by Tom Brune
Rudy Giuliani was heckled by two angry New Yorkers at Ground Zero today.
“Scum, scum,” yelled a man as Giuliani and his wife ascended the ramp from a patch of ground where the World Trade Center towers once stood.
But Giuliani also won polite scattered applause from others as he left the stage in Zuccotti Park after reading a passage by Holocaust writer Elie Wiesel.
On the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Guiliani returned in a controversial appearance to commemorate the event that sealed his image as a leader and propels his run for president.
Yet as his reception showed, the former New York City mayor remains a polarizing figure in his own hometown.
To some, like Carole Farnum who lost her son, Giuliani was showing he shares the grief of the victims’ families. To others, like Howard Gabler who lost his son, he was an “opportunist” exploiting a somber ceremony for political gain.
Whether that mixed response will follow him nationally as voters get to know him remains a test as he heads into the decisive fall campaign.
So far, Giuliani has won the steady support of about three in 10 GOP voters, mostly because of his image as a leader and his close identification with 9/11, several pollsters say.
But a CBS/New York Times poll yesterday suggests those positives may not equal victory: He has no advantage over rivals on who best would handle terrorism, and some voters feel a former New York mayor cannot relate to their concerns.
Yesterday also showed it is difficult for Giuliani to separate the personal from the political.
He spoke on broad themes. New Yorkers showed “uncompromising strength and resilience” on 9/11, he said. The lines he read ended: “Just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by human beings.”
Yet his decision to speak at all on the stage where first responders read the 2,750 names of the dead infuriated critics.
Some turned their backs on him as he spoke. Others left the park to visit Ground Zero.
“I walked away,” said Deputy Fire Chief Jim Riches, who lost a son and heads a firefighter union drive against Giuliani.
But that New York acid take on Giuliani hasn’t spread to Iowa and New Hampshire so far, said political scientist Eric Davis of Middlebury College.
His 9/11 legacy will be tarnished only if another candidate attacks, and no GOP rival likely will, Davis said. Riches agreed. “I don’t think any of the candidates will touch Giuliani on 9/11 because they’re afraid it will blow up on them.”
Tom Brune reports for Newsday, a Tribune Co. newspaper.
Comments
Rudy Juliannie is a phony:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2igZW9fazU
The NYC Firefighters call Rudy a fraud:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaCYEEO-58I
Posted by: John E | September 11, 2007 7:30 PM
Gee, two hecklers and they get the headline and the lead. Anyone think
these hecklers may have been hired by
Rudy's opponents? Huh? Huh?
Posted by: Eric J. | September 11, 2007 8:20 PM
John E
Please. The majority of the FDNY and NYPD LOVE Juliani. He did a fantastic job during the 9/11 crisis (you should have payed attention Ray Nagan). He has EVERY right to be there today regardless of the so-called "politics". If you want to post a link, please post the one of Hillary getting booed on stage by all the police and fire fighters during the benefit concert...OOPS!!!
Posted by: Emerson Bolen | September 11, 2007 9:17 PM
Eric, if John E had the money, I would have put money that he was one of the hecklers. He has an unnatural infatuation with Rudy, much like his infatuation with me. One reason, I think, is that John E got really turned on by Rudy's occasional costuming into women's clothing as well as guys who are better and more successful than he is, like Rudy and me.
Posted by: John D | September 11, 2007 11:45 PM
The hecklers were probably from the firefighter union...atleast they didn't bring out the 20 foot tall blow-up rat.
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | September 12, 2007 12:02 AM
Eric, I don't think the two hecklers were hired by Rudy's opponents. That would be too easy to trace and, in any case, most people probably find it distasteful to heckle at a 9/11 ceremony.
It's New York. Take away 9/11 and New Yorkers are the most rude people in the world.
Posted by: Bud McFarlin | September 12, 2007 12:16 AM
I voted for W twice. Ghouliani was my hero. Then I researched 911. I ran across the video Loose Change. I know now, that W, Cheney, and Ghouliani are SCUM. They planted explosives in the twin towers. Their day will come soon, when they are sitting in a jail cell.
Posted by: Michael Kobzina | September 12, 2007 2:48 AM
Eric, if somebody's going to hire hecklers, they either hire hecklers (enough to make a good showing) or they decide it isn't worth it. Hiring two just doesn't make sense.
They went there because they didn't like Giuliani. And they're entitled to their opinion.
If you were a Democrat saying that about Clinton hecklers, you'd have somebody calling you looney.
Posted by: Op109 | September 12, 2007 7:39 AM
Eric J. has been trained well by Johnny D., Bruce and Paulo - never mind the message, attack the messenger.
Posted by: BobinATL | September 12, 2007 8:23 AM
It is a pleasure to see Giuliani 'slipping' in the polls. This man is a hypocrite and a fraud. He is the least qualified to be President out of all candidates in the field. He has the audacity to state that he spent more time at ground zero than most rescue workers. That is a lie. Giuliani didn't spend a minute crawling around, in , or under the tons of rubble looking for victims.
Giuliani did next to nothing to protect New York City from when the WTC was first attacked in 1993 until Sept. 11, 2001.
Posted by: Doug R. | September 12, 2007 9:36 AM
Yes, Michael Kobzina, Bush and Cheney knocked the buildings down. And the planes flying into the buildings and exploding actually was visual trickery. That never happened. Michael, please see a doctor.
Posted by: John D | September 12, 2007 11:16 AM
Re: "Yes, Michael Kobzina, Bush and Cheney knocked the buildings down. And the planes flying into the buildings and exploding actually was visual trickery. That never happened. Michael, please see a doctor."
Have YOU watched Loose Change? America, From Freedom to Fascism? 911, The Greatest Lie Ever Told? 911, The Road to Tyranny? Even Farenheit 911? Wake UP!
Building 7 was demolished and the REAL reason the ITC were destroyed was probably in there - International Bankers investigation files all destroyed along with it.
Posted by: Tone Franklin | September 12, 2007 6:44 PM
Oh and it won't matter WHO you elect to the Whitehouse unless it's Ron Paul because all the others will be owned by the global corporate fascists and zionist bankers.
Posted by: Tone Franklin | September 12, 2007 6:52 PM
Those who turned their backs, left the park for the ramp, and who opposed Rudy's using 9/11 for his own political reasons were not "hired" by anyone.
Most unfortunately, they, as I, were families of 9/11 firefighters and civilian victims who suffered a needless and brutal death at the WTC for which Rudy and his incompetent administration share the blame for.
Rudy failed in emergency planning, preparation and emergency communications on 9/11. He is NO HERO. He is part of the failures & has made millions over the dead bodies of the 343 and the 2,750. Shame on this culpable man!. For the true story from firefighters and families visit:www.TheRealRudy.org a film which the families wanted made to get the truth out to our fellow Americans.
And NO, he is hated - NOT supported- by the vast majority of NYC firefighters, and rescue workers who lost 343 of their brothers, and who are themselves sick and dying because Rudy did not protect them from the toxic air at GZ. Finally, 40% of all the FF's and civilian victims are still missing, their remains either still scattered all around GZ or out in the Fresh Kills garbage dump in Staten Island, NY, because Rudy refused all outside professional assistance to search for our loved ones remains and because he rushed to "clean up" the site for business and thus overlooked or discarded our loved ones remains, including our beautiful FF son. Rudy failed to protect NYC. How on earth can he be trusted, based on his history of appointing unqualified commissioners in NYC how on earth can he be trusted to protect our wonderful country? And that is the God's honest truth from a Republican family whose members include former NYPD, card carrying members of the NRA! Surely the Republican party can find someone more worth that Rudy Giuliani!
Posted by: Cathy R | September 13, 2007 2:56 PM
John D: You are basically suggesting that I "See a doctor", when I point out the fact that we have criminal elements in our government who would KILL innocent Americans. "See a doctor"? I have over 9 years of education in Physics, and am a licensed pilot, while I do not hold a doctorate, I am more than qualified to know that the "official" story of 9/11 is a fraud, and that criminals like Giuliani, W, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and their New World Order Crew, belong behind bars. The "doctors" offices will certainly be crowded, if, as you suggest, 40% of Americans who do not beleive the "official" story of 9/11 seek "treatment". To suggest that planes did not hit the buildings, and was done by "visual trickery" is absurd, as are you, John D.
Posted by: Michael K | March 30, 2009 2:15 AM