTS FLEW PLANES INTO BUILDINGS! Because for EIGHT YEARS Bill Clinton was more concerned about getting blow jobs and getting his wife elected to Senator in New York than PROTECTING THIS COUNTRY!!!

Tuesday morning, that President Bush had agreed to allow his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to testify publicly about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. All at once, the cellphones started ringing and the e-mail started flying and "the Jersey girls," as the four women are known in Washington, were getting credit for chalking up another victory in the nation's capital.

on Capitol Hill, these suburban women are gaining prominence as savvy World Trade Center widows who came to Washington, as part of a core group of politically active relatives of Sept. 11 victims

The women went to Home Depot, sawed wood for signs and staged a Washington rally; 300 people came out in the blistering heat. They staked out lawmakers and boarded the elevators marked "Senators Only." They wheedled their way into the White House. Jay Lefkowitz, a former Bush domestic policy adviser, recalls giving them chocolate chip cookies, even as he successfully opposed some demands.

They stayed up nights surfing the Web, taking notes on things like Islamic radicalism and the Federal Aviation Administration's hijacking protocols.

"The Internet," Ms. Breitweiser said, "has been our fifth widow."

In the Capitol, they cried, they pleaded, they cajoled. Ms. Breitweiser showed her husband's wedding ring, found at ground zero still attached to his finger. Ms. Casazza brought photos of a Cantor Fitzgerald pool party, telling lawmakers, "All the men are dead."

They befriended reporters: Gail Sheehy, in The New York Observer, dubbed them "the four moms." With her articulate manner and Ivory girl complexion, Ms. Breitweiser became a fixture on the television networks.

"No one wanted to say no to these women," said a Republican who participated in negotiations over the commission. He said the women "were used" by Democrats, an accusation Republicans repeated recently when Ms. Breitweiser criticized the Sept. 11 images in a Bush campaign advertisement. It is an acccusation she hotly denies.

Since the commission began its work, the Sept. 11 relatives, who call themselves the Family Steering Committee, have dogged its every move. When the panel complained of a lack of money, they lobbied for a bigger budget — and won. When the House speaker, J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, refused to grant the panel an extension, they headed to Washington again, and the speaker retreated. "Public pressure by the 9/11 families," Mr. Hastert's spokesman, John Feehery, said about the reversal. "There is no doubt about that."

They call me all the time," said Thomas H. Kean, the commission's chairman and a former Republican governor of New Jersey. "They monitor us, they follow our progress, they've supplied us with some of the best questions we've asked. I doubt very much if we would be in existence without them."

Before Sept. 11, the Jersey girls (the nickname, which distinguishes the women from their New York and Connecticut counterparts, was popularized in song by Bruce Springsteen) knew little about government and less about politics. The closest Ms. Casazza came to foreign affairs was processing visa applications for French trainees while working for the cosmetics company Lancôme. Ms. Van Auken could not keep the two chambers of Congress straight.

"I remember saying to Patty: `Which one is the one with more people, the Senate or the House?' " she recalled.

The story of how they helped move a seemingly immoveable bureaucracy is at once the tale of a political education, and a sisterhood born of grief. They gathered Monday in the sun-drenched living room of Ms. Casazza's spacious home to tell it. The place, with its well-tended lawn and tennis court out back, spoke of another life. Ms. Casazza, who has a 13-year-old son, is planning to sell it. "Downsizing," she said simply.

Before Sept. 11, the Jersey girls (the nickname, which distinguishes the women from their New York and Connecticut counterparts, was popularized in song by Bruce Springsteen) knew little about government and less about politics. The closest Ms. Casazza came to foreign affairs was processing visa applications for French trainees while working for the cosmetics company Lancôme. Ms. Van Auken could not keep the two chambers of Congress straight.

We're supposed to believe this drivel? Kristen Breitweiser's father, John Winterstella served as a Mayor of a New Jersey shore borough and in the NJ Political Hall of Fame. Kristen was an attorney for a short number of days and graduated with a law degree from Seton Hall. Yet, we're supposed to believe they weren't political nor civic savvy???

Moreover, anyone with a hubby at a company like Cantor Fitzgerald MUST be political by nature. It's the way of the business world...

Reading her reply it's obvious you've hit a nerve with her.

I've been corresponding with her for a few weeks, sending her as much info. as possible to deflect blame. Through it all I notice the woman speaks out of both sides of her mouth -- trying to assure me she doesn't blame GWB solely ("I voted for him in 2000") but blames everyone in Gov't. I was shocked by her latest accusation that the Pentagon was aware on 9/10 that something big was going to happen and stopped officials from flying on the 11th. Thought the woman did her homework, but if I had to remind her that Ted Olson's wife flew that day, I realize whatever she's being fed is coming from the biased left and her agenda is politically motivated.

The 911 Widows

http://www.opinionjournal.com/medialog/?id=110004950

Kristen Breitweiser, wife of Ronald Breitweiser, 39
Fiduciary Trust International, WTC Tower Two
Hometown: Middletown Township, NJ
Co-Chair, September 11th Advocates
Kdianbreit@aol.com

Patty Casazza, wife of John F. Casazza, 38
Cantor Fitzgerald, 104th floor, WTC Tower One
Hometown: Colts Neck, NJ
Co-Chair, September 11th Advocates
jcasazz2@optonline.net

Mindy Kleinberg, wife of Alan Kleinberg, 39
Cantor Fitzgerald, 104th floor, WTC Tower One
Hometown: East Brunswick, NJ
Co-Chair, September 11th Advocates
akleinberg@comcast.net

Lorie Van Auken, wife of Kenneth Van Auken, 47
Cantor Fitzgerald, 105th floor, WTC Tower One
Hometown: East Brunswick, NJ
Co-Chair, September 11th Advocates
kenvan@comcast.net

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