Ask retired New York City Fired Department deputy chief Al Santora about Rudy Giuliani, you will get a heart and soul story about how the Mayor he knows has little or no resemblance to the campaign image being trumpeted by the Republican presidential candidate. Santora and his wife Maureen lost their firefighter son Christopher in the 9/11 attacks and have joined other folks from New York to speak out against Giuliani whom they feel betrayed their son and other fire fighters before 9/11 -- and then had gall to exploit it for personal and political gain, making tens of millions as a speaker and security consultant and now is a serious presidential candidate. (See UPDATE below.)
As far as Al Santora is concerned, Giuliani has made his reputation and fortune not for being heroic or even necessarily a good leader. “He’s the greatest spin doctor of all time,” Santora told me. Giuliani and the NYC administration failed the firefighters because they knew the radios were faulty and did nothing about it -- he says that the radio contract bidding process in 2001 was “unique” and wasn’t part of a regular process. Santora knows this because he was the head of R&D at the NYFD. He said as many as 123 firefighters perished in part because of bad communications and bristles at alternative theories offered by Giulian that the firefighters died because they were being heroic. Firefighters know when an evacuation order is given, it’s time to evacuate.
“On Sept. 10 (2001), he couldn’t be elected dog catcher,” said Santora who is part of a group traveling to Dartmouth College to share their views about the Mayor of 9/11. “He was no hero. He didn’t do anything but walk away from the pile. He spent more time at Yankee Stadium.” Santora, who retired a year before 9/11, said he worked at the WTC pile until mid-October and didn’t spend much time at Yankees Stadium rooting for the Yankees and increasing his national exposure.
Giuliani‘s campaign, which is taking on enough water to sink a lesser vessel and has essentially abandoned hope of victory in New Hampshire, can’t be happy about the Dartmouth appearance tonight of New York City firefighters and family members like Santora. Giuliani is running on the 9/11 platform, trumpeting his own leadership in the hours and days after the terrorist attacks that leveled the World Trade Center towers and promising to be a warrior in the fight against the wave of so-called “Islamofascism” that Giuliani now elevates to an apocalyptic threat (something about the end of civilization as we know it.)
The campaign, udnerstandable disputes this criticism of Giuliani and lampoons the International Association of Fire Fighters union (which clearly has it our for Rudy) as International Association of Partisan Politics Santora is a staunch Republican (he told me he will support any Republican nominee not named Giuliani) who voted for Giuliani twice and feels quite duped by the man he calls “the greatest spin doctor in the world.” He doesn’t blame Giuliani for his son’s death because Christopher died when the first tower collapsed onto other WTC facility. But he says the country needs to know there isn’t one official version of 9/11 and certainly not one Giuliani can trademark.
When I asked the campaign for a comment they released a one size fits all statement from Lee Ielpi, another retired New York City firefighter. "I understand the emotion surrounding Sept. 11, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that it was the terrorists who attacked New York City," Ielpi wrote. "On that day and the days following, New Yorkers and the rest of the country were fortunate to have the steady and strong leadership of Mayor Rudy Giuliani.”
Al Santora rejects the “strong and steady leadership” angelic chorus propagated by the Giuliani gang. He told me he and the other firefighters speaking out against him have no doubt Giuliani’s campaign will fight back with ‘Swift Boat’ like attacks against their character and motivations. He doesn’t care. “We know the truth about him.”
UPDATE 1:
Coincidentally or not, the Giuliani folks have launched a direct mail push and a new television ad titled "Leadership."
The script reads: “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, or United States Attorney, or 3rd ranking official in the Reagan Justice Department. It’s having held those positions in time of crisis. 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.”
In my daily link, Matt Tabai of Rolling Stone profiles the good, the bad and the religious nutty of Republican rising star Mike Huckabee (who pardoned Keith Richards and, Tabai found out, practiced a former of Arkansas political sleaze we are unaccustomed to here)
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