I think this latest gaffe from Rudy Giuliani, where he showed his true narcissistic colors and equated his photo-ops at Ground Zero to being a rescue worker, is really going to hurt him. This would have been a bad weekend anyway, with Mitt Romney sucking up all the good press from the Straw Poll he bought. But now, Rudy’s 9/11 bona fides are getting some scrutiny. And while this devastating article in the Village Voice won’t get national press attention, enough people have seen it to give them a blueprint of Rudy’s vulnerabilities on his self-created mythology.
The story, by Giuliani biographer Wayne Barrett, details five big lies that Giuliani has been spreading on the campaign trail about his response to September 11. As John Kerry leaned on his Vietnam experience to provide a campaign narrative in 2004, so too is Giuliani leaning on his 9/11 story; it’s told on practically every stop on the stump. There is no real policy apparatus to the Giuliani campaign, so his entire argument for being President seems to be “I protected you on 9/11, Democrats are bad, vote for me.” But this theme is littered with inconsistencies and outright lies. Here’s just one example.
1. ‘I think the thing that distinguishes me on terrorism is, I have more experience dealing with it.’ This pillar of the Giuliani campaign—asserted by pundits as often as it is by the man himself—is based on the idea that Rudy uniquely understands the terror threat because of his background as a prosecutor and as New York’s mayor. In a July appearance at a Maryland synagogue, Giuliani sketched out his counterterrorism biography, a resume that happens to be rooted in falsehood.
“As United States Attorney, I investigated the Leon Klinghoffer murder by Yasir Arafat,” he told the Jewish audience, referring to the infamous 1985 slaying of a wheelchair-bound, 69-year-old New York businessman aboard the Achille Lauro, an Italian ship hijacked off the coast of Egypt by Palestinian extremists. “It’s honestly the reason why I knew so much about Arafat,” says Giuliani. “I knew, in detail, the Americans he murdered. I went over their cases.”
On the contrary, Victoria Toensing, the deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department in Washington who filed a criminal complaint in the Lauro investigation, says that no one in Giuliani’s office “was involved at all.” Jay Fischer, the Klinghoffer family attorney who spearheaded a 12-year lawsuit against the PLO, says he “never had any contact” with Giuliani or his office.
That’s just a small example. Giuliani blew the only terrorism case he ever prosecuted (most of the charges were thrown out); he never really discussed terrorism in the 8 years leading up to 9/11; he waited 6 years to even create an Office of Emergency Management; he put the HQ in the World Trade Center complex instead of a secure site in Brooklyn, even though the WTC was hit in 1993 (mainly so he could walk to it easily); he didn’t change the non-functional radio systems that caused hundreds of firefighters to never hear the evacuation order, or make them inter-operable with the police radios; he assured rescue workers that the air was safe at Ground Zero for cleanup; he hid the results of his own Administration’s field studies showing dangerous levels of toxicity; and then there’s this:
The mayor was so personally focused on the siting and construction of the bunker that the city administrator who oversaw it testified in a subsequent lawsuit that “very senior officials,” specifically including Giuliani, “were involved,” which he said was a major difference between this and other projects. Giuliani’s office had a humidor for cigars and mementos from City Hall, including a fire horn, police hats and fire hats, as well as monogrammed towels in his bathroom. His suite was bulletproofed and he visited it often, even on weekends, bringing his girlfriend Judi Nathan there long before the relationship surfaced. He had his own elevator.
The emergency management center was a freakin’ love nest!
The harm here is that this is the ultimate oppo research document, a story from which a thousand TV ads can be culled. And they have the added benefit of being true. Rudy has scrupulously created a hagiographic reading of his role on 9/11 through the years that simply doesn’t match the facts. And this slip-up this week is the crack that was needed to call his entire story into question.
7 Responses to “The Turning Point for Rudy Giuliani?”
Some of you will never get it — Rudy misspoke and quickly admitted it but Romney never admits to anything even with all the flip flopping. You all need to get used to the fact that Romney and the Straw Poll is a joke — it is who spends the most money to bus people in not who is the most popular. Romney is in single digits in the large states and will stay there. Whether you like it or not this Country is not going to elect a Mormon as President.
Romney has flipped flopped all over the place and pandered to get votes.
Rudy is not finished and will win the nomination. Not all socons are against Rudy and in fact a lot support him.
One gaffe against how many by Romney? Give us a break!
So Rudy lies and Romney flips… why don’t you check out Ron Paul who actually follows the Constitution and has a voting record to prove it.
the smears from socialist support sites like this are nothing new. they hope this latest smear will work, but it will fail just as the corrupt liberal leadership of the IAFF failed with their swift boat attack earlier last month. the people of this country, this world saw and felt what rudy guiliani did on 9/11. only now that his victory in 08 is a very real possibility do the revisionists come out, trying tell us what we saw with our own eyes wasn’t real. they want us to believe rudy called up time magazine and asked to be person of the year, that he begged the queen to knight him, that he was working the phones all day and night begging world leaders for praise like chirac’s ‘rudy the rock’ statement, all drawn up by the eeeevil rudy according to the liberal smear artists.
americans are sick of these kind of attacks, after the IAFF’s blunder, producing a video so wrong even the ny times said it was inaccuarte. if even the times cannot endorse a rudy attack, then you have a problem.
the truth is that day by day rudy’s swing state numbers continue to strike fear into liberal activists the world over. a conservative mayor who defeated both an african american and woman candidate in a democrat leaning city of 8.5 million causes them to toss and turn all night. try as they might, these attacks will fail, especially when there best source is detestable wayne barret, whose entire career has been based on attacking rudy for anything and everything.
the fact that mr ‘terror is only a bumper sticker’ edwards was the first to attack rudy, only blunts the smear effort. since edwards is recognized by his own party and former running mate as a phony(i wont be on forbes, but took their money, i wont be on fox, but i took their money…etc…) he just proves how little credibility he has.
http://www.time.com/time/subsc.....20 01.html
this is the real truth about rudy, and just another example of why he will win.
I wonder if Victoria Toensing supports a candidate?
matt, you use “swift boat” in the negative sense, which is funny, because I assumed you would have supported everything that group did to John Kerry.
noah, i use it in the context that whiney liberals use it. my belief is war veterans have earned the right to speak out about anyone and anything. especially these vietnam veterans, who not only dealt with the horrors of war, but the disgrace of being spit at by the pathetic liberals who lined up at the airport to greet them with signs that read ‘baby killer’. liberals always did know how to support our troops huh.
Something to say?
It seems that Rudy is more concerned with images and ease than preparation and safety. America we must be very wise and discerning. Just another reason not to vote for Rudy.
Left by MJN
August 11, 2007 at 12:56am