Rudy CAN Fail

Anyone recall when Rudy Giuliani was bragging about having spent as much time at Ground Zero as the police and firemen who were there? Rudy said that all of his time down there made him "one of them." Not too long after that some firefighters and police registered some concern that perhaps the mayor was... overstating his own involvement at that scene of horror. Rudy later went on to "clarify" his remarks by stating that he "empathized with them because [he] feel[s] like [he has] that same risk."

Pretty soon thereafter some people started examining his mayoral archive (revised after trying to acount for scheduling changes and such) and they have learned that His Honor actually spent a total of 29 hours at Ground Zero between September 17 and December 16, 2001. By contrast, a Mount Sinai study of 1,138 rescue workers, debris removal workers and recovery personnel found that they h ad spent a median of 962 hours at the site. That is an average of 120 eight-hour days.

You know, I thought that Giuliani did a pretty good job on 9/11 and immediately thereafter. I am now starting to hear things that are suggesting that I revisit that opinion and maybe I will. But I think that most Americans have a pretty positive view of Giuliani and think he handled himself admirably on that horrible day. God knows our President and Vice-President were nowhere to be found. Why on Earth would Giuliani feel the need to infalte his own importance on that day and invite this type of scrutiny? I mean, I understand the desire to make your own accomplishments even more significant and I understand that he is running for President, but what kind of mouth-breathing drunk do you have to be to say something like this and think that no one is going to look into it? Right after 9/11 Kathleen Sebelius, Governor of Kansas, said that when she was driving in Missouri, a state famed for bad roads, she felt as if the terrorists had attacked there. And people went after her. And she apologized, which was entirely approrpaite. DId Rudy really think that he was going to get a pass to claim the mantle of hero on that sacred day? Does he not know that there are groups of firefighters and police who are making it their mission to "swift boat" him about his work that day?

Even though I thought Rudy did a pretty good job on 9/11/2001, I have never really been a fan of his. I had a law school professor who knew him from both of them being in the New York US Attorney's office and he said that Rudy was always too proud of himself, too happy to take credit and and too thin-skinned. I am hopeful that this will provide more ammunition to Rudy's enemies. It's the perfect Republican attack- go after his boggests trength and make it a weakness. It worked to perfection on John Kerry and I think it will be really cool to see this little bit of jiujitsu used on "America's" mayor.