The consequences of Giuliani’s ‘9/11 Tourette’s’

October 8, 2007

About a month ago, at one of the debates for Republican presidential candidates, Rudy Giuliani said, “The reality is that I’m not running on what I did on September 11th.” He managed to say it with a straight face.

It seemed like an amusing comment, of course, given how often the former mayor cites the 9/11 attacks, seemingly in response to every question. Jon Stewart recently described it as “9/11 Tourette’s.” But is it really as bad as Giuliani’s critics suggest? The New York Daily News’ Helen Kennedy took a look at how the candidate has incorporated the attacks into various unrelated matters. And when I say “various,” I mean “every.”

* Explaining his flip-flop on gun control: “There are some major intervening events – Sept. 11 – which cast somewhat of a different light on the Second Amendment.”

* Explaining why he interrupts speeches to take calls from his wife: “Since Sept. 11, most of the time when we get on a plane we talk to each other and just reaffirm the fact that we love each other.”

* Defending his support for a wall along the Mexican border: “I support security at the borders. I think security is enormously important in the post-Sept. 11 period. I think we have to know who’s coming into this country.”

* Explaining why he wears an American flag lapel pin: “Each time I wear it, it reminds me of Sept. 11.”

* Responding to a question about funding AIDS drugs: “I don’t want to promise you the federal government will take over the role. My general experience has been that the federal government works best when it helps and assists and encourages and sets guidelines on a state-by-state, locality-by-locality basis. It’s no different from the way I look at homeland security. Maybe having been mayor of the city, I know that your first defense against terrorist attack is that local police station, or that local firehouse.”

* Responding to a question about his religiosity: “I need God’s help for everything, and I probably feel that the most when I’m in crisis and under pressure, like Sept. 11, when I was dealing with prostate cancer, or when I’m trying to explain death to people.”

* Explaining why he chastises Democrats: “They do not seem to get the fact that there are people – terrorists in this world, really dangerous people – that want to come here and kill us. That in fact they did come here and kill us.”

* Responding to a question about his scandalous personal life: “You can judge me on my public record. I’ve had a long one. I’ve had an intense one. I’ve been under enormous pressure, took over a city that was the crime capital of America, had to handle the city at the very end, when it was part of the worst attack on America.”

A month ago today, Giuliani told a Florida audience, “For me, every day is an anniversary of Sept. 11.” If only that were an exaggeration.

Giuliani’s stump speech is, of course, perfect fodder for a drinking game–except that the hospitals couldn’t handle the epidemic of alcohol poisoning that would result.

  • When you look at all these comments put together, Giuliani looks less like a respectable presidential candidate and more a candidate for treatment of PTSD. Seriously – I wouldn’t want someone who was that traumatized by recent events to have control over the military.

  • That a political party that claims to be serious can seriously consider such a looney as its standard-bearer is… oh, pardon me, this is the party that thought George W. Bush was a qualified candidate.

  • And the fact that the media has let him get away with using 9/11 as his own personal football, despite the fact that he screwed up royally, and dirtectly caused more deaths on 9/11 because he’s a crony-sucking idiot, that fact should be a reminder to us all how the truth is not an issue anymore. We are in the age of bullshit, when people like Giuliani can use their worst screwups as political weapons, and the press sits there and repeats the Republicans’ assertions that eating toxic waste is good for you.

    Fortunately, if Rudy is their nominee, all we’ll need to do is remind the wingnuts that Mr Tough Guy isn’t just a crook, he loves to wear dresses and cavort with gay men…

    …Political observers say many voters associate a macho demeanor with Giuliani’s post-Sept. 11 image as a strong national leader in a time of crisis — an image that could lose its power if dressed in stockings and dancing the cancan.

    Yes, there was another year when he wore fishnets and did high kicks with the Rockettes…

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266100,00.html

  • What I love about this is that Guilliani has effectively done a Rove on himself with his knee-jerk, 9/11 references. As the Swiftboat vets made Kerry’s strength — the fact that he actually served — or Gore’s initiative on the Internet, a liability, Guilliani is making his use of 9/11 a liability by making himself a caricature, so that any time he uses his one strength, people are just going to laugh at him.

