Giuliani Ad Ignores Charges from 9/11 Firefighters and Families

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/314

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
BuzzFlash on Mon, 11/19/2007 - 4:51pm.

Washington, DC - On the same day 9/11 firefighters and families are in New Hampshire rebuking his failure to prepare New York City for a terrorist attack, Rudy Giuliani launched an ad that ironically touts his so-called leadership credentials. While Giuliani talks about "being tested" during "times of crisis" in the new ad, he has yet to answer questions from the 9/11 group who say he failed to protect firefighters and recovery workers from debilitating toxic air at Ground Zero.

According to the New York Post today, 9/11 families and firefighters who are holding a press conference at Dartmouth College this afternoon are outraged with Rudy Giuliani's leadership in the aftermath of 9/11. FDNY Deputy Fire Chief Jim Riches said, "He's misleading voters and distorting the truth. He didn't prepare the first responders for a terrorist attack. The Office of Emergency Management was a joke that day. There was a lack of communication. People died unnecessarily." [New York Post, 11/19/07]

"The testimony from the 9/11 families and New York's bravest speaks volumes about Rudy Giuliani's real leadership credentials," said DNC Communications Director Karen Finney. "It is disturbing that Rudy has yet to truthfully answer their concerns and take responsibility for his poor decisions before, during and after 9/11. No doubt voters will look past his flashy TV ad and seriously question Giuliani's judgment and his ability to lead during a time of crisis."

GIULIANI AD WATCH: "LEADERSHIP"
RHETORIC:
GIULIANI: "I believe I've had the most leadership experience of anyone that's running. It's not just holding executive positions, like Mayor of New York…

REALITY:

  • New York Times: Giuliani Left Budget Worse Then He Found It. Giuliani's repeated claim that he "turned a $2.3 billion deficit into a multibillion dollar surplus" is "misleading," independent fiscal monitors said. In fact, Mr. Giuliani left his successor, Michael R. Bloomberg, with a bigger deficit than the one Mr. Giuliani had to deal with when he arrived in 1994. And that deficit would have been large even if the city had not been attacked on Sept. 11, 2001." [The New York Times, 8/27/07]
  • Los Angeles Times: Giuliani Has "Poor School Marks" And "Problematic Record on Education." An article entitled, "Giuliani's poor school marks; His record in New York City includes four chancellors, angry teachers and an inferior educational system." The article referred to "his [Giuliani's] problematic record on education." [Los Angeles Times, 9/13/07]
GIULIANI:… or United States Attorney…

REALITY:
  • "Extensive Work By Others And A Healthy Dose Of Luck." "Five months after Mr. Giuliani left the office, some of those who are best qualified to judge him say in interviews that not all of Mr. Giuliani's accomplishments were as impressive as his press clippings suggested and that his successes stemmed partly from extensive work by others and a healthy dose of luck." [The New York Times, 7/11/89]
  • High Profile Cases Saw "Major Setbacks." In what The New York Times noted were "major setbacks," several key prosecutions started by Giuliani ultimately collapsed, were thrown out or reversed, including 7 of the 14 defendants in the Pizza Connection 2 heroine case, with many critics concluding Giuliani put ego ahead of sound legal work. Newsday wrote that among major cases ultimately lost or reversed were the John Mulheren Jr. stock manipulation case, lawyer-lobbyist E. Robert Wallach's racketeering conviction, and "the case against former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos for racketeering and fraud," finding at least 25 reversals from an appeals court that rarely granted them, particularly in cases were Giuliani made high-profile promises. [New York Times, 7/11/89; Newsday, 9/20/93]
GIULIANI:… or 3rd ranking official in the Reagan Justice Department.

REALITY:
  • "Questionable Judgment." "Mr. Giuliani is also coming to be seen by some as an ambitious prosecutor who used questionable judgment in several episodes at the Justice Department, both before and during his tenure as United States Attorney," [The New York Times, 7/11/89]
  • Controversial Stance On Political Refugees. Outsiders "have questioned Mr. Giuliani's role as the main defender of the Justice Department policy of detaining illegal Haitian immigrants while he was the third-ranking official in the department in the Reagan Administration, which focused on control of illegal immigration. Human rights groups criticized the detention camps, saying many internees were political refugees trying to escape the repression of Jean-Claude Duvalier." [The New York Times, 7/11/89]
  • Ethics Snag On Meeting With Company Under Investigation. "He held a highly unusual meeting with the general counsel of McDonnell Douglas. The aeronautics corporation was under federal indictment on charges of fraud and conspiracy at the time and allegedly applied pressure to Republican lawmakers to get the Justice Department to back off." The career prosecutors handling the case wrote in a letter that he'd created the "appearance that certain influential defendants have access to senior officials." Giuliani lambasted the prosecutors and held a grudge against the prosecutors. [Newsweek, 3/12/07]
  • Strong Advocate Of Patronage "He also freely used official department letterhead to pitch job recommendations for friends, including 92 letters for the husband of one of his aides." [Los Angeles Times, 8/23/07]
RHETORIC:
GIULIANI: It's having held those positions in time of crisis.

