Posted on 08/26/2007 2:47:09 PM PDT by hardback
Supporting a candidate simply because you believe he can defeat another candidate is a hollow endorsement. But the greater political miscalculation is Cramer’s willingness to overlook Giuliani’s substantial shortcomings.
Giuliani is shamelessly running on his perceived accomplishments following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But his reputation is built more on myth than on fact, and the nation’s paid professional firefighters outline their issues with Giuliani in a documentary that can be found at www.
rudy-urbanlegend.com.
Giuliani’s treatment of our brothers and sisters with the Fire Department of New York after the terrorist attacks prevents the nation’s career firefighters from supporting his candidacy.
FDNY firefighters had discovered the bodies or remains of just 101 firefighters as of Nov. 1, 2001, but Giuliani decided to scale back recovery efforts.
The FDNY protested the mayor’s decision to limit recovery, and 15 firefighters were arrested.
Giuliani buckled to the will of developers who wanted to end recovery, begin a scoop-and-dump operation and rebuild ground zero.
That’s not leadership.
Because the brave firefighters of the FDNY fought Giuliani, he changed his mind and 113 firefighters or their remains were recovered after Nov. 2, 2001.
Perhaps Giuliani’s greatest blunder was failing to fix the FDNY’s communications problems. Giuliani knew the radios were a problem following the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and he took office in 1994. Yet it took him more than seven years to replace the radios.
That’s not leadership.
When he did replace the radios, Giuliani used a no-bid contract and failed to properly test the new equipment, according to firefighters with the FDNY. The radios were shelved in March 2001 after less than a week in service because they didn’t work, and the FDNY resumed using their old radios.
Because Giuliani failed to provide FDNY with operable radios, 121 firefighters inside the World Trade Center buildings were unable to hear orders to evacuate, and they perished on 9/11.
That’s not leadership.
As Giuliani runs for president, he uses his mythic 9/11 hero status to hypnotize people into believing he can protect us from terrorists.
But he failed to prepare New York firefighters. So how can we think he’ll actually protect America?
Not only is Giuliani running on 9/11, he’s profiting from the tragedy.
He has become a
multimillionaire pontificating about his role on 9/11.
Giuliani’s biggest single source of income between January 2006 and February 2007 came from speaking engagements around the world. He grossed $11.4 million in speeches, according to papers filed May 16 with the Federal Elections Commission.
That speaks volumes about what motivates him – greed. Even if he loses, he wins, because he can continue to promote himself.
Cramer may be willing to overlook Giuliani’s flaws, but the nation’s professional firefighters aren’t.
Grossbauer is president of the Professional Firefighters of North Dakota and a former firefighter with the Fire Department of New York. He worked for the FDNY, assigned to Engine 71 in the South Bronx, before moving to North Dakota in 1996. E-mail pffndpres@hotmail.com
Buy into Hillary folks, she’s cleaner. If its a choice between them, what is the choice? (Rhet.)
“Sarc.” too
I will be more than pleased to vote for him ... or Romney .... or even Fred, if he is able to get his act together.....which I am starting to doubt if the Thomson campaign is ever going to take off.
Rudy or Romney sits good with me.
So unions don’t like Rudy and he made a lot of $ on speeches.
Those are good reasons for liberals not to vote for him.
.
Totally unrelated but Astonishing DUmmy thread of the evening:
"I'm not religious, I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ."
I don’t like the current GOP candidates with the exception of Hunter. I despise the DNC’s seditious trash.
Come on GOP get yer butts in gear and find real conservatives someone they can vote for this election.
Betcha a dollar to a donut that this joker Grossbauer is one of those “firefighter” union thugs. He’s no 9/11 hero either.
i never liked Guiliani, and I never will. This article has nothing to do with that, but I’m pretty sure I know what fuels his presidential fire.
Sure, if he gets the nomination, and hillary is the other choice, I will vote for him. But you bet your butt I’ll be holding my nose doing it.
I have a friend of over 50 years who is a retired NYFD guy. I take his word for how he treated his brother firefighters before and after 9/11. It ain’t what Rooty wants people to hear. I already had enough reasons NOT to vote for him, either in the primary or the general election, though.
I have never understood what Rudy did after 9/11 that was so heroic.
All I saw him do was to get his face in front of a camera a lot, and tell some Saudi to take his 10 million and stuff it.
Hardly heroic IMO.
Some of you Rudy supporters want to let me know why I should think this guy is great?
I’m not being sarcastic, I really DO want to know what people think about this.
I can find lots of reasons to take a pass on Giuliani’s candidacy but union opposition isn’t one of them.
Regards
Welcome to Free Republic, mister liberal.
Oops. Just noticed you've been a closet liberal for over 9 years! Good job.
Giuliani has no special skills when it comes to terrorism or security. He was a liberal mayor of liberal NYC on 9-11-2001. Rooty ran from mic to mic, from camera to camera and was seen by Americans from coast to coast. He attended many funerals and made many speeches. Now he’s exploiting the 9-11 events as he runs for POTUS, on a lying liberal-RINO agenda.
“Giuliani has no special skills when it comes to terrorism or security. He was a liberal mayor of liberal NYC on 9-11-2001. Rooty ran from mic to mic, from camera to camera and was seen by Americans from coast to coast. He attended many funerals and made many speeches. Now he’s exploiting the 9-11 events as he runs for POTUS, on a lying liberal-RINO agenda.”
You covered it.
The notion going around here seems to be that the only reason anyone likes Giuliani is because he was "heroic after 9/11". I'm with you, I don't understand what he did that was so "heroic".
But the notion that this is the only reason anyone likes Giuliani, or his only (supposed) accomplishment, is a complete straw-man.
I reckon a lot of people like Rudy Giuliani for his accomplishments as the Mayor of New York: cleaning up the city, reducing crime, etc. One could even go back further to his days as a mob-fighter.
Ironically, this "9/11 hero" business seems to have made people forget that he did have actual accomplishments.
I cannot in all good conscience ever vote for Rudy. All the reasons why, are covered by previous posts, except this one:
>>At the center of negotiations for multiple legs of the Superhighway Corridor throughout Texas, is none other than Rudolph Giuliani’s law firm which landed the Comprehensive Development Agreement for a widening of Interstate-35, now referred to as the TTC-35, in addition to the Master Development Plans for State Highways 121 and 130 among other legs of the TTC. All negotiations for Cintra were and are presently handled by the law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, LLP, of which Republican Presidential candidate, Rudolph Giuliani, has been a senior executive partner since March 2005. His law firm is the exclusive legal counsel for Cintra. Bracewell & Giuliani is comprised of 400 attorneys, based in Houston, TX with offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., London and Kazakhstan.<<
http://www.commonvoice.com/article.asp?colid=7123
Rudy is everything I DO NOT want in a President.
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