Monday, December 24, 2007

The Light of Day Scorches Count Rudy


Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani has the nerve of a canal horse. He shot to an early lead among the Republican field, competing against the other candidates and - himself.

The more you know about Count Rudy, the less there is to like, much less admire. As the Republican race began, Giuliani had two advantages - the 9/11 terror attacks and the fact that most Repugs really knew very little about him. They admired him as "America's Mayor," the tough, little guy who could get'er done.

Now they're coming to learn that a lot of what they've been told about the little troll just isn't so and that there's also a lot to Rudy & Co. they haven't been told about. Niggly little things like why the New York firefighters sent into the doomed, World Trade Center towers on 9/11 didn't have functioning, two-way radios that could have warned them to get out in time.

Here's how Rudy stumbled when he tried to dodge the controversy on This Week with George Stephanopolous:

STEPHANOPOULOS: They make two main charges. Number one, that those firefighters in the north tower, many of them lost their lives because their radios didn't work. They also say you ended the recovery efforts too soon.
GIULIANI: Well, the radios that you're talking about weren't put online for three, four, five years after. So, it would have been impossible for me to have those radios ready. It took the city two or three more years...


STEPHANOPOULOS: But they had malfunctioned in 1993.

GIULIANI: But even with the new equipment, it took another two or three years for those radios to be put online. So it would have been impossible for us to have gotten them online before that, given the fact that it took so long afterwards.

Typical Rudy, just ignore the facts. The firefighters' radios didn't work in 1993. Even if it had taken "another two or three years for those radios to be put online" as Giliani stammered in response, why the department would have had them in 1996, 1997 at the latest, and the tragedy didn't happen until when? That would be 2001.

So there must be some other answer, right? There is but you won't get it from the lips of Count Rudy.

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