Giuliani"s Unwelcome Birthday Guests

The New York Observer ^ | 5/29/07 | Azi Paybarah

[SUSSA]

Here’s an unwelcome birthday gift for Rudy Giuliani, as he travels around the city raising money: protests from fire fighters and family members of September 11th victims.

They've shown up in the past at Giuliani's presidential events. Today, they’re gathering in Bay Ridge, and they have plans to follow him nationwide starting sometime around January, according to Jim Riches, a deputy chief with the fire department whose son was killed in the World Trade Center attacks.

“We have all the UFA, the UFOA, and the fire members are all behind us -- the International Association of Fire Fighters,” said Riches. “And we’re going to be out there today to let everybody know that he’s not the hero that he says he is.”

The group’s complaints center on the faulty radios used by the fire department that day and what they say was a lack of coordination at Ground Zero.

And Riches disputes the notion that Giuliani provided any form of leadership on September 11 or in the days following.

“If somebody can tell me what he did on 9/11 that was so good, I’d love to hear it. All he did was give information on the TV”

“He did nothing,” Riches continued. “He stood there with a TV reporter and told everyone what was going on. And he got it from everybody else down at the site.”

[SUSSA]

The FDNY and the 9-11 families are starting to Swift Boat Giuliani. Their big push is supposed to come in January. Team of firefighters and 9-11 survivors are going to follow him around the country.

[alicewonders]

I hope it has the same effect on Guiliani as it did on Kerry.

[BurtSB]

These are Clinton Union Goons doing her dirty work .
Real class acts these evil creatures that use 9-11 to smear Rudy .

[Condor51]

And Riches disputes the notion that Giuliani provided any form of leadership on September 11 or in the days following.

"f somebody can tell me what he did on 9/11 that was so good, I’d love to hear it. All he did was give information on the TV" ... "He did nothing," Riches continued. "He stood there with a TV reporter and told everyone what was going on. And he got it from everybody else down at the site."

You da Man!
I've been saying that since .. oh .... 9-12-01. Rooty did squat. No 'leadership', no nothing. And certainly NOT anything 'heroic'.

And when Oprah gave him that b.s. 'America's Mayor' tag I almost puked. That amoral scum bag was NEVER my mayor. And he sure as hell won't be my POTUS.

[VRWCmember]

Are these union goons the reason Rudy wouldn’t run against hillary for the Senate seat from NY in 2000 or 2006, but he thinks he’s the only “republican” who can beat her in 2008?

[colorado tanker]

These are Clinton Union Goons doing her dirty work .

Yep. These are the guys who didn't boo Hillary.

[EternalVigilance]

If they were nothing more than “Clinton Union Goons,” wouldn’t they be waiting until after the primaries to sink him?

[SUSSA]

I hope it has the same effect on Guiliani as it did on Kerry.

Me too. Guiliani is as much a hero as Kerry.

The NY firefighters are real heros and much more espected than Guiliani. I just don't think the MSM will give them much press unless the GOP nominates him. Then they will have the firefighters and survivors on every news show.

[SUSSA]

LOL

The firefighters are heroes. They didn't wonder around looking for a TV camera. They worked to save lives. That’s not most people’s idea of “evil creatures”.

[SUSSA]

You’re right. He’s the darling of the “character doesn’t matter” wing of the GOP.

[Liz]

Photoshopping courtesy of monkapotamus.

"Help, I've fallen down, and I can't get up"

[SUSSA]

LOL

[Jake The Goose]

Many of the posts in this thread miss the impact of this completely.

If you attack Rudy on 9/11 - you strength him and his chances in the general election.

Rudy wins whenever 9/11 is the issue - PLAIN and SIMPLE

[Liz]

And don't forget the atrocity of Giuliani placing the city’s emergency command center at 7 World Trade Center. He stupidly did this AFTER a previous WTC bombing.

The ECC was destroyed on 9/11. Julie-Annie then blamed a former aide for the decision.

The aide, Jerome M. Hauer, the former director of emergency management, fired back, giving Lloyd Grove of New York magazine a February 1996 memo that shows he argued for a Brooklyn location. He says the mayor overruled him.

Here is what Mr. Giuliani said on Fox News: "Jerry Hauer recommended that as the prime site and the site that would make the most sense. He recommended that site as the site that would be the best site. It was largely on his recommendation that that site was selected."

Mr. Hauer’s memo to First Deputy Mayor Peter J. Powers recommended the MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn: “The building is secure and not as visible a target as buildings in Lower Manhattan.” The World Trade Center had been bombed three years earlier.

Mr. Hauer told Lloyd Grove in an interview: "Rudy’s getting a lot of heat for the decision. He’s trying to run on his homeland-security and national-security background, and if you start peeling back the skin on the errors he made when he was mayor, you take away a lot of the basis for his candidacy… I feel sad that he would betray somebody that had served him loyally in the past, and I’m angry, too. But when you get to know Rudy, you know that this is the kind of thing he does. That’s just his personality."

[SUSSA]

If you attack Rudy on 9/11 - you strength him and his chances in the general election.

Rudy wins whenever 9/11 is the issue - PLAIN and SIMPLE

You're right if a politician attacks him. When the heroes of 9-11 come out against him that's a whole new ball game. The firefighters are more popular than he is and have more credibility on the subject of what happened on 9-11. Just like the Swift Boat Vets were able to attack the decorated "war hero" Kerry but politicians couldn't. The firefighters will be very effective if they get the press the Swift Boat Vets got.

[SUSSA]

Hillary didn’t have to go to court to keep Bill’s sluts out of the White House.

Mrs. Giuliani had to seek a court order to keep Rudy from bringing his bimbo to Gracie Mansion while she and his children still lived there and he was still married to her.

The guy has real class. It’s just all low.

[P-40]

The group’s complaints center on the faulty radios used by the fire department that day and what they say was a lack of coordination at Ground Zero.

To varying degrees the radios worked well for a time, but less so after the first tower fell. The problem was more a lack of protocol from what I understand. You can't have everyone talking at once on the same channel. Throw in trying to talk with the police at the same time and it only gets worse. This was the problem with the 1993 WTC attack...and was the problem with the 2001 attack...just with more death.

[TommyDale]

Jake, Rudy does not win on the 9-11 issue when it comes to the
World Trade Center #7 Emergency Services fiasco. He had 8 years to move it, and he decided against the move. As a result, the building’s collapse was disastrous to NYC. How many died as a result of Rudy’s own incompetence on that one issue?

[dforest]

Jake, Rudy does not win on the 9-11 issue when it comes to the World Trade Center #7 Emergency Services fiasco. He had 8 years to move it, and he decided against the move. As a result, the building’s collapse was disastrous to NYC. How many died as a result of Rudy’s own incompetence on that one issue?

Rudy is more of a 9-11 persona. A horrible day for all Americans. He was good in front of the camera, but when you start assessing his real performance and lack of foresight, it does not lead a person to confident feelings about Rudy.

As Americans,we allow the media to lead us to conclusions, I don't blame Rudy for the actions of some really bad people on that day, but I will not believe a media constructed or Party constructed campaign to lead people to false conclusions!