Rudy Giuliani has built his presidential campaign - not to mention his multi-million dollar fortune - trading on his few days in the public limelight after 9/11. A few, well-crafted rallying soundbites to a vulnerable audience craving reassurance - that resonated louder in the vacuum of Bush's cowardice and initial AWOL status - and he grabbed the title of "America's Mayor."
And the self-appointed perpetual right to exploit the tragedy for monetary gain in speeches, books and acclaim-by-association of his for-profit (BIG profit) business consultancy.
His 8 years of negligence from 1993 onwards of multiple tasks that would have lessened the death toll on that fateful day are all swept under the carpet. As are the deaths of many First Responders who have died as a result of his many post 9/11 mistakes. Also ignored are the continuing condemnations of his failures by NY firemen, NY policemen and families of the 3,000 bereaved.
Perhaps Rudy should take a leaf from the post-calamity activities of two previous "America's Mayors" who - like Rudy - happened by circumstance to be the person in charge of a locality when disaster struck. In both cases the loss of life was in the same range as New York's 9/11 toll - namely 2,000-3,000 dead. And similar numbers of injured.
Neither of those leaders had the arrogance, hubris or chutzpah to run for president based primarily on having been a person whose paid job included the responsibility for giving uplifting soundbites to the media for a few days after a disaster.
And in both of the previous cases I cite, a vigilant media held the leaders to account. Challenging any attempts to whitewash their records. Of course it helped that neither of the two leaders - who were both as incompetent in their ways as Giuliani was in his - had the temerity to subsequently run for President.
THE "HUSBAND"
Rear Admiral Husband Edward Kimmel was the commander of the Pacific Fleet at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
On November 27, 1941 - ten days prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor - Kimmel had been ordered to initiate a "defensive deployment" of the fleet. Kimmel disobeyed the order. He kept all the ships in port. The US fleet was not even placed on alert. After the Navy lost track of Japan's aircraft carriers, Kimmel did not order any long-range air or naval patrols to assess their positions.
(This is also reminiscent of Bush's negligence after receiving the CIA warning "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In The US" on August 6th 2001.)
Twenty-one ships of the U.S. Pacific fleet were sunk or damaged and the death toll reached 2,350, with 1,178 injured.
Kimmel was relieved of his command. And was deprived of his four-star admiral rank. Despite multiple attempts to rehabilitate his image and claim that he was simply a scapegoat, successive Presidents (both Republican and Democratic) have refused to posthumously reinstate or promote him. Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have all refuted the argument that someone in command at the time of a disaster should be exonerated of personal responsibility for well-documented failures that contributed to the size of the death toll.
THE "SCHMITZ"
Mayor Eugene E. Schmitz was the corrupt Mayor of San Francisco at the time of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fires. He had been mayor for 4 years at the time of the quake and was responsible for the city's emergency response and civil order.
The emergency response was so poorly planned that the US Army had to intervene to assist with the rescue and restoration of order. Without actually proclaiming Martial Law, Schmitz issued a now infamous "Shoot To Kill" edict that resulted in the deaths of over 500 civilians. It was later determined that many of them were not looters but citizens trying to rescue their own property.
(On occasion, the NYPD appeared to have been operating on a similar "shoot-to-kill" edict during Giuliani's 8 years as Mayor. As Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond will tell you. Well they WOULD have told you if they hadn't been shot to death by trigger-happy cops during the Giuliani years.)
From a population of about 400,000, the earthquake killed approximately 3,000 people and left 225,000 homeless. Over 28,000 buildings were destroyed.
Unlike Giuliani, Schmitz didn't get a chance to create a mythology about his "heroic" actions during the disaster.
In June 1907, he was charged with bribery and corruption, found guilty of extortion, and stripped of his office. He was sentenced to five years in San Quentin. (He served 9 months before his conviction was nullified on a technicality.)
While he didn't run for President, Schmitz had the temerity to run for Mayor of San Francisco again in 1915 and 1919, but was routed in both elections. The voters of San Francisco knew then what the voters of New York City know now. He was a corrupt ex-Mayor grasping for power.
That's Rudy. A typical Husband. And one of the world's biggest Schmitz...
HUSBAND================RUDY==============SCHMITZ