Rudy Giuliani is going to have be awfully careful with stuff like this. (via Eric Kleefeld)
Supporters of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani have started discussions with relatives of 9/11 victims about backing him if he runs for president in 2008, some family members told The Post.
The conversations have taken place in recent weeks, according to some victims’ families, who described the talks as “casual.”
Marian Fontana, who lost her firefighter husband on 9/11, said she got an invitation to go to a Giuliani exploratory committee dinner last week from a former firefighter working with Giuliani’s committee.
I certainly understand the political strategy here, but it’s fraught with complications. For one thing, as the New York Post noted, there are plenty of families who lost loved ones on 9/11 who have been “deeply critical” of Giuliani’s handling of the crisis, including holding him responsible for communications failures, placing the emergency response center in a known terrorist target, and not doing enough to protect rescue and recovery workers from polluted air at Ground Zero. The more Giuliani uses 9/11 families in a campaign context, the more questions he’ll hear about these issues.
And then, of course, it’s worth noting there’s a fine line between outreach and exploitation, and it’s pretty easy to imagine Giuliani crossing it.
Stay tuned.