Giuliani Motivates Disgust
By Michael Kaufman
For Bruce Jenner it was the Olympic decathlon. For Mark Spitz it was the seven gold medals. For Buzz Aldrin it was the Apollo moon landing. And for Rudolph Giuliani it is September 11 that guarantees him a hefty annual income touring the country as a high-priced motivational speaker. I caught his act in the summer of 2004—when he was still being hailed nationally as “America’s Mayor”—and frankly I was disgusted by it.
In the days before his talk Giuliani had been widely quoted condemning the street vendors who sold photos and other merchandise to tourists visiting the area surrounding the Ground Zero site. Apparently he found this lowbrow sort of profiteering shameful and unseemly. But he had no difficulty accepting $75,000 from a pharmaceutical company to deliver a 12-minute scripted talk to a group of medical specialists attending a national meeting in New York. That comes out to $6,250 per minute for a self-serving speech capitalizing on the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.
One might argue that Giuliani earned his right to collect hefty speaking fees because of his exemplary leadership in uniting New Yorkers in the time of crisis after the attack. Well, yes and no. The Rev. Al Sharpton may have stated it a bit indelicately but he was not far off the mark when he said it was not Giuliani but rather the “pain and decency” of New Yorkers that brought us together. “We would have come together if Bozo was the mayor,” said Sharpton.
By the summer of 2004 it was known that Giuliani allowed the heroic rescue workers to continue their futile, round-the-clock efforts long after he was informed there was no chance of rescuing anyone who had not already been saved. It is impossible to know how many severe, long-term illnesses this caused among the firefighters, police, and others, who wore no masks or other protective gear to protect them from the toxic environment.
Giuliani still likes to say he was at the site “as often, if not more, than most workers.” As for the toxicity, he says, “I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I’m one of them.” Well, yes and no. In the first few days he was there a lot. After that, his appointment books show he spent a total of 29 hours at the site over three months. Recovery workers spent that much time over two or three days.
But that is not what disgusted me about the speech I witnessed. It was the whole way it went down. I learned that Giuliani would be speaking from one of the public relations people running the press room at the medical meeting. I wondered why there was no press release about it. She quietly explained that Giuliani had agreed to come only if there would be no publicity. This was puzzling to her. The only media representatives allowed to attend would be from the medical and scientific outlets…and they were not to ask questions. The only questions Giuliani would take would be from audience members. And no reporters from consumer publications or regular news organizations would be admitted. I got in because I worked for a medical publishing company.
Giuliani received a standing ovation after being introduced as “America’s Mayor.” His speech was plain vanilla motivational featuring his six “lessons on leadership” and the people he admires most. (Ronald Reagan tops the people list.) From time to time, however, he departed from the script to make a hostile comment about the media. (“They always look for something negative.”) After several such jibes he stopped and said, “Gee, I hope none of them are here now!” Then he looked around the room, pretending to search for any lurking reporters, knowing full well they had been excluded. From my position, standing against a wall near the front of the room I wanted to ask, “What are you afraid of?”
As the charade continued through a fawning question-and-answer session (“Do you think you might run for president some day?”) I thought of a lot more questions, but I had to keep them to myself. Say what you will about Sarah Palin, at least she has the guts to face the representatives of the media she so despises and try her best to answer their questions. It came as no surprise to me that during the 2008 Republican presidential primary, Giuliani gratefully accepted the endorsement of Pat Robertson, the Christian fundamentalist minister, who said the September 11 attacks happened because “God Almighty is lifting his protection from us” because, among other things, “we have allowed rampant pornography on the Internet.”
Jack Newfield said it best in a 2002 article in the Nation: “Rudy Giuliani was a C-plus Mayor who has become an A-plus myth.”
Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.
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