posted by Damozel |
So if Giuliani wasn't at Ground Zero alongside the first responders during the weeks after 911 quite as much of the time as he and his campaign have suggested, where, then, was "America's Mayor"? It's not an unfair question, since it's he that put the issue on the table. For the back story, check out my previous note (includes shocking video footage and telling observations by leading sensible conservative, Jon Swift!): Giuliani: Why Other Heroes of 911 Beg to Differ.]
To sum up quickly, Giuliani has been going around saying some things that the first responders seem to believe are just not true.
On at least three occasions, in responding to accusations that the city failed to adequately protect the health of workers in the wreckage, he has boasted that he faced comparable risks himself. In one appearance he declared that he had been in the ruins âas often, if not moreâ than the cleanup workers who logged hundreds of hours in the smoldering pile. (NYT)
Well, maybe not more often. According to The New York Times, Giuliani spent a total of 29 hours there in three months. So, asks The New York Times, where was Rudy, when not working alongside the first responders at Ground Zero? Salon has an interesting insight into some of his activities, but first, the overview: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/08/18/rudy_yankees/
An an exhaustively detailed account from his mayoral archive, revised after the events to account for last-minute changes on scheduled stops, does exist for the period of Sept. 17 to Dec. 16, 2001. It shows he was there for a total of 29 hours in those three months, often for short periods or to visit locations adjacent to the rubble. In that same period, many rescue and recovery workers put in daily 12-hour shifts....
The 29 hours Mr. Giuliani spent at ground zero involved 41 appearances, mostly to give tours to other officials and foreign dignitaries. Many entries include meetings away from the site before the tour. For instance, the schedule included 30 minutes on Nov. 15, 2001, for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, but Mr. Putinâs tour of ground zero was widely reported to have lasted 13 minutes.(NYT)
But, says his campaign, none of this matters because "the whole country" saw him being steadfast and determined (NYT) . Furthermore, the health and safety of the workers was his number one priority. The workers themselves don't quite see it that way. "The months after the attack have emerged as the focus of a contentious battle over the health effects of the cleanup, with workers at the site saying that their long-term exposure to toxins there caused serious illnesses, and that the Giuliani administration failed to recognize the risks in pushing for a speedy cleanup."(NYT)
It was in this context that Giuliani suggested that he himself was exposed to the same risks. And I don't think anyone questions that he was exposed to some of those risks some of the time.
A sample by Mount Sinai Medical Center of 1,138 participants in its study of health problems among rescue, recovery and debris removal workers found that they had spent a median of 962 hours at the World Trade Center site, or the equivalent of about 120 eight-hour days.
The days after the attack for which no detailed records exist were when the dust from smoldering rubble was its thickest, and were also the most dangerous for exposure. Mr. Giuliani was engulfed in the smoke and debris from the collapsing towers the day of the attacks, and escorted President Bush to the site three days later.(NYT)
It's the hyperbole---and the hubris which produced it---that he needs to write. A specialist in voter behavior from Emory University said that by focusing so much on his leadership, his campaign has "raised the stakes" for any not-quite-totally-accurate portrayal of his role. âIts (sic) sort of like John Kerry making his war heroism a central focus...which may have contributed to the attention that was given to the swift boat veteransâ attacks on him.â(NYT)
As my posting---and this article!---relates, the Firefighters' Union didn't appreciate his representing that he was one of them or the nearest thing to.
Which is why this article at Salon seems to reflect badly on him, even though if his campaign didn't make this their major theme, it might not have done. According to Alex Koppelman,
By our count, Giuliani spent about 58 hours at Yankees games or flying to them in the 40 days between Sept. 25 and Nov. 4, roughly twice as long as he spent at ground zero in the 60 days between Sept. 17 and Dec. 16. By his own standard, Giuliani was one of the Yankees more than he was one of the rescue workers.
During three postseason playoff series that began Oct. 10, 2001, and ended Nov. 4, 2001, Giuliani attended every one of the team's home games, with the possible exception of the third game of the American League Championship Series, for which Salon could not confirm his attendance. According to Salon's arithmetic, Giuliani spent about 33 hours in stadiums -- this includes two World Series games he watched in Phoenix -- during the Yankees' 2001 postseason run, four hours more than he spent at ground zero. (We do not know if he stayed for every pitch, but famed baseball writer Roger Angell described Giuliani in the the New Yorker as a "devout Yankee fan, a guy who stays on until the end of the game.")(Salon)
And those were just the hours in stadiums; he was tied up with baseball-related things during the period after 911 for much more than 33 hours.