    Awesome.

  • I’m not defending Rudy’s shameless politicking around the events of 9-11. Yet, for those of us that work and/or reside in NYC and were in the city that day, there are not many moments that go by that we don’t think about the events that unfolded. I for one can certainly say since that day that I contact my wife and children much more frequently when taking business trips, I think about religion a bit more, and think about security more. It has definately impacted my life in many small ways, some of which you might ask why they are related to/tied to the events of 9-11.

    Perhaps for those of you who reside outside the confines of the NY metro region, that is a difficult concept to understand. But then again, you probably didn’t have to rush out of a high rise tower in fear, see and smell the smoke from the fires, and hear the countless fire fighters rushing downtown to the scene.

  • Isn’t there someone else who brings up 9/11 in every conceivable context. There’s someone, but I just can’t place who it is…..

    Oh. Right. George W. Bush

  • Rudy is the boy who cried “9/11” one too many times and like the boy who cried wolf he desensitizes us all when he keeps invoking it in such mundane ways.

    JRS, I am truly sympathetic to New Yorkers like yourself and the meaning that day has for transforming your life. That’s why it’s so difficult to watch as someone shamelessly prostitutes its memory for political advantage. Your description also sounds like what Baghdad goes through on a daily basis and even the trauma that folks in Darfur have been struggling through each day for years. You illustrate very clearly the need to consider the impacts of foreign policy through human terms rather than just grand and antiseptic geopolitical schemes.

  • Perhaps for those of you who reside outside the confines of the NY metro region, that is a difficult concept to understand. – JRS Jr.

    You are probably correct there, JRS. It would be impossible for us to know that feeling, and I’m sorry you had to go through that. But even though you had to go through and it has affected your life, I don’t hear you invoking 9-11 in every post you make here. And I would guess you don’t invoke it in your personal life at every opportunity either, unlike Guiliani. I seem to remember bush saying that no one should politicize 9-11. (Right before he did it, of course).

    Even though 9-11 was a national tragedy, so was the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, as was the mailing of anthrax right after 9-11, and to a lesser degree the Unabomber. And by lesser degree, that all depends on if you got one of his letters or knew someone who did. I guess the questions I’m asking are… When is it time to move on? Are we going to invoke 9-11 every day from now to eternity? Or at some point does it become part of our history?

  • As the world’s preeminent 9/11 Evangelist, Rudolf “We Were Told That The World Trade Center Was Gonna Collapse” Giuliani continues to exploit and manipulate the psychological trauma of 9/11 at almost every opportunity, a truly disgusting individual.

    But not unlike most of mainstream society, the only context in which we will not hear Rudolf use 9/11 is this: investigate 9/11.

    It’s a shame, that, unlike almost any other topic, the events of 9/11 are supposed to be self-evident, there is limited discourse on the events of 9/11, and to question the official government account of 9/11 is to acquiesce to the scorn and ridicule of mainstream society.

    And Rudolf doesn’t get called on his bullshit.

  • JRS,

    I don’t believe for one moment that Guilliani is reflexively inserting 9/11 into his speeches because of what the lost of his little love-nest hideaway in the WTC had on his psyche. I think he’s exploiting what you and every American felt on that day, in the same way Bush does and is.

  • If it was inevitable that we had to be attacked, then I wish it would have occurred on October the 4th. Then we could have listened to Guliani run around saying “10-4, 10-4.”

  • #6.

    I, too, am a New Yorker, and I too was here and working across the street from the WTC on 9.11.2001. And I have to say… if you can’t get through many “moments” without thinking of 9.11 you seriously need to seek help.

    I think about it of course, and yes, I’ve changed since that day too, but speak for yourself, not the entire city of New York.

