Rudy Too Arrogant For America

While campaigning in New Hampshire last night, Rudy Giuliani resorted to hurling desperate attacks about Democrats while trying to tout his national security credentials. Despite the fact that he failed to prepare New York City for the second attack on the World Trade Center and he has not acknowledged the dire realities on the ground in Iraq, Giuliani yesterday said, "Democrats want to put us back on defense." [Politico, 4/25/07]

After the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 when Giuliani became mayor, he was criticized for not fully implementing a single recommendation made by the fire department official who identified crucial emergency response failures. [South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10/1/06] Giuliani also was criticized for not putting in place "a clear chain of command for police officers and firefighters" prior to 9/11. [Washington Post, 8/17/06]

When asked to assess President Bush's escalation of the Iraq war earlier yesterday, he said, "I don't know the answer to that." Giuliani, who has yet to visit Iraq, continues to assert his blind support for the President's failed stay-the-course approach and has not acknowledged recent events showing the escalation is not working. [AP, 4/24/07]

Rudy has previously displayed a lack of foreign policy expertise. Earlier this month, he said he did not know whether Iran or North Korea was further along with the development of nuclear weapons. [New York Times, 4/7/07] Last month Giuliani admitted that he failed to question Bernard Kerik about his alleged ties to suspected mafia-related businesses before recommending him to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. [AP, 3/30/07; New York Times, 3/30/07]

"Rudy's arrogance has gotten the best of him. How can the man who failed to prepare New York City for a second attack after the first one, quit the 9/11 commission because he was too busy raking in money from sketchy business deals, can't assess if the surge is working or if Iran and North Korea have nuclear weapons claim that he will keep America safe?" said DNC Communications Director Karen Finney. "Not to mention that if Rudy were President he'd have a man who is being investigated for mob ties in charge of homeland security. If that's the record he wants to present to the American people then Democrats welcome the debate because so far Rudy's rhetoric sounds like more of the same failed policies, incompetence and arrogance we've had to suffer for the past six years."

GIULIANI FAILED TO PREPARE NEW YORK AFTER 1993 WORLD TRADE CENTER ATTACK

Giuliani Decided to Put Emergency Command Center in Vulnerable World Trade Center. Giuliani who became mayor after the 1993 World Trade Center attacks, according to Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins' Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, made "the infamous decision to place the city's emergency command center on the 23rd floor of 7 World Trade Center because he didn't want to schlep to a more secure, better-protected Brooklyn location from City Hall. When the planes hit the trade center, OEM's bunker-in-the-clouds was rendered useless, and Giuliani was forced to embark on his dusty journey through lower Manhattan, scattering the city's command structure." [South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), 10/1/06]

Giuliani Failed to Put In A Clear Chain of Command for Emergency Workers. "Giuliani and his top aides did not put in place a clear chain of command for police officers and firefighters." [Washington Post, 8/17/06]

Giuliani Did Not Implement Fire Department Recommendations. Giuliani, according to Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins' Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, "failed to fully implement a single recommendation made by the fire department official who identified crucial emergency response failures after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Nor did he seriously attempt to address the issue of inter-operability between police and fire department radios until late in his term." [South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), 10/1/06]

GIULIANI ON IRAQ: I DON'T KNOW OR CARE

Giuliani Unable To Evaluate Bush "Surge" Plan. Asked if the Bush plan was working in New Hampshire, Giuliani said "'I don't know the answer to that." [Associated Press, 4/24/07]

Giuliani Also Admits He Doesn't Know If The Bush Plan Matches His Own Ideas. Giuliani "also said couldn't assess whether the Bush administration was focusing on the rebuilding aspect enough or at all. 'That part of it is the part that I would emphasize dramatically, and I can't tell you how that's going,' Giuliani said." [Associated Press, 4/24/07]

Yet Giuliani Backs The Bush Plan Anyway. The Associated Press also noted that "Giuliani has backed the president on the Iraq war and his decision to send more U.S. troops to Iraq." [Associated Press, 4/24/07]

Giuliani Resigned From Iraq Study Group, Didn't Show For Meetings. Rudy Giuliani resigned from the Iraq Study Group in May of 2006, then criticized its findings. When he quit, he said he didn't have the time. Moreover, according to Newsday, "It's not clear that he attended a single meeting. Two of the group's top advisers said they didn't even know he had been a member." [Washington Post, 6/1/06, 12/19/06; Newsday (New York), 11/17/06]

GIULIANI ON IRAN AND NORTH KOREA: I'M NOT SURE

Giuliani Did Not Know If Iran or North Korea Were Further Along With The Development of Nuclear Weapons. "At a house party in New Hampshire, Mr. Giuliani suggested that it was unclear which was further along, Iran or North Korea, in the development of a nuclear weapons program." [New York Times, 4/7/07]

Editor of Foreign Policy Magazine To Giuliani: Read The Newspaper. An editor of Foreign Policy Magazine noted Giuliani's "embarrassing goof" where "Giuliani suggested that it was unclear which was farther along, Iran or North Korea, in the development of a nuclear weapons program." Editor Blake Hounshell wrote, "For the record, North Korea tested a nuclear device on October 9, 2006, while the Iranians have yet to do so. The U.S. intelligence community believes Iran could have a nuclear weapon as early as 2010, but most likely in the time frame of 2012-2015.. Alternatively, he could just read the newspaper every once in a while-lots of important information in there."[Foreign Policy Passport, 4/9/07, http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/4321]

GIULIANI WANTED ETHICALLY CHALLENGED KERIK TO HEAD DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Giuliani "Stuck By" "Radioactive" Kerik. Even after Bernard Kerik's bid - championed by Giuliani - to become Secretary of Homeland Security disintegrated with repeated revelations of ethical problems, Giuliani, who has been close to Kerik for years "has stuck by Mr. Kerik publicly" according to the New York Times. The Associated Press reported that "Kerik's close association with Giuliani became radioactive when Kerik pleaded guilty [in June 2006] to.accepting a gift from a company seeking city work." Giuliani and Kerik have a fifteen year old relationship in which Giuliani promoted his bodyguard to police commissioner, employed him at his consulting firm and named a jail after him. [The Bismarck Tribune, 7/1/06; AP, 3/24/07; Herald News (Passaic County, NJ), 2/15/07; Newsweek, 12/27/04; New York Times, 11/16/05, 9/28/06]

Kerik's Mob Ties Are Long An Issue. Kerik's ties to Lawrence Ray and New Jersey's Interstate Industrial Corporation are a long-running issue. The firm had hired Kerik's best man, Lawrence Ray, as well as his brother Donald, and Kerik admitted lobbying for the company as it sought a city license, which had been refused because of the firm's ties to organized crime. Kerik pled guilty in 2006 to allowing to the company to do $165,000 in free renovations on his Bronx apartment in 1999 and 2000. The two brothers - Frank and Peter DiTommaso - who run the company have been indicted in the Bronx for lying under oath about their dealings with Kerik. Some aspects of Kerik's ties have been known since 2000. [New York Times, 3/30/07, 7/20/06; Washington Post, 4/8/07]

Giuliani Admitted He Failed To Fully Investigate Kerik's Background. Giuliani was forced to admit that he made a mistake by recommending his friend Bernard Kerik to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. [AP, 3/30/07] Before Giuliani's admission last weekend, it was reported that he was "warned about Kerik's relationship with a company with suspected ties to organized crime even before Giuliani appointed Kerik as New York City police commissioner."