CNN: Will Rudy Be ‘Swiftboated’?

NewsBusters.org ^ | 11/21/2007 | Matthew Balan

[Pyro7480]

A report on Tuesday’s "The Situation Room," which highlighted the anti-Giuliani campaign of some family members of firefighters killed on 9/11, also tried to throw some retrospective doubt on the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" who opposed John Kerry in 2004. CNN correspondent Deborah Feyerick proposed the following question about the campaign: "is this another 'Swift Boat' situation, in which unsubstantiated attacks against John Kerry's service in Vietnam, scuttled his presidential candidacy. These families say no."

In addition to this question, CNN played two sound bites, one from Sally Reganhard, a prominent member of this campaign, and the other from a Baruch College professor, which reenforced the "unsubstantiated" label used by CNN. Reganhard indirectly accused the "Swift Boat" veterans of using lies. "The difference between the 'Swift Boating' and this is that everything that we are saying is the truth." Also, a chyron during the report proclaimed that "9/11 Families Challenge Giuliani: Efforts Compared to ‘Swiftboating.’"

Host Wolf Blitzer introduced the report, which aired at the bottom of the 5 pm hour, by immediately bringing up the "Swift Boat" comparison. "It's the cornerstone of Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign, the 9/11 terror attacks. But now, an unlikely group is trying to undermine that with an effort that some are comparing to the 'Swift Boat' campaign against John Kerry." Neither Blitzer nor Feyerick mention who is making this comparison.

One thing that is mentioned is the campaign’s connection to the International Association of Firefighters, a union who endorsed John Kerry in 2004. As Feyerick put it, "over the summer, these firefighter families appeared in a scathing anti-Giuliani video made by the International Association of Firefighters." The union’s president, Harold A. Schaitberger, started a close relationship with Kerry early during his 2004 campaign. In August 2007, a CNN report quoted Kerry as saying, "I still keep a picture at home of Harold Schaitberger… standing by my side the night we won the New Hampshire primary."

Immediately after the three-minute report, Blitzer conducted a four-and-a-half minute interview of Jim Riches, a deputy chief for the Fire Department of New York City who is a member of the family members’ campaign against Giuliani. After a commercial break, Blitzer then interviewed Howard Safir, a former NYC fire and police commissioner and Giuliani supporter who accused the members of the campaign of "turning the terrorist attacks of September 11th into a political football."

The full transcript of the report from Tuesday’s "The Situation Room:"

WOLF BLITZER: It's the cornerstone of Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign, the 9/11 terror attacks. But now, an unlikely group is trying to undermine that with an effort that some are comparing to the 'Swift Boat' campaign against John Kerry. CNN's Deborah Feyerick is joining us now. She's watching all this unfold. So, who's challenging, Deb, Rudy Giuliani's 9/11 credentials?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, this is not a new group. In fact, the faces, to many New Yorkers, are familiar. These are people who have repeatedly criticized Rudy Giuliani's handling of 9/11 and all the events before and after that day. The big question - can this small group gain momentum and, if so, what does that mean to the mayor's candidacy?

FEYERICK (voice-over): This is the image many Americans have of Rudy Giuliani -- the New York City mayor covered in dust moments after the World Trade Center towers collapsed. It is an image he has evoked in his run for the White House to spotlight his leadership on that tragic day. But Sally Regenhard and others are challenging that image.

SALLY REGENHARD, MOTHER OF 9/11 FIREFIGHTER: Rudy Giuliani is no hero of 9/11.

FEYERICK: Regenhard's son was one of 343 New York City firefighters to die when the towers fell. She is part of a small, determined group of firefighter families taking on the former mayor.

REGENHARD: We want to give people the opportunity to hear the true story and to make their own decisions.

FEYERICK: On Monday, the group traveled to New Hampshire, a crucial state where Mr. Giuliani recently began running these ads.

RUDY GIULIANI, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe I have been tested in a way in which the American people can look to me. They're not going to find perfection, but they're going to find somebody who's dealt with crisis.

FEYERICK: The families told a handful of people about some of the fire department radios that didn't work on 9/11, about the emergency command center to coordinate a response that, instead, literally collapsed, and about the lack of respirators provided to firefighters searching for colleagues in the toxic rubble.

Political scientist, Doug Muzzio says these issues are not new, at least not to New Yorkers.

DOUG MUZZIO, BARUCH COLLEGE: There is a lot of hyperbole in what Rudy Giuliani says about what he did prior to 9/11, on 9/11, and after 9/11. But the kernel of truth is that Rudy Giuliani had his finest hour on 9/11.

