Rudy's First Genuine Bad Press Day Of 2008 Campaign -- Will More Follow?
So it looks as if Rudy is enduring his first genuinely rough day of press since jumping into the Presidential race, with tough stories out there today about his 9/11 leadership and his relationship with former top cop Bernie Kerik.
Which begs two key questions for the media about Rudy: Will reporters and commentators get serious about cutting through the haze of 9/11 mythology that now shrouds Rudy's allegedly Churchillian leadership that day by asking tough questions about his actual performance, or will they cede him 9/11 on his own terms? And relatedly, will reporters and commentators cede Rudy the aura of foreign policy strength based solely on that performance, or will they get past the mythology and aggressively point out his lack of genuine foreign policy experience?
Today the Associated Press begins to answer that question with an effort to put a dent in Rudy's 9/11 halo:
Giuliani, the leader in polls of Republican voters for his party's nomination, has been faulted on two major issues:-- His administration's failure to provide the World Trade Center's first responders with adequate radios, a long-standing complaint from relatives of the firefighters killed when the twin towers collapsed. The Sept. 11 Commission noted the firefighters at the World Trade Center were using the same ineffective radios employed by the first responders to the 1993 terrorist attack on the trade center...
-- A November 2001 decision to step up removal of the massive rubble pile at ground zero. The firefighters were angered when the then-mayor reduced their numbers among the group searching for remains of their lost "brothers," focusing instead on what they derided as a "scoop and dump" approach. Giuliani agreed to increase the number of firefighters at ground zero just days after ordering the cutback.
Meanwhile, The New York Times also highlights another troubling aspect of his record:
Rudolph W. Giuliani told a grand jury that his former chief investigator remembered having briefed him on some aspects of Bernard B. Kerik’s relationship with a company suspected of ties to organized crime before Mr. Kerik’s appointment as New York City police commissioner, according to court records...Mr. Giuliani’s testimony amounts to a significantly new version of what information was probably before him in the summer of 2000 as he was debating Mr. Kerik’s appointment as the city’s top law enforcement officer. Mr. Giuliani had previously said that he had never been told of Mr. Kerik’s entanglement with the company before promoting him to the police job or later supporting his failed bid to be the nation’s homeland security secretary.
Finally, today's coverage of his remark yesterday that wife Judy Nathan would be welcome to hang out at cabinet meetings should he be elected President was not terribly kind, either.
So maybe this glimmer of media aggressiveness towards Rudy suggests there's reason for optimism about the press not giving Rudy a pass on the questions I asked above. We'll see.
Doubtful. This is the same media that Margaret Carlson is part of. And Richard Stengel. Why let facts get in the way of a good fiction?
On the other hand, Rudy is a bit prickly about the press, so maybe he'll help the discovery process along by being the Rudy that the NY city media know and loathe.
March 30, 2007 12:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, the press finally got around to deciding these issues are important? What do they want? A gold star for their efforts?
March 30, 2007 12:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love this paragraph in the second Times article:
It's just so reassuring to think that a major voice on national health care policy in a Giuliani adminstration might be someone whose only relevant qualifications are being a former nurse and pharmaceutical sales representative.
Republicans. Competence. Always be sure to use periods to keep the two words in distinct sentences.
March 30, 2007 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh yes. Better, don't mention "competence" and Republicans in the same context, ever.
March 30, 2007 12:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm waiting for someone in the MSM to remember when Rudy attempted to move his girlfriend into Gracie mansion after he announced his marriage breakup but while his wife and children still lived there.
March 30, 2007 12:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dvmx.com
Giuliani's number 1 priority in the weeks after 911 was precisely the "scoop and dump" operation- and only the Mayor of the city could have muscled traffic patterns, accesses, etc to guarantee the "cleanup" was done as fast as possible, with no delays.
Now, Giuliani was himself a prosecutor.
He knew very well what forensic evidence is.
And he got promoted- "America's Mayor".
March 30, 2007 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Giuliani story is waiting to be made public.
Anyone capable of talking to the career officers in the NYPD and Chiefs in the FDNY will hear the same story. It all started with the appointments of Kerik and VanEssen. They were largely incompetent and untrained to lead large organizations like the FDNY and the NYPD. They upset the career officers. They had no administratvie experience and had not had experience in senior positions in the respective departments.
the list of mistakes is long. the radios are just one. How about putting the city emergency response center in the WTC after the 1993 bombing? how about the fuel tank next to WT7 (supposedly associated with a secret service office there) despite explicit recommendations from the fdny and other agencies not to place it there (WT7 collapsed in part because of the explosion of that tank). how about the botched early days of the recovery effort because city officials did not want to cede control to FEMA (they finally did that because they realized the task kwas way too big)? how about the absolute lack of coordination between FDNY and NYPD (see the McKinsey report on the FDNY)?
hopefully someone will do some serious journalism and get the truth out.
March 30, 2007 1:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remember, nobody get's the Repub nomination unless they are the choice of establishment Big Business. Unless the corporations make you the candidate, you are no candidate at all.
When the Establishment decides on, say, Fred Thompson....Guliani and McCain and Romney and Newt are going to be gone so fast nobody will remember in a year who used to be in the field.
The establishment can shield these guys from all their bad JuJu and past mistakes...but only if they are the Anointed. Once you lose the Establishment, you lose the protection...the media blackouts and the 'disappearing' of embarrassing records and people.
Anyone care to disagree? Please tell me, who has successfully run an outsider repub campaign for the Nomination in the last 20-30 years? That's because there is no end-run, no way around the Establishment party. You have to be THEIR product, or you don't go.
Think Regionally. Act Regionally
March 30, 2007 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
A rather obvious question just struck me. How do socially conservative Republican Rudy supporters reconcile themselves to the fact that Rudy's wife still uses her own last name?
Remember all the hue and cry over Hillary **Rodham** Clinton?
I'd love to see someone ask Rudy, "So why isn't it Judy Giuliani? Are you a progressive couple?"
March 30, 2007 1:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Rudy video clip I keep hoping to see is Ms. Hanover's press conference on the steps of St. Patrick's--during the funeral of their marriage counselor and friend, Archbishop O'Connor, while Judy sat with Rudy in the church--to announce that Rudy was cheating on his mistress. Yup, Ms. Hanover wasn't just upset about Judy, she was upset that Rudy was cheating on Cristyne Lategano with Judy. (Presumably, Ms. Hanover was kinda over Rudy at this point.) Whew. Ms. Hanover is no slouch on TV and she let him have it with both barrels. Ms. Hanover's little presser on the steps of Gracie mansion--after she had Judy barred from entering--also mentions Cristyne Lategano and Rudy's serial adultery. It's an amusing clip but not as nice as the St. Patrick's clip. Dunno why we haven't seen those. Surely, oh, NY1 has copies.
March 30, 2007 1:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
The wingnutosphere will be quick to lable such discussion as "offensive filth," or something equally asinine.
March 30, 2007 1:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe they'll show up on YouTube.
March 30, 2007 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, Numbertwopencil - that will be a sweet moment indeed. Have you seen the commercial Rudy did, with Donna as the spokesperson, ". . . here was the man I wanted to be the father of my children . . ."?
March 30, 2007 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I used to live among Brooklyn Italians, all of whom were quite open that most of the rest of the neighborhood (although not of course themselves personally) was well-tied to the mob. The common claim there - this being back when Rudy was first mayor - was that Rudy was known to be Genovese. (The neighorhood is somewhat independent of the Five Families, being at base Comora rather than Cosa Nostra, but is closely allied with the Genoveses.)
So where's the press on this? We know well that Rudy's dad was a made man and enforcer. We know Rudy was comfortable making Kerik Police Commissioner despite Kerik's known close family ties to the mob. Yet none of the press is brave enough to discuss the high probability that what so many Brooklyn Italians claim knowledge of is true: that Rudy has been closely allied with the Genovese organization. Is it libel merely to speculate, or is the press intimidated by the thought of mob enforcers?
March 30, 2007 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nancy Irving
A former pharmaceutical sales rep sitting in on cabinet meetings and advising the president on health policy! Great!
March 31, 2007 9:18 AM | Reply | Permalink