Rudy Lives! He Resurfaces To Attack Obama Over -- What Else -- September 11th
After spending nearly $60 million to discover that his 9/11 magic carpet just didn't quite have the power to carry him into the White House, Rudy has suddenly resurfaced again in the presidential race for the sole purpose -- fittingly -- of flogging September 11th on behalf of John McCain.
Rudy has jumped into the dust-up today over the McCain camp's claims that Obama has a "September 10th mindset." From a new Rudy statement sent out by the McCain campaign...
"Throughout this campaign, I have been very concerned that the Democrats want to take a step back to the failed policies that treated terrorism solely as a law enforcement matter rather than a clear and present danger. Barack Obama appears to believe that terrorists should be treated like criminals -- a belief that underscores his fundamental lack of judgment regarding our national security."
Of course, Barack Obama doesn't really believe that terrorism is solely a law-enforcement problem -- he's unveiled a detailed anti-terror plan and has come out in favor of pursuing Al Qaeda suspects in foreign countries based on actionable intelligence.
On the other hand, as you may recall, as a candidate Rudy seemed to suggest that there were similarities between the waterboarding that's practiced on terrorists and the intensive questioning he practiced on criminals as U.S. Attorney. So, clearly, Rudy was already a bit confused about some of the distinctions and categories at play here, poor fellow.












Comments (77)
Greg, you keep writing like this and I'm apt to go from crush to falling for you - that's beautiful, mang!
June 17, 2008 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Paging Joe Biden, Joe Biden...
"Everything out of Giuliani is a noun, a verb, and 9/11".
Please, Obama campaign, respond accordingly?
June 17, 2008 4:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
My favorite quote of the campaign.
June 17, 2008 4:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Double true! And that headline made me laugh out loud.
June 17, 2008 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
i liked when biden said that. everything that is said by rudy is like "so what" hes just trying to stay relevent. He couldn't even win one primary state, who is he to tell us (without military) how to win the war on terror.
http://sensico.wordpress.com/
June 17, 2008 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely one of THE best quotes to come out of the primary season.
June 17, 2008 9:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Confused, huh? Are you accusing Rudy of being old?!
June 17, 2008 4:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Joe Biden on Guilani:
"A noun, a verb, and 9/11."
June 17, 2008 4:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
That observation alone is reason enough to make him Veep.
June 17, 2008 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Rudy--
911 happened on you and Bush's watch. You're the ones that failed New York and America.
June 17, 2008 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't it amazing how the Bush Admin and their apologists managed to turn the biggest national security failure since Pearl harbor into political gold?
June 17, 2008 7:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know, I remember thinking a few years back that a McCain/Giuliani ticket would be unstoppable. Whoops.
June 17, 2008 4:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ahh, the smell of GOP desperation.
June 17, 2008 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rudy is all about good judgment. Like the time he didn't put his emergency response HQ in the WTC. Oh wait..
June 17, 2008 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ahh, the smell of GOP desperation.
June 17, 2008 4:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think any of this 911 hysteria has the same resonance as it did in 2004, or even to a lesser extent 2006. The American public has overwhelmingly rejected the associations between 911 and Iraq and view them as distinctly different issues. Therefore, people don't see a candidate who advocates withdrawal of our forces from Iraq as being weak on the larger question of the GWOT.
In fact, Obama has advocated very, very hawkish positions on the pursuit of Al Qaeda and its senior leadership, up to and including the usurpation of sovereignty of a foreign government if actionable intelligence arises. This is not the cautious John Kerry approach at all, and any emerging connections between Kerry's campaign and Obama's need to be quickly, and thoroughly squelched.
What seems to have been given short shrift lately is the news that Bush has tasked the intelligence services and military with finding Bin Laden and taking him out. This begs the question of what the hell he's being doing for the last seven years regarding our arch nemesis.
June 17, 2008 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do you have a link handy for this?
June 17, 2008 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/16/2275419
June 17, 2008 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ummmm, so what is it, exactly they were tasked to do vis a vis Bin Laden from January 20, 2000 until this order by the Desider?
June 17, 2008 5:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
A tad bit confused...that is Rudy's self-identity isn't it???
Miss you Rudy and by the way, how musch did you charge McFuddle's campaign for your stement here...maybe $25...
June 17, 2008 4:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Totally OT, but is anyone else pleasantly surprised that Obama's only behind by 12 in KY? I would have guessed he'd be behind by at least 3x that much.
June 17, 2008 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm very surprised. That's pretty incredible. My husband was just saying last night that there would be no way for Obama to carry KY.
June 17, 2008 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I noticed that too. Not exactly excellent news for John McCANE.
June 17, 2008 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
The "McCANE" thing is lame.
June 17, 2008 7:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Given that Obama hasn't spent much time there, that he got waxed in the primary, and that Bush beat Kerry by 20 points, I'd say I'm surprised, too.
June 17, 2008 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
This should be fun.
Now all they need to do is pull Fred out and have him fall asleep on a conference call, and it'll be just like December 2007 all over again.
June 17, 2008 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah Rudi, you magnificent, perpetually bloated, heaving, fetid gas-bag. Great to have you back! Now suit up, and get in there for Lieberman...
June 17, 2008 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
It rises again to feed on the blood of the living.
June 17, 2008 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anybody notice the McFuddle campaign just doesn't want to deal w/ economy, education or other critical issues and Iraq doesn't seem to work for him as well or so I guess they want to go back to 911...McFuddle just looks like he is getting angrier and madder all the time...
June 17, 2008 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anybody notice the McFuddle campaign just doesn't want to deal w/ economy, education or other critical issues and Iraq doesn't seem to work for him as well or so I guess they want to go back to 911...McFuddle just looks like he is getting angrier and madder all the time...
June 17, 2008 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Noticed. What else does he have left? Fear is the only thing they have left. Repubs cannot hang their hats on anything from the past 7 years. It's all bad.
June 17, 2008 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't it great when mendacious adulterers team up?
Will the MSM please vet Rudy! and see how his "authority" adds up.
June 17, 2008 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about Bush at the "ranch", Summer 2001, to the worried CIA agent who warned of AQ's plans to attack:
"OK, you covered your ass. You can go now."
And Rudy's insistence on putting the command center in WTC 7
Now, there's some Sept. 10 thinkin'.
June 17, 2008 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
back to the failed policies that treated terrorism solely as a law enforcement matter
WTC attack 1993:
ramsey yousef >> spending the remainder of his life in a u.s. maximum security prison.
sheikh abdul rahman >> spending the remainder of his life in a u.s. maximum security prison.
WTC attack 2001:
osama bin laden >> running free in pakistan.
why does rudy hate the prosecutors out of the southern district of new york...
:)
June 17, 2008 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
"the failed policies that treated terrorism solely as a law enforcement matter rather than a clear and present danger"
Hmmmm...I assume he's referring to the Bush-Rice policy of shrugging off all those memos entitled "AL QAEDA DETERMINED TO ATTACK WITHIN THE UNITED STATES" and whatnot...all that spook-ese is so impenetrable and dull, you know...
June 17, 2008 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
This'll work great for McCain, 'cause everybody loves Rudy! Rudy for McCain VeePee!
June 17, 2008 5:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
ROFLMAO
I know that was supposed to be a joke, but the real joke is that they're just stoopid enough to do it.
June 17, 2008 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here you go CTvoter:
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/9058
June 17, 2008 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Many thanks. I just found that link myself.
I'm surprised about the nearly complete lack of coverage of this. The Bush Administration is making another attempt to nail the person who was responsible for 9/11, and the Ny Times has what to say about it? The Post? Crickets.
Strange.
June 17, 2008 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Operation Save McCain's Ass"
June 17, 2008 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm starting to wonder...I know NPR mentioned it, I think yesterday, but I was too involved in the Tiger-Rocco fight to the finish to really pay it any attention, but if you do a google news search, you get the australian source, the source that Chris linked to, a newspaper from Birmingham, Al, some other sources, but no giant news sources in the U.S.
What's up with that?
June 17, 2008 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll have to say I consider this news very damning for the reason I stated initially--what the hell has Bush been up to these last several years.
This should be a front page story, and yet it isn't. Radio silence as far as the so-called "liberal" mainstream media is concerned.
It could simply be that the media, and much of the public, is simply running out the clock on the Bush Administration. Our long national nightmare is nearly over.
June 17, 2008 5:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
The last 7 years have surely shown us that the Republicans have very successful policies - foreign and domestic. I know John Voigt will vote for whoever Rudy favors. But me?
Not so much.
June 17, 2008 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama Strikes Back:
Link Here: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D91C1SD01&show_article=1
June 17, 2008 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh I am so Loving this. This is what the campaign will take away from this day. 9/11 is NOT repeat, NOT a winning issue for the repugs. This is a bitch slap and they know it. All the repugs now have to run on is Racisim. This is gonna be a slaughter.
June 17, 2008 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, YES, YES!
Forget the parries, Barack, baby. Go straight for the counterpunch!
BTW, Chris, you now owe the Associated Purse 6 gazillion samolians.
June 17, 2008 6:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here is the post 9/11 stupidity that McCain wants to perpetuate:
Militants found recruits among Guantanamo's wrongly detained
JOHN McCAIN HAS A GEORGE W. BUSH MINDSET
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/v-print/story/38779.html
Excerpt: use link to read the full report.
U.S. troops detained him in 2002, although he had no clear ties to the Taliban or al Qaida. By the time Farouq was released from Guantanamo the next year, however — after more than 12 months of what he described as abuse and humiliation at the hands of American soldiers — he'd made connections to high-level militants.
In fact, he'd become a Taliban leader. When the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency released a stack of 20 "most wanted" playing cards in 2006 identifying militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan — with Osama bin Laden at the top — Farouq was 16 cards into the deck.
A McClatchy investigation found that instead of confining terrorists, Guantanamo often produced more of them by rounding up common criminals, conscripts, low-level foot soldiers and men with no allegiance to radical Islam — thus inspiring a deep hatred of the United States in them — and then housing them in cells next to radical Islamists.
The radicals were quick to exploit the flaws in the U.S. detention system.
Soldiers, guards or interrogators at the U.S. bases at Bagram or Kandahar in Afghanistan had abused many of the detainees, and they arrived at Guantanamo enraged at America.
The Taliban and al Qaida leaders in the cells around them were ready to preach their firebrand interpretation of Islam and the need to wage jihad, Islamic holy war, against the West. Guantanamo became a school for jihad, complete with a council of elders who issued fatwas, binding religious instructions, to the other detainees.
June 17, 2008 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rudy, how we missed you!
And how this gives us another opportunity to remind America how:
** You were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of fire fighters because eight years after the first WTC attack, you still weren't able to get radios that worked in the Twin Towers.
** You ensured that New York's response to 9/11 would be slipshod and chaotic because you placed your bunker in the same complex as the #1 terrorist target.
** You pulled the fire fighters off the pile at Ground Zero after they found the gold buried underneath it all, leaving the impression that you cared more about money than about the fallen heroes.
** You hired Bernard Kerik and a host of other incompetent and/or corrupt officials.
** You made millions of dollars and launched a presidential campaign all on the basis of a tragedy that you botched.
Welcome back Rudy! Maybe, if we're really lucky, McCain will name you his running mate!
June 17, 2008 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama Hits Back At McCain!
link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080617/ap_on_el_pr/mccain_obama_6
June 17, 2008 5:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I beat ya to the punch fluffer ;-)
June 17, 2008 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
aw, damn you :-)
June 17, 2008 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rudy's insights on "law enforcement matters" as they pertain to terrorism have their own unique resonance, summarized in two words - Bernard Kerik. What a secure homeland we could have had if the skullduggery hadn't bubbled up all around that guy, and Rudy and Bush's brilliant plan to appoint that illiterate joker had gone forward!
June 17, 2008 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can someone provide a link to the recent poll on Kentucky cited above by CT Voter? I'd be curious to see it myself.
June 17, 2008 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
It should be right on this page--upper right.
If, for some reason, that's not loading, (happens with my browser occasionally) go to Pollster.com
If you're talking about the 2004 results, check here:
2004 Kentucky election results
June 17, 2008 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rudy is yesterday's news. No one takes him seriously anymore. Especially after his humiliating run for the GOP nomination.
June 17, 2008 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Give Rudy credit. At least he got rid of the Sept. 10 comb-over.
June 17, 2008 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't forget Tim McVeigh -- arrested, tried, convicted, executed.
June 17, 2008 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
If they aren't criminals, what are they?
They aren't military; they don't work for a state - what are they if not criminals? Constantly claiming that terrorists are this big clear and present danger is doing their fucking work for them - asshole. Why are Republicans so fucking stupid? It's all about - terror - and you are trying to terrify everyone.
God this is so simple minded - when you claim terrorists - who are a ragged bunch at best - are some kind of giant worldwide threat to all mankind you have just enobled and glorified their entire raison d'etre - you fuckwits!
June 17, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
word.
Here we go again. 2004 redux? That word's in play again and Rudy trotted out to scream it.
Nothing else works for Repugs. This has been their one winning standard.
June 17, 2008 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tena,
The GOP and the "terrorists" have some things in common--they each use terror to accomplish their goals.
Of course, the GOP doesn't kill anyone outright. They simply commit character assassination. There's less blood that way...
June 17, 2008 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
No but they are terrorists - the major terrorist threat we've faced the last 7 years was from our own government. They had me pretty terrified after they brazenly stole the '04 election.
June 17, 2008 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
You got it it is amazing that they are this big bunch of scardy cats but get the rep for toughness.
"The answer to terrorism is to not be terrorized." - Salman Rushdie
June 17, 2008 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I couldn't agree more!! Fighting terrorism is a law enforcement issue!! Fighting terrorism means having better intel here and abroad, it means securing ports, it means enforcing laws. It has nothing to do with invading countries! Kerry was right, and so is Obama!
June 17, 2008 7:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
What is the difference between treating something as a law enforcement matter and it being a clear and present danger?
Those 2 things are not mutually exclusive. Seems to me going after terrorists rather than some phantomless war on terror with no identity until an some claims credit for a horrific act, is far more valid.
No different from going after any organized nefarious activity..you go after the players what else is there to do.
Going after those players involves law enforcement so it sounds like Rudy doesn't know wha the hell he is speaking about or either he is being a hypocrite.
As I recall, he treated cleaning up NYC as a legal enforcement activity and it worked! He went after the bums and grafitti artists and folks who were terrorizing the city as a matter of enforcing the law and it worked.
Rudy is blowing smoke.
June 17, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
The public views, wrongly in my opinion, terrorism as an existential threat. And who can blame them after the visceral terror unleashed by 911. So suggesting that terrorism is a "law enforcement" matter minimizes the threat in these people's eyes and paints the candidate making the claim as having a faulty understanding of the nature of the threat at hand.
It's going to be Obama's mission, if he chooses to take it, to redefine the threat posed by terrorism and render these ridiculous associations to the scrap heap of history.
June 17, 2008 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think that the "September 10th mindset" argument falls into the same category as the "commander in chief threshold" argument. Rhetoric that is meant to sound shocking but no one really knows what it means.
June 17, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or really cares, at this point.
June 17, 2008 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Note the slippery reference to his fear that "the Democrats want to take a step back to the failed policies that treated terrorism solely as a law enforcement matter rather than a clear and present danger." I'm sorry Rudy, whose policies were those? Bill Clinton's? You mean the Bill Clinton who you guys sneered "Wag the Dog" at when he tried to take out Bin Laden during that critical impeachment for committing the Abominable Crime Against Nature? That would be the Clinton Administration that put together the bombing plan against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan implemented by GWB after 9/11? Are you referring to the Democrats who decided it was wrong to start a war at the end of an administration and hand it off to the next, but who turned that plan over to Bush with an urgent recommendation he implement it?
Gosh, I'm sure you're not talking about the guy who, when the CIA interrupted his month long vacation at his dude ranch to brief him on the "Bin Ladin Determined to Attack America" memo, churlishly told the briefer "Okay, you've covered your ass now."
You corrupt, fatuous, self-important, self-absorbed, self-aggrandizing walking hemorrhoid.
June 17, 2008 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just love it when Steve get's fired up!
June 17, 2008 5:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Other than minipulating americans, why on earth would any sane person want to treat terrorists as warriors or soldiers? That is soooo freaking stupid. Treat them as the criminals they are, don't turn them into heros by creating a war where none exists. Pathetic.
Mr. 9/11 should just retire to the golf course in little ny, st petersburg, florida. What a pathetic animal. AMF.
June 17, 2008 5:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love this rhetoric about fighting terrorism with law enforcement as a sign of weakness. Let me think how was it that the british stopped the terrorist plot in August 2006? Oh that's right. It was the police and detectives, AKA Law enforcement, that foiled the arrested the suspects before the attack happened. And in Germany last september? Yep, that's right, good old fashioned detective work. There have been several other terrorist plots that have been stopped, most of them by police work. I can't think of one terrorist plot that has been stopped because we bombed the shit out of Iraq.
Also, isn't Barack Obama the one that suggested bombing Pakistan if Pakastan didn't cooperate and if it meant we would get Osama Bin Laden? And McCain said that would be wreckless to bomb an ally?
June 17, 2008 6:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a sorry f*&k. Go back to screwing women on NYCs dime.
June 17, 2008 6:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rudy Who?
June 17, 2008 6:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sheesh! Will 2008 be the last 9/11 election? Thank you, Rudy. Call again soon.
June 17, 2008 6:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bah! Rudy just called pre-9/11 policies 'failed'. Guess the truth slips out no matter what lie he's trying to tell.
June 17, 2008 7:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Will 2008 be the last 9/11 election...? Maybe not, especially if we are treated to a new, "new Pearl Harbor:"
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/13/9596/
Who could resist the momentum in the fear generated by a new "terror" attack? You?
Large steel framed buildings don't just completely "fall down" after an hour long fire. Once, highly unlikely. Twice, impossible.
June 17, 2008 9:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
You do realize that he’s entire campaign platform was 9/11. It’s sad when all the Republican platforms – except maybe Romney and Huckabee – were repeats of the Bush campaign of “staying the course.”
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June 18, 2008 2:46 AM | Reply | Permalink