FEYERICK: The Giuliani campaign cited news reports praising Giuliani's efforts on behalf of firefighters, and touting the city's preparedness. A former fire commissioner, speaking on Giuliani's behalf, accused Regenhard's group of quote, 'turning the terrorist attacks of September 11th into a political football.' The question now -- is this another 'Swift Boat' situation, in which unsubstantiated attacks against John Kerry's service in Vietnam, scuttled his presidential candidacy. These families say no.

REGENHARD: The difference between the 'Swift Boating' and this is that everything that we are saying is the truth.

FEYERICK (on-camera): Now, over the summer, these firefighter families appeared in a scathing anti-Giuliani video made by the International Association of Firefighters. Giuliani's representative called the group highly partisan. It is endorsing Democrat Chris Dodd, but says it was not part of this particular New Hampshire trip. Still, that firefighters' union is meeting after Thanksgiving to consider a much larger campaign against the former mayor. Wolf?

BLITZER: Deb Feyerick in New York, thanks very much.

—Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.

[Pyro7480]

MSM rewriting history about Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

[tear gas]

The victims of 911 know Rudy is a coward. New York's "first responders" have no respect for Rudy. None of this is news.

Our troops deserve a strong Commander in Chief that they can respect. I could never ask our troops to salute Rudy Giuliani. I can't even imagine that.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Rudy sure fits a democrat profile!

IT is for the murder of unborn babies!
IT is a big gun control nut!
IT covered for the invaders in ITS city!
IT surrounds ITself with queers and thugs!

Why does IT have an R by ITS name instead of a D?

[Jet Jaguar]

“The difference between the ‘Swift Boating’ and this is that everything that we are saying is the truth.”

Liberals keep repeating it enough, it becomes truth to them.

[Rembrandt]

“is this another ‘Swift Boat’ situation, in which unsubstantiated attacks against John Kerry’s service in Vietnam, scuttled his presidential candidacy. These families say no.”
—
This twit never read the book or else she came at it from a virulent anti Pubbie POV. 220 or so substantiating vs. about 13 defenders is pretty convincing in my book, especially considering that those substantiating the allegations include Admirals, Captains, Commanders and other career officers and NCO’s.

Kerry is obviously guilty of the allegations and this twit is guilty of being a tool.

[DakotaRed]

He cannot be “swift Boated” unless he has a detrimental truth he is hiding from the public to get himself elected, like John ‘F’raud Kerry did.

[chopperman]

1. People who say the Swiftboaters were not truthful have no credability with me.

2. I admire Rudy for what he did before 911, and regard what he accomplished after 911 to be difficult to grade.

3. Duncan Hunter is the one who is dead nuts on on all of the issues.

Why do I always find myself supporting the ones who can’t get traction?

[stephenjohnbanker]

B U M P

[tear gas]

He cannot be “swift Boated” unless he has a detrimental truth he is hiding from the public to get himself elected,

Rudy is a pervert.

[narses]

+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic Ping List:

Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to all note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.

I’m pro-choice. I’m pro-gay rights, Giuliani said. He was then asked whether he supports a ban on what critics call partial-birth abortions. “No, I have not supported that, and I don’t see my position on that changing,” he responded. Source: CNN.com, “Inside Politics” Dec 2, 1999 http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Rudy_Giuliani_Abortion.htm

ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES (November 14, 2006)

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: I'm pro- choice. I'm pro-gay rights.

KING: Giuliani supports a woman's right to an abortion, and back in 1999, he opposed a federal ban on late-term abortions.

GIULIANI: No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my position on that changing.

KING: Immigration could be another presidential landmine. Back in 1996, Mayor Giuliani went to federal court to challenge new federal laws requiring the city to inform the federal government about illegal immigrants.

JEFFREY: He took the side of illegal immigrants in New York City against the Republican Congress.

KING: Giuliani opposes same-sex marriage but as mayor, he supported civil unions and extending health and other benefits to gay couples. He also supported the assault weapons ban and other gun control measures opposed by the National Rifle Association.

GIULIANI: I'm in favor of gun control. I'm pro-choice.

Republican Big-Wigs Support Pro-Abortion Event in NY

Pro-abortion Governor George Pataki and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who also supports unrestricted abortion, are co-chairs of the 2000 Choice Award Presentation to be held on May 30 at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. The event is sponsored by the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition, a group that is campaigning for the removal of the pro-life plank from the Republican National Platform.


http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock200503010743.asp

While he was the “Republican Mayor” of New York City he appointed more than 60 men and women to the Civil, Criminal, and Family Court benchs. In all of those judicial appointment only two were Republican.

All of his other judical appointments were either registered Liberals or registered Democrats. As the “Republican Mayor” he had appointment power over more than 70 full commissioners in more than 50 City agencies, yet at no time during his administration did REPUBLICANS account for more than 10% of those appointments.

He even appointed Chuck Schumers wife as the City’s Department of Transportation Commissioner.


