Rudolph Giuliani found a new depth of shamefulness this week.
He decided to follow the Bush-Rove-Cheney playbook of attacking Democrats as weak on terror, based on...absolutely NOTHING. No evidence, no case, no logic, no reality. Just a lot of Republican hot air and fearmongering, as usual -- the very thing that this country is sick to death of.
As we all know, the Republican party has been pathetic on the issue of terrorism. There's a record, and it's undeniable. "Bin Laden Determined to Strike inside U.S."
Gart Hart knows this all too well, and he's not taking Giuliani's crap.
(mas on the flip)
The former U.S. Senator from Colorado, who was sounding the alarm about terrorism long BEFORE 9-11, takes hapless liar Giuliani out in back of the woodshed today and slaps him around:
Dear Mayor Giuliani:
Since you have based your presidential campaign almost exclusively on your reaction to terrorist attacks on New York City, and since you have recently accused Democrats of being on the defense against terrorism and therefore guilty of inviting more casualties, I have one question for you: Where were you on terrorism between January 31, 2001, and September 11th?
The first date was when the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century issued its final report warning, as did its previous reports, of the danger of terrorist attacks on America. The George W. Bush administration did nothing about these warnings and we lost 3,000 American lives. What did you do during those critical eight months? Where were you? Were you on the defensive, or were you even paying attention?
Before you qualify to criticize Democrats, Mr. Giuliani, you must account for your preparation of your city for these clearly predicted attacks. Tell us, please, what steps you took to make your city safer. Until you do, then I strongly suggest you should keep your mouth shut about Democrats and terrorism. You have not qualified to criticize others, let alone be president of the United States.
Gary Hart
(co-chair, U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century)
P.S. You might ask these same questions of George W. Bush while you are trying to find a better reason to run for president.
Gary Hart and his Republican colleague Warren Rudman did their damnedest to get the attention of those in power before 9-11-2001. Arrogant, stupid politicans like Rudy Giuliani, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney ignored them and focused on tax cuts for the rich, secret energy meetings, the Enron-ization of the U.S. government, the ever-riduculous Star Wars defense, and cheap political power grabs instead. They did literally nothing about terrorism -- not even hold ONE cabinet-level meeting. Their awful track record is a matter of public record.
But Giuliani is a shameless bastard who will say anything to get elected. It's a year and a half before the next Presidential election, and he's already proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Some of Giuliani's pandering is laughable. However, he can't be left unchallenged (and unpunished) for his sick demagoguery about the murder of 3000 Americans -- on his and George W. Bush's watch, no less.
Remember, Giuliani claims that he thanked God that George W. Bush was president on 9-11. I'll bet he did: Bush's negligence on terrorism allowed it to happen, and he and Giuliani have profited from that day ever since. An opportunist like Rudy has a nose for when his ship is about to come in, and on 9-11 he saw a great branding and business opportunity for....Rud6y Giuliani.
I'm glad to see people like Keith Olbermann and Gary Hart blasting him for this piggery.
Giuliani has started a fight he can't win. He'll regret trying to climb on the backs of the dead to try to grub votes. It's not only an ineffective strategy -- the be-very-afraid spell that the GOP cast on this country for a while is broken -- but it's morally repugnant.
We should all make sure that Giuliani rues the day he made those filthy statements. I'm not going to forget it, ever.
Bravo to Gary Hart for telling the hypocritical Giuliani to "shut up"... and in exactly those words.