  • If the ultimate “one-trick pony” Ghouliani is in fact so traumatized by 9-11, then why isn’t he chastising Herr $hrub with every breath for failing to nail his former business partner, Bin Laden, in the mountains of Tora Bora and instead chose to attack and invade Iraq. Only a few sheeple and the truly ignorant among us, like maybe Fred Thompson, still believe that 9-11 had anything to do with Iraq.

  • I’m with nancy at #13. I was there too, walked through the pulverized concrete and human remains from my office on Wall Street to the Brooklyn Bridge, walked over the bridge with thousands of other people, spent much of the next week in alcohol-soaked shock and grief.

    Giuliani was at his best right after it happened–and I had detested the guy for years before that.

    But his running for president on that makes as little sense as if Clinton had argued for his 1996 re-election based on the great speech he made after the Oklahoma City bombing… less, actually, because to my knowledge Clinton didn’t make any terrible mistakes that swelled the body count from McVeigh’s act of terrorism.

    The totality of Rudy’s record is awful. That he had a few emotionally resonant press conferences is irrelevant, and that he’s trying to exploit them for power is beyond shameful

  • I guess maybe it’s a commentary on the mediocrity of leadership these days that someone – like Rudy – wants the trust and the votes of the entire nation based upon being able to rise – somewhat – to the occasion of a tragedy like 9/11. Kind of like basing one’s trust of Bush based on his bullhorn moment at Ground Zero.

    I realize he wants it to be his defining moment, but he forgets that it is bracketed by a number of things that aren’t as commendable – and I don’t mean the personal stuff. What he’s doing now demeans and trivializes the whole thing. It would be as if the mayor of Dallas kept making sure that his voice was the one heard above all the others in the days and weeks after JFK was assassinated. Rudy happened to be the man on duty that day – and his experience is not the lens through which everyone else’s experience must be viewed and measured – even if he wants us to see it that way.

    The national media ought to take him up on the “look at me! look at me!” invitation his 9/11 utterances keep issuing – and start peeling back the layers to the real Rudy. I won’t hold my breath, however.

  • 9/11! 9/11! Terror! Terror!! BOOGA BOOGA BOOOGA!

    In order to help us keep comment spam to a minimum, please answer the following question:

    At what level has the “terror alert” been at for over 7 years now?

  • And he’s supposed to be the Savior that will beat Hillary? Is anyone else laughing their ass off?

  • The first sign of where Giuliani was headed came as he left the office of mayor, after fighting to have his term extended. He called for all of the area destroyed by 9/11 to remain undeveloped and become a memorial to 9/11. His response to terrorist destruction was to let it remain empty to always remind us of 9/11, and presumably, his role in 9/11. 9/11 is his marketing campaign and his brand identity. The WTC is his logo and it works best for him if the smoke is still rising. Giuliani talks resilience and toughness, but on issues pertaining to the most direct and tangible response to the terrorist attacks, he supports complete surrender and creation of a permanent symbol of our fear and impotence. For Giuliani, 9/11 is not about American strength and security. It’s about enhancing his image . . . and his power.

  • Prior post, “3,000 people died and we still don’t know the truth”. But we are getting closer. The CIA Inspector General’s report says in so many words that the CIA itself deliberately allowed the al Qaeda terrorists to murder 3000 Americans on 9/11. It states that many mangers at the CIA knew Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi were inside of the US on August 22-23, knew they were going to take part in a massive attack that the CIA had been getting warnings about since April 2001, an attack that would kill thousands of Americans. The CIA knew when they deliberately did not give the FBI this information, information that could have prevented these attacks, thousands of Americans would perish in these attacks. They in fact never told the FBI that these terrorists were in fact connected to then Cole bombing, again information that would have allowed the FBI to focus on these terrorists with great urgency. This report even names the CIA managers who were involved, and then finally says that they will never face any disciplinary actions of any kind, that they are in fact all are all above the law. This is truly enlightening, the CIA our own government agency would deliberately allow thousands of Americans to die in a terrorists attack and then say that this was just tough luck no one at the CIA will be even reprimanded for this. GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY. See http://www.eventson911.com for details on this.

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