REALITY:
  • Exaggerating Fiscal Crisis In NYC: Time asked, "was New York City in financial crisis? Well it had gotten a lot better since 1975 when the city was on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. In fact, some say the city's economic profile started to improve in 1990, along with the country's in general." Also, "Predecessors Ed Koch and David Dinkins and other city leaders had been working for years to rebuild from the fiscal crisis of the late 1970s, said Steven Cohen, a public affairs professor at Columbia University." [SwampCast, Time.com, 11/14/07; Associated Press, 11/14/07]
  • Crime Capital Claim "Not Quite True." As for Giuliani's claim that New York was "crime capital of America," Time.com says "that's not quite true. Two Cities, Chicago and LA, had higher murder rates, and seven cities had higher property crime rates." And as the Associated Press noted, "Crime began dropping three years before he arrived at City Hall and was also dropping nationally." [Associated Press, 11/14/07] [SwampCast, Time.com, 11/14/07]
  • 5th Highest Murder Rate: According to FBI data for cities with populations over 1,000,000, LA, Dallas, Chicago, and Philadelphia all had higher murder rates in 1993 than New York City.
  • 3rd Highest Violent Crime Rate. The same FBI data shows Chicago and Los Angeles in 1993 with higher violent crime rates, with Chicago almost 1/3 higher.
  • Eighth Highest Property Crime Rate. FBI data shows seven other major cities (1,000,000 or larger) with higher property crime rates in 1993. [Bureau of Justice Statistics]
RHETORIC:
GIULIANI: I've been tested in a way in which the American people can look to me. They're not going to find perfection, but they're going to find somebody who has dealt with crisis almost on a regular basis and has had results. And in many cases, exceptional results. Results people thought weren't possible. I'm Rudy Giuliani and I approve this message."

REALITY:
  • September 2001: Giuliani Disapproval Almost 50%. Giuliani's job approval rating is 42-49. [Quinnipiac University Poll, 9/5/01, Conducted Aug 27-Sept 3]
  • FactCheck.org: Giuliani's "Lengthening String of Exaggeration." "Giuliani added to a lengthening string of exaggerations and misstatements" wrote independent fact checking Web site FactCheck.org, which has repeatedly criticized Giuliani's false claims about his record as mayor. [FactCheck.org, 10/10/07]
  • Giuliani Has "A Habit Of Making Sweeping Statements With Little Or No Factual Support." The mayor seems to be making a habit of making sweeping statements with little or no factual support. See our recent posts on his claims about Mikhail Gorbachev and the end of the Soviet Union, the cost of health care premiums, and his own record as mayor of New York." [Fact Checker, Washington Post, 10/30/07]
  • Boston Globe: Giuliani "Exaggerate[s]" Fiscal Record. "Giuliani and his campaign exaggerate some facts and ignore many others to hone the point" about his fiscal record wrote the Boston Globe, finding holes in his claims about job creation, welfare reduction, tax reduction and the growth of government spending. [Boston Globe, 11/16/07]
  • Fact Checkers: Giuliani "Exaggerates His Role" In Reducing Crime As New York's Mayor. "Rudy Giuliani touts his crime-fighting record from his days as mayor of New York, but many experts don't think he deserves all the credit he takes….independent experts and studies of the phenomenon suggest Giuliani exaggerates his role." [PolitiFact.com, 9/2/07]
  • Boston Globe: Welfare Claim Questionable, Since City Lagged Nation. In an article headlined "Giuliani takes liberties on his NYC record" the Boston Globe wrote that "Giuliani's welfare overhaul was a success, reducing the number of New Yorkers on public assistance to the lowest in 35 years. But the results trailed those achieved by national welfare cutbacks. In eight years, New York's rolls plunged 54 percent, from about 1.1 million recipients to 493,000, compared with a 62 percent drop across the United States, according to the Citizens Budget Commission." [Boston Globe, 11/16/07]