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| Let Rudy testify |
| 2007-07-01 |
| Rudy Giuliani says he's ready to head down to Capitol Hill and testify before Rep. Jerrold Nadler's (D-Manhattan) pack of legislative hyenas about what the city did and didn't do at Ground Zero in the days and weeks following 9/11. Former Environmental Protection Agency chief Christine Todd Whitman was raked over the coals last week by Nadler and his fellow Democrats on a House subcommittee looking into public-health issues arising from the terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) tried to goad the former New Jersey governor into indicting Giuliani for failing to follow her advice that Ground Zero workers wear protective gear. But Giuliani himself hasn't been asked to appear - and likely won't be. Why not? It's not as if the former mayor is reluctant to testify - far from it. "I would tell people the truth if I were called, and I'd tell them what I know," Giuliani said when asked if he would appear. A Nadler spokesman claims Giuliani hasn't been invited to testify because the hearing's "focus is on the federal government's response." In other words, it's another Bush-bashing exercise - long on angry denunciation, short on investigation - and testimony by Giuliani might mess up the plan. Then again, there may be another reason why no one is anxious for Giuliani to appear: Namely, that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton doesn't want her fellow presidential candidate to have a platform to talk about 9/11. Clinton, after all, held her own congressional hearing back in March on the health of 9/11 workers - and Giuliani was notably absent from that one, too. To hear Nadler & Co. tell it, Downtown New York should have been shut down and sealed tight for months, maybe even years, until there was zero chance of any toxicity in the air. (Unlike, say, any day that traffic backs up into West Street from the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel - which is to say, just about every day.) As Nicole Gelinas rightly noted on these pages Wednesday, such a decision would have forced thousands of residents and businesses to relocate - devastating Downtown. As mayor, Giuliani was responsible for demonstrating to the world that the city would rebound from 9/11 - that it would rebuild. (Compare what he accomplished to the pitiful efforts of post-Katrina New Orleans and its mayor.) Was the city at fault for failing to force rescue workers to wear respirators and other protective gear? It's a legitimate question for Giuliani. But before it can be asked, he'll need to be invited to testify. Whatever is Jerry Nadler waiting for, anyway? |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 Whatever is Jerry Nadler waiting for, anyway? Nadler and the donks can't be giving a trunk candidate a forum. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-07-01 16:45 |