Firefighters’ Union Takes Ax to Giuliani’s 9/11 Acclaim
By Rachel Kapochunas, CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY
July 12, 2007
Rudolph Giuliani’s status as a top-tier candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination is based largely on renown he accrued for his handling, as mayor of New York City, of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center towers.
But a major national union representing firefighters — the first responders who suffered devastating losses on 9/11 — views Giuliani’s behavior very differently and is now going all out to rebut his stalwart reputation.
The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) released a video Wednesday evening portraying what the union characterizes as leadership “failures” allegedly committed by Giuliani before, during and after the attack that claimed the lives of 343 firefighters.
“Rudy Giuliani has used a horrible event, Sept. 11, 2001, to create a carefully crafted persona,” IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger stated in the film’s introduction. “But the fact is, what Rudy portrays is not a full picture of the decisions made that led, in our view, to the unnecessary deaths of our FDNY members and the attempt to stop the dignified recovery of those lost.”
The resentment harbored by the union and a number of its members has been simmering for years, and there have been a few smaller skirmishes since Giuliani launched his presidential bid late last year. But the potential for political damage from this all-out attack by the union was evident in the rapid response from the Giuliani camp — which, among other things, characterized the criticism as an effort to undermine his campaign by a group with strong ties to the Democratic Party.
The 13-minute film, entitled “Rudy Giuliani: Urban Legend,” features interviews with firefighters and their families who fault Giuliani for problems with communications equipment that they say resulted in many firefighters being trapped in the collapsing towers, and for instituting a cleanup process at “Ground Zero” they deemed disrespectful to the victims. The film was intended for distribution to the union’s 280,000 members and is being made available to the public.
The film’s narrator and interview subjects claim that radio communication problems prevented firefighters in the North Tower from receiving evacuation commands, which they say were received and followed by the police officers in the building.
“While all police officers left the building,” the film’s narrator states, regarding the North Tower, “121 firefighters never made it out.”
The union also takes issue with what they feel is Giuliani’s use of the firefighters’ deaths for personal and political gain.
“On the heroic memory of 343 dead firefighters, he wants to run for president of the United States,” firefighter Steve Cassidy stated in the video. “It’s a disgrace.” Cassidy is president of the New York IAFF chapter.
As news reports of the video surfaced Tuesday evening, Giuliani’s campaign distributed a list of initiatives and funding steered toward the city’s firefighters in a release entitled: “Mayor Giuliani’s Record of Support for New York’s Bravest.” The campaign cited funding Giuliani secured for bunker gear, thermal cameras, personal alarms and other items, as well as measures to improve the fire department’s operational capacity and infrastructure.
Giuliani’s campaign also dubbed the organization the “International Association of Partisan Politics” in a message Wednesday.
“It’s unfortunate, but not surprising, that the IAFF union bosses have once again taken the low road in a move clearly out of step with their membership,” retired firefighter and Giuliani supporter Lee Ielpi said in a statement posted by the campaign. Ielpi’s son, also a firefighter, was killed in the attack on the World Trade Center.
Ielpi continued, “In 2008, I expect these same union bosses to endorse Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John Edwards, so today’s comments are just a first step in that process. Fortunately, rank-and-file firefighters know the difference between politics and leadership.”
The IAFF endorsed Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry in his 2004 challenge to President George W. Bush, and Schaitberger conceded in an interview with C-SPAN in March that the organization had never endorsed a Republican for president. Schaitberger, however, defended the IAFF as a bipartisan organization, and noted the union has supported successful Republican candidates for governor, including Florida’s Charlie Crist and Vermont’s Jim Douglas, as well as GOP candidates for U.S. Senate and House.
The local New York City chapter of the IAFF twice endorsed Giuliani for mayor and bucked the national union by endorsing Bush’s 2004 presidential re-election campaign.
The IAFF invited candidates from both parties to attend its 2008 presidential candidate forum in March, but Giuliani did not attend, citing scheduling problems. Others believed Giuliani declined the invitation after the leaking of a scathing letter penned by the union’s leader, which contained sharp criticism of Giuliani’s relationship with firefighters and his record. At that time, IAFF leaders said the letter was never sent to Giuliani and was not intended for publication, but also declared that the union and its political action committee would not support Giuliani for president.
Giuliani’s role after the Sept. 11 attacks made him Time Magazine’s choice for 2001 Person of the Year, with a cover that labeled him “Tower of Strength.” This reputation undergirds Giuliani’s appeals to voters on both sides of the aisle as he positions himself as the best choice to lead the nation during a time of war.
Giuliani has for months held first place in virtually all national Republican voter preference polls on the 2008 nomination, which in turn has greatly helped his fundraising: He has taken in roughly $35 million in campaign receipts and is expected to report more than $18 million cash on hand in his filing for the year’s second quarter that is due to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Sunday.
Yet Giuliani’s hold on front-runner status is fragile, in large part because his relatively liberal record on social issues such as abortion, gay rights and gun control differ from the conservative views held by much of the Republican Party’s conservative base. So which side gets the better of the dispute between Giuliani and the firefighters’ union over 9/11 could have major implications for his ongoing campaign.
http://www.nytimes.com
