Firemen douse Rudy’s image as 9/11 hero

[Twist_U_Up]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1530535.ece

Union bid to halt White House run
Sarah Baxter, New York

FIRE battalion chief Jim Riches brought up his son to be one of New York’s “bravest”, like him. The young Jim followed his father into the New York fire department and died at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

What followed turned his heartbroken father into a relentless opponent of Rudy Giuliani, then mayor of New York. With other families of 9/11 victims, Riches has vowed to torpedo Giuliani’s prospects of winning the White House by attacking his greatest source of strength, his reputation as a hero that day.

“We’re going to follow him around the country,” said Riches. “We want all of America to know he is not the man he says he is.”
Helped by the firefighters’ union, Riches and his friends are preparing to “swiftboat” Giuliani, borrowing the tactics of the Vietnam veterans, under the title Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who pierced the Democratic nominee John Kerry’s seemingly armour-plated credentials as a decorated war hero during the 2004 presidential campaign.

more here http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1530535.ece

[niyad]

1. unfortunate to conflate their efforts with those of the swiftboat LIARS.

[MADem]

7. It is, but henceforth, any brutal, unremitting political attack is a Swiftboating.

It's in the doggone lexicon for the time being.

[TerdlowSmedley]

2. Good. I think a poll last week also revealed New Yorkers prefer

Bloomberg over Rudy as mayor by something like a two-to-one margin. America's Mayor, my ass.

[Colobo]

3. 9/11 Firefighters for Truth!

Loving it!

[ComerPerro]

4. all I can say is, anyone whose first thought, when seeing the planes hit, is

"Thank GOD George W Bush is president", is not a leader or a hero or anything remotely close to it. And, according to Rudy himself, that was his first reaction.

[MADem]

6. Oh, you hot shit--I'd forgotten about that!! That's the kiss of death on the OTHER cheek!!! NT

[Gabi Hayes]

9. Best part of that STORY is, he probably didn't even SAY it....just made it up:

http://archive.salon.com/politics/war_room/2004/09/02/rudy/index.html

Only he and former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik know for sure if that exchange really took place. According to Giuliani's account, it was Kerik who Giuliani turned to that morning and blurted out the "Thank God" line. Kerik would certainly back up Giuliani's account. (The two are now business partners and security consultants; in the wake of 9/11 they have become wealthier than they ever could have imagined.) Appearing on CNN's "Larry King Live," Giuliani was asked about the quote and insisted it wasn't created for the convention and that he'd told the stories years before -- and many times before. "It was in one of the newspapers in Florida. Probably August in 2002. It's been reported in the newspapers maybe about a dozen times or more. And it's been on television. I maybe even said it on your show," said Giuliani.

But a check of the Nexis electronic database for 2001, 2002 and 2003 shows no newspapers or magazines reporting the anecdote, or Giuliani ever appearing on a television show and telling the story "a dozen times or more." Instead, Nexis reveals that the first time the anecdote was reported was this spring ... at a Bush fundraiser. According to the Washington Post, Giuliani told a crowd of Long Island, N.Y., Republican donors on March 11 that on Sept. 11, "I said to the police commissioner right next to me, 'Thank God George Bush is the president of the United States.'" (During a 2003 GOP fundraiser, Giuliani told a different version, minus Kerik: "I remember that day saying a little prayer of thank-you that George Bush was our president.")

[MADem]

5. That loud, smacking noise you hear? That's the kiss of DEATH.

Without firefighters, Rudy is just a man in a dress. No, six dresses. And several wigs.

And three wives.

He will be completely unable to be lifted up on high by 911 without the firefighters. This bit is brutal, but true:

Republican activists have expressed reservations about whether Giuliani is truly one of them on issues such as abortion, gun control and gay rights, but they have never doubted his extraordinary standing as “America’s mayor” on 9/11. Covered in dust, issuing calm bulletins and talking reverentially about the dead and missing, Giuliani was the epitome of leadership.

If the firefighters can dent his reputation, it could be devastating for Giuliani who led John McCain, his nearest rival for the 2008 Republican nomination, by 21 points last week.
Douglas Brinkley, a biographer of Kerry, said: “Pitting the two heroes of 9/11 - Giuliani and the firefighters - against each other will be the Swift Boat campaign all over again. Giuliani has marketed himself brilliantly as the leader of 9/11 but this will damage him. Most Americans respect the firemen more than they respect him.”

Several American news organisations are preparing exposés of the “untold story” of 9/11 after Giuliani’s dispute with the firefighters became embarrassingly public last week. He was the only leading presidential candidate not to appear at a Washington gathering of the International Association of Fire Fighters, which accused him of showing a “disgraceful lack of respect for the fallen” after the September 11 attacks.

Behind the union’s attack lies the grief and anger of families who believe their loved ones need not have died that day and their conviction that some bodies would never have been recovered had Giuliani had his way. ....

He should just 'fuggedaboutit.' I can't see him prevailing. With Hagel's little non-announcement, I'm thinking Huckabee is the Super-Secret Default Candidate, myself...

[C_U_L8R]

8. Unlike Rudy, I actually saw both planes hit

and all I can think is Fuck George Bush and Fuck Rudy too.
What a bunch of weasels.