Giuliani’s 9.11 increments

September 25, 2007

At the most recent debate for Republican presidential candidates, Rudy Giuliani said, “The reality is that I’m not running on what I did on September 11th.”

It was unintentionally amusing — Giuliani wouldn’t be running if he hadn’t created a persona around 9/11 — but as it turns out, not everyone has gotten the message.

A supporter of Rudy Giuliani’s is throwing a party that aims to raise $9.11 per person for the Republican’s presidential campaign.

Abraham Sofaer is having a fundraiser at his Palo Alto, Calif., home on Wednesday, when Giuliani backers across the country are participating in the campaign’s national house party night.

According to the invitation, “$9.11 for Rudy” is an “independent, non-denominational grass-roots campaign to raise $10,000 in small increments to show how many individual, everyday Americans support `America’s Mayor.'”

Even Giuliani’s campaign knows a disaster when they see it. “These are two volunteers who acted independently of and without the knowledge of the campaign,” said Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella. “Their decision to ask individuals for that amount was an unfortunate choice.”

Actually, I was hoping for something a little stronger.

Democratic presidential hopeful Chris Dodd has the right idea.

“Exploiting the September 11th attacks for fundraising purposes is absolutely unconscionable, shameless and sickening. Mr. Giuliani was quick to express much vitriol for the independent ad created by MoveOn.org last week; we would hope he would express the same kind of outrage and indignation about this group that he is the beneficiary of.

“Furthermore, Mr. Giuliani should reject and/or return any money raised and ask that their activities on his behalf stop immediately.”

I think that last point is the most salient area for follow-up. Giuliani thinks it’s “unfortunate” that a campaign house party is raising funds in $9.11 increments, but will he still accept the money?

I suspect any decent person would find this kind of crass fundraising offensive, which is all the more reason Giuliani should do more than offer a mild rebuke. If “Betray Us” was “disgusting,” what’s the appropriate adjective for this kind of exploitation of a national tragedy?

Update: On a slightly related note, Jon Stewart explained last night that Giuliani suffers from “9/11 Tourette’s.”

what’s the appropriate adjective for this kind of exploitation of a national tragedy

Georgian? As in “in the style of George Bush”.

  • Although the 9/11 Evangelicals who support Rudolf W. Giuliani would probably mistakenly embrace the term, I think the expression is “illiberal.”

  • But what about the larger point? Isn’t Giuliani’s whole campaign based on “exploiting the tragedy of 9/11”? I guess getting an apology for that is entirely too much to hope for, eh?

  • Just in–Giuliani’s statement on the controversy:

    “On behalf of 9/11, 9/11 regrets the decision of certain 9/11 supporters not officially affiliated with 9/11 to 9/11 9/11.”

  • Gee. Another “Dodd is right” story.

    “Dodd is right” stories are coming thick and fast these days. How come “I support Chris Dodd for President” stories aren’t following them?

    P.S. I *do* support Christ Dodd for President.

  • Gee, wouldn’t they have raised more money if they’d had a dinner and required a mere $911 contribution?

    What a silly fundraising stunt!

  • I really do like Dodd turning their venom about the MoveOn ad back on the Rethugs. That should be SOP from here on in: make they pay for their histrionics by holding them up to their own standard every freakin day.

  • Talk about a family obsession! Judy had a “9” and a “1” printed on her unmentionables, leaving the crotchless part between the two numbers so Rudy, himself, could complete the sequence. Tell that to the NRA!

  • I normally don’t think that candidates should return legally raised campaign contributions to anyone, and find it odd that candidates are often forced to repudiate a contributor in such a manner. But in this case, it’s entirely warranted. Not as a way for Guiliani to distance himself from these people, which is the only reason he’d do it, but because it’s simply so disgusting. It’s one thing to accept money from a disgraced contributor, it’s something else when the money itself is raised in such horrible way.

    I honestly wonder if the people doing this are intentionally trying to embarrass Rudy. They’re doing a pretty good job. Even his campaign’s response is embarrassing. An “unfortunate choice”? It was entirely intentional as it totally fits into Rudy’s campaign platform. The only thing unfortunate is that it makes Rudy’s blatant abuse of 9/11 that much more explicit. 9/11.

  • Doubtful,
    “Um,” even Paul Wellstone and Pat Leahy voted for it. Are you going to say they are (/were) unworthy too? Please find me somebody with a perfect record on everything, ever. Jesus is dead (and unqualified by the Constitution anyway.) Gore let himself be led by consultants. Let’s not even talk about Kerry. Kucinich? Flip-flop on abortion. Richardson? Can’t even tell you if he’s a Yankees fan or part of the Red Sox Nation. And so on, and so on.

    I think we can safely assume that nobody was thinking too clearly right then — pushed by the administration and the media frenzy. Everybody makes mistakes — wouldn’t it be nice to have somebody in office who admits that basic human fact?

  • I think we can safely assume that nobody was thinking too clearly right then…

    That’s right. And Senators Leahy and Daschle were receiving anthrax in the mail right about that time. Too bad that crime is still “unsolved.” But those are all innocent coincidences of course.

    We’ve got the Patriot Act and the Protect America Act by God! We’re safe!

  • I guess my point is that I support a candidate who has had the courage to consistently stand up for our civil liberties in the face terrorism. That candidate is Dennis Kucinich.

    I guess another point that I was making was to raise awareness that the anthrax attacks were obviously intended to intimidate Democratic opposition to the Patriot Act.

    We found out that it was military grade anthrax from Ames, Iowa. Then they said, no, it wasn’t really military grade anthrax from Ames. And here we are six years later talking about a crime –attacks on United States Senators– that indeed should have been solved, further breeding suspicions that the anthrax attacks were perpetrated to influence the Patriot Act vote.

  • ThatTallGuy,

    I made no assertion of opinion. You asked why Jkap considered the Patriot Act and Dodd related and I answered you.

    But thanks for speaking for me.

  • Sorry, DF, I interpreted your remark to mean agreement with JKap. My mistake. (See, JKap? Like that.)

    JKap, it happens that I like Kucinich. I’ve found him to be on the right side of most things. My parents like him too and I respect their opinion. But I just don’t see him out in front making loud noises like I see Dodd.

  • Sorry, I didn’t get to the anthrax:

    Read Wikipedia. The strain found was developed in Ames but thereafter “distributed to at least fifteen bio-research labs within the U.S. and six locations overseas.” I think you may be right that this was home-grown terrorism, but we will probably never know. As for it being government-sponsored — well, that’s just a little too “Conspiracy Theory” for me.

  • Who said anything about the anthrax attacks being “government sponsored”? Simply because I offered the correlation between the attacks and the vote on the Patriot Act does not imply that I endorse a theory of conspiracy within the government. But I would say that the suspicions raised certainly merit investigation into such a conspiracy.

    But again, here we are, six years later and still “unsolved.” Surely then the Patriot Act and the Protect America Act and the like have not fulfilled the goal of preventing terrorism when we cannot say who it was that attacked United States Senators in 2001.

  • Concerning the “9/11 Tourette’s comment”: I have Tourette’s and I am completely NOT offended by the use of that condition here–I think it’s hilarious. But don’t get ideas everybody–us Touretters control what can be laughed at.

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