________________________________________________________________
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/9054.html

“And even as we grieve for those who lost their lives, and our hearts and prayers go out to the victims and their loved ones, we may be able to find some sort of meaning in this tragedy by using it as a catalyst to revive national gun control efforts.”
Rudolph Giuliani

At the first Republican debate in May, Giuliani was alone among the GOP candidates in offering a less-than-robust affirmation when asked whether it would be a good day if the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling.

"It would be OK," Giuliani said. "It would be OK to repeal it."

But, he added: "It would be OK also if a strict constructionist viewed it as precedent" and kept the law intact.

[Steely Tom]

MSM rewriting history about Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

Yes, this is an interesting play that has, unfortunately, been run before by the left/MSM.

The sequence goes like this:

Someone, like the Swifties, brings up an inconvenient argument that interferes with the template, or story line, the left/MSM is selling.

Step 1: ignore them. If that doesn't work:
Step 2: malign them. There are several modes to this one; guilt by association, paint them as extremists, find one kook among them and make him/her the face of the whole organization, etc. If that doesn't work:
Step 3: muddy the waters. Intentionally mis-state their key argument (examples, calling the "Contract With America" the "Contract On America," referring to illegal aliens as "immigrants" and characterizing anti-illegal-immigrant groups as "anti-immigrant groups," etc.). If this doesn't work:
Step 4: find someone among the GOP or right-wing who is willing to bad mouth the group publicly. This person may be a has-been who wants publicity, a flake or borderline-mentally-disordered or senile member of the GOP, who can be pumped up into a spokesman for the mainstream. If this doesn't work:

Well, you get the idea. I think there are some more tricks they try to pull, like looking into the group's funding sources and seeing if they can come up with something embarrassing; you may be able to think of others.

If all these don't work, and (like the Swifties) the group succeeds in it's goals and really hurts the "cause," the agenda, well... the story's not over.

Then the left/MSM embarks on a long-term strategy to (a) undercut the original argument of the group, and (b) try to confuse the group's original goals and mission with that of other, less savory groups. The goal here is, again, to muddy the waters with younger people as they come of age, making sure that the original group (the Swifties, in this case) does not become a heroic model for future activism. This effort may go on for decades (in the case of Joe McCarthy, the Rosenberg matter, and the Alger Hiss matter, the effort has gone on for half a century or more).

That's what we're seeing here. It used to work, in the age of the concentrated power of the one-way MSM. In the modern era, I'm not so sure. There are a lot more ways for the truth to get out now, and it's much harder for the left to choke the baby in the crib, so to speak.

(steely)

[narses]

Rudy Guiliani has marched in lockstep with liberals on affirmative action, gay rights, gay marriage, gun control, school prayer, tuition tax credits, liberal immigration policies, and he's reinforced it, time and time again. Just about everytime Rudy opens his mouth, offensive liberal words come pouring out. As Mayor, Rudy put liberals in high-paid city jobs, an indication what a Rudy WH would look like. Here then is Rudy in his own words:

--The New York State Liberal Party on its endorsement of Rudy Giuliani for Mayor: "When the Liberal Party Policy Committee reviewed a list of key social issues of deep concern to progressive New Yorkers, we found that Rudy Giuliani agreed with the Liberal Party's stance on a majority of such issues. He agreed with the Liberal Party's views on affirmative action, gay rights, gun control, school prayer and tuition tax credits. As Mayor, Rudy Giuliani would uphold the Constitutional and legal rights to abortion." N.Y.S. Liberal Party Endorsement Statement of Candidate Giuliani for Mayor of New York City April 8, 1989

--On the Republican Party: "Mr. Rockefeller represented 'a tradition in the Republican Party' I've worked hard to re-kindle - the Rockefeller, Javits, Lefkowitz tradition." Rudy Giuliani told the New York Times July 9, 1992

--Village Voice Interview with Guiliani: He was asked: "What kind of Republican Is [Giuliani]? A Reagan Republican?" Giuliani pauses before answering: "I'm a Republican." Village Voice January 24, 1989

--On Attending 1996 Republican Convention: Rudy expressed his pleasure when he wasn't invited to the Republican National Convention in San Diego. "If I take three or four days off from city business, I want to do it for a substantive purpose. It didn't seem to me any substantive purpose could be served by going to the Republican convention." said Rudy. Rudy! An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, Page 459, by Wayne Barrett

--On Barry Goldwater: Giuliani described John Kennedy as "great and brilliant. Barry Godwater as an "incompetent, confused and sometimes idiotic man." New York Daily News, May 13, 1997

--On President Bill Clinton: Shortly before his last-minute endorsement of Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential election, Giuliani told the Post's Jack Newfield that "most of Clinton's policies are very similar to most of mine." Rudy! An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, Wayne Barrett.

--The Daily News quoted Giuliani as saying March 1996: "Whether you talk about President Clinon, Senator Dole.... The country would be in very good hands in the hands of any of that group." An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, Wayne Barrett.
The Real Rudy Giuliani:

From Human Events:

Rudy's Strong Pro-Abortion Stance

As these comments from a 1989 conversation with Phil Donahue show, Rudy Giuliani is staunchly in favor of abortion:

"I've said that I'll uphold a woman's right of choice, that I will fund abortion so that a poor woman is not deprived of a right that others can exercise, and that I would oppose going back to a day in which abortions were illegal.

I do that in spite of my own personal reservations. I have a daughter now; if a close relative or a daughter were pregnant, I would give my personal advice, my religious and moral views ...

Donahue: Which would be to continue the pregnancy.

Giuliani: Which would be that I would help her with taking care of the baby. But if the ultimate choice of the woman - my daughter or any other woman - would be that in this particular circumstance [if she had] to have an abortion, I'd support that. I'd give my daughter the money for it."

Worse yet, Giuliani even supports partial birth abortion:

"I'm pro-choice. I'm pro-gay rights,Giuliani said. He was then asked whether he supports a ban on what critics call partial-birth abortions. "No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my position on that changing," he responded." -- CNN.com, "Inside Politics" Dec 2, 1999

It's bad enough that Rudy is so adamantly pro-abortion, but consider what that could mean when it comes time to select Supreme Court Justices. Does the description of Giuliani that you've just read make you think he's going to select an originalist like Clarence Thomas, who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade -- or does it make you think he would prefer justices like Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy who'd leave Roe v. Wade in place?

Rudy's abortion stance is bad news for conservatives who are pro-life or who are concerned about getting originalist judges on the Supreme Court.

An Anti-Second Amendment Candidate

In the last couple of election cycles, 2nd Amendment issues have moved to the back burner mainly because even Democratic candidates have learned that being tagged with the "gun grabber" label is political poison.

Unfortunately, Rudy Giuliani is a proponent of gun control who supported the Brady Bill and the Assault Weapon Ban.

Do Republicans really want to abandon their strong 2nd Amendment stance by selecting a pro-gun control nominee?

Soft on Gay Marriage

Other than tax cuts, the biggest domestic issue of the 2004 election was President Bush's support of a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. Unfortunately, Rudy Giuliani has taken a "Kerryesque" position on gay marriage.

Although Rudy, like John Kerry, has said that marriage should remain between a man and a woman, he also supports civil unions, "marched in gay-pride parades" ...dressed up in drag on national television for a skit on Saturday Night Live (and moved in with a) wealthy gay couple" after his divorce. He also very vocally opposed running on a gay marriage amendment:

His thoughts on the gay-marriage amendment? "I don't think you should run a campaign on this issue," he told the Daily News earlier this month. "I think it would be a mistake for anybody to run a campaign on it -- the Democrats, the president, or anybody else."

Here's more from the New York Daily News:

"Rudy Giuliani came out yesterday against President Bush's call for a ban on gay marriage.

The former mayor, who Vice President Cheney joked the other night is after his job, vigorously defended the President on his post-9/11 leadership but made clear he disagrees with Bush's proposal to rewrite the Constitution to outlaw gays and lesbians from tying the knot.

"I don't think it's ripe for decision at this point," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"I certainly wouldn't support [a ban] at this time," added Giuliani..."

Although Rudy may grudgingly say he doesn't support gay marriage (and it would be political suicide for him to do otherwise), where he really stands on the issue is an open question.

[airborne]

If it was a lie, why did Kerry choose to lose rather than release his Form 180?

The Drive-By-Media can always be counted on to take the side of the left, and telling the truth is secondary to their agenda.

[Brad from Tennessee]

If “9/11 Families” is Googled a bunch of different outfits appear. Some are legitimate and some are Democrat front groups—like the “Jersey Girls.” Conservatives have enough valid reasons for questioning Guiliani without adopting the talking points of a union smear machine.

[Mariner]

You're full of it.

A couple of dozen union thugs, who also happen to be cops and firefighters, say bad things about Rudy and you act as if he has no respect from any of them.

Complete BS. You're full of it.

[Brad from Tennessee]

CORRECTED TYPE:

If “9/11 Families” is Googled a bunch of different outfits appear. Some are legitimate and some are Democrat front groups like the “Jersey Girls.” Conservatives have enough valid reasons for questioning Guiliani without adopting the talking points of a union smear machine.

[BallyBill]

Talk about a story with no winners.

Of course CNN is "The Biggest Loser".

[donna]

Swift-boating: It’s a GOOD thing.

[Interesting Times]

Excellent post.