A reader on newsvine claiming to be an authentic New Yorker suggested this article in The American Prospect:
“In Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton’s new book, Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission, the investigative panel’s bipartisan leaders confess that their greatest single failing was the pass they gave America’s mayor when he appeared before them in 2004.”
I always thought one of Rudy’s unimpeachable positives coming out of 9/11 was the manner in which he managed the crisis itself, however:
Some of the 9-11 family leaders who have raised the most troubling issues about the city’s preparations have vowed to stalk him in the primary states…. They hold Giuliani himself responsible for the decision that morning to split the police and fire command posts, when the first rule of emergency response is unified command. Their separation contributed to communication gaps that every official inquiry has said caused casualties.
I’d say that Rudy should get a pass on all of this, given that it was an unexpected attack, of unprecedented horror (in the modern, via satellite era). However, Rudy invites this kind of scrutiny (making it perfectly appropriate) because the primary reason he’s giving voters to elect him is the manner in which he manages crises (like 9/11).