Swift-bunted!
Is this fair? After all, the Bush Administration told us early on not to let the terrorists curtail our pleasures, including sporting events; otherwise, they would "win." Perhaps Giuliani felt he had to be present. And maybe he needed a break. In his shoes, I'd have needed something (not baseball, but something). And of course there was a sense in which we were all at Ground Zero all the time during the weeks following 911. It's just that it wasn't the same health-and-safety-endangering-round-the-clock sense as the workers.
And also, he evidently luuuuurves the Yankees:
[T]hough the final budget he submitted as mayor called for serious belt-tightening around the city -- cuts as high as 15 percent for most agencies -- in the wake of the attacks and the $40 billion debt New York faced, Giuliani wasn't quite prepared to subject the Yankees or their counterpart Mets to the same penny-pinching. In fact, though nearly everyone expected 9/11 to cause the city to abandon the plans for new stadiums for the teams -- Long Island's Newsday reported that "since Sept. 11, several city officials, including [then-Mayor-elect Michael] Bloomberg, have said the projects were on the back burner because of the city's other pressing needs" -- Giuliani wanted to push forward. The stadiums were projected to have cost $1.6 billion in city, state and private funds (Salon).
Even so...steadfast and determined! He led New York well! For a short time (and a short time only), he was America's Mayor! My mother, the Southern Lady, who has never voted for a Democrat in a presidential election thought he did it well. It's just that afterward, according to her, "he got too big for his britches."
If you MUST vote Republican, why not Mitt Romney? Ron Paul? Poor John McCain? Or, you know, anyone else?
But I am sure that his supporters will find a way to reconcile what he said with what he didn't do. Meanwhile, liberal bloggers/Democrats discuss their total lack of surprise.
At Worldwide Sawdust, Bob Higgins wrote:
For all his posing and posturing, the shameless way Giuliani has sought to position himself as "America's Mayor, the hero of 9/11," it seems that in the months following the New York attacks Hiz' Honor actually spent twice as much time as a Yankee groupie than he spent trying to impersonate a rescue worker at Ground Zero.Rudy at Ground Zero, In Yankee Stadium
At Medulla Noodle, Wobblie wrote
He's got a creepy smile...His foreign policy plans would make even Dr. Strangelove bristle.
And he's a Yankees fan. That, in and of itself, is a grievous wrong on so many levels....This "America's Mayor" bullshit is really starting to wear thin. Profiles in douchebaggery.
At Just as I Thought, Gene Cowan, noting that he loves "little pop-the-righteous stories like this one," remarked:
Considering that he is running for president, an office that under George Bush has come to mean spending as much time on vacation as is possible, he might just be a shoo-in. So? I mean, Bush spent more than a year on vacation
Busted Halo has published an interesting little round-up:
A few articles about this. A fanstastic one from the Village Voice called Rudy’s Five Big Lies about 9/11. Then, a New Yorker profile. A piece about how Rudy actually was at Yankee games a lot more often than being a rescue worker. Finally, Harpers explains why Rudy G. is a fate worse than George W. by a lot (you need a subscription for that one though–but click on the link just for the graphic).
Rudy was not nearly as good on terrorism as he says he was, and, once you have terrorism out of the picture, his policies and actions were corrupt, cronyistic, cynical, racist, and reactionary. And we’re not even talking about his, er, interesting personal life. For the love of all that’s good and holy, don’t vote for the man. Rudy? Rudy? Rudy?
At Skewering the Chimp, Craig wrote:
It appears that "America's Mayor" would turn out to be a perfectly seemless replacement for Bush. Neither of them would recognize the truth if it sat up and slapped them in the mouth.
Heckuva job, Rudy.Guliani Caught in More Lying
LINKED, QUOTED, OR CITED:
- Alex Koppelman, After 9/11, Rudy wasn't a rescue worker -- he was a Yankee (Salon)
- Russ Buettner, For Giuliani, Ground Zero as Linchpin and Thorn (NYT)
PS. I must highly recommend the musings of my colleague, PBSMind on Rudy's Orwellian definition of freedom! And All This Time I Thought I Knew What Freedom Was
And if you haven't seen Dr. Rudy giving "tough love" for ferret-lovers incensed by his New York ban, please please please check this out. You'll enjoy it. I know I never get tired of it.:
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