Tuesday, August 21, 2007

A Hero? Or Just A Yankee?

As much as this Dodger fan hates to admit it, it is ok to be a Yankee fan. There is nothing wrong with supporting your team, even if it is one based on buying all-stars with ridiculous amounts of money. What is not cool, is claiming something you are not, like a hero, or "America's Mayor."

Although Rudy has backed away from the false statement that he was at Ground Zero as much or if not more than the rescue workers, it is interesting to see where he did spend his time. Giuliani used 9/11 for photo-ops, to look brave and heroic when was he was neither. Rudy was looking for free press, and where would there be a better place than a Yankee game that was televised for a national audience?

From Salon:

Aug. 18, 2007 | On Friday, a New York Times story examined Rudy Giuliani's schedule in the months after 9/11 to verify his controversial claim that, like rescue workers, he'd spent long hours at ground zero, and so was "in