Rudy's WTC Problem

by DemFromCT

It isn't just that Rudy Giuliani is out of step with the pro-life Republican Party. It isn't just that Bernard Kerik and Rudy's poor judgment at his consulting firm are giving him ethical headaches. It's that the 9/11 legacy that Rudy is riding to the White House (he thinks) is more mixed than he would like the country to know about. That's especially true with the health issues that resulted at the WTC from the EPA prematurely declaring "the air's fine (link from 2004), just go to work and clean it up"(link from 2006). That's all part of Rudy's legacy, as the NY Times points out this morning.

Anyone who watched Rudolph W. Giuliani preside over ground zero in the days after 9/11 glimpsed elements of his strength: decisiveness, determination, self-confidence. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld at ground zero three days after the World Trade Center collapsed. Those qualities were also on display over the months he directed the cleanup of the collapsed World Trade Center. But today, with evidence that thousands of people who worked at ground zero have become sick, many regard Mr. Giuliani’s triumph of leadership as having come with a human cost.

Christie Todd Whitman belongs in that group (she was head of EPA). And everyone was being pushed by the WH. But it turns out that Rudy had his own issues here. Thousands of people (that's thousands) have become sick because of decisions made on his watch.

An examination of Mr. Giuliani’s handling of the extraordinary recovery operation during his last months in office shows that he seized control and largely limited the influence of experienced federal agencies. In doing that, according to some experts and many of those who worked in the trade center’s ruins, Mr. Giuliani might have allowed his sense of purpose to trump caution in the rush to prove that his city was not crippled by the attack.

New Yorkers have long memories and were not as enamored of America's Mayor as the press corps sometimes makes them out to be. Rudy had his moments in the first few days, but subsequent executive decisions are apparently going to hurt thousands of good people.

City officials and a range of medical experts are now convinced that the dust and toxic materials in the air around the site were a menace. More than 2,000 New York City firefighters have been treated for serious respiratory problems. Seventy percent of nearly 10,000 recovery workers screened at Mount Sinai Medical Center have trouble breathing. City officials estimate that health care costs related to the air at ground zero have already run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and no one knows whether other illnesses, like cancers, will emerge. The question of who, if anyone, is to blame for not adequately protecting the workers could finally be decided in United States District Court in Manhattan, where thousands of firefighters, police officers and other recovery workers are suing the city for negligence.

Whatever happens in the Republican primaries (and Rudy's skeletons are doing an awful lot of rattling), the truth about who really "supports the troops" isn't limited to George Bush. Our frontline troops were the health care workers and first responders (including law enforcement and fire fighters) who responded heroically to the tragedy at the WTC. And, it seems, America's Workers were shafted by America's Mayor as much as by Whitman's EPA. This court case is going to turn out to be rather interesting as far as politics go, but ask any of the first responders (or their spouses) and they'll tell you they'd rather have their health back than win a court case. Too late for that. And, maybe, too bad for Rudy, if it exhibits in a very public way the stubbornness and poor judgment that is as much a part of his legacy as Mayor as the response on 9/11.

Comments

[Suzanne Rogers]

Zed?
Yeah. Good points. I notice the MSM is ignoring all this.
I'm a reasonable, analytical, conscientious type so when I say that I still wonder about, and have not ruled out, the WH role in 9/11, I am not coming from the 'far' left. If more people searched through the information, examined behavior of those in positions of authority, I think they'd be wondering also.
Top of the mornin' from one of your fans.

[DemFromCT]

Thanks! Issues include Rudy's decision to locate the command center in the WTC (and not Brooklyn) even after the 1993 WTC bombing because he wantred it within walking distance of city hall.

Bad decision.

[William Ockham]

Well sure, but he kept NYC safe from ferrets.

[DemFromCT]

To this day, ferrets have been kept out of city hall thanks to the bravery of Rudy G. Weasels, otoh, are a different story. we don't have the same track record there (see B Kerik).

anyone remember Rudy wanting to delay/postpone elections after 9/11 so he could stay mayor?

[marksb]

Yeah DemFromCT, I remember briefly reading about that and IIRC, as usual, the press pretty much ignored it.
That's what worries me about the next election. It's so completely obvious that Bush&Co are wrapped up in old newspaper and put out on the curb for the trucks to pick up that I (and most of us around here) wonder what's up their sleeves that would enable them to declare a state of emergency and "postpone" elections. If whatever they cook up is exciting enough, the press might be so busy covering the fireworks and Dire Threat that they wouldn't bother to cover the finer points of martial law.
OK, Mark, enough paranoia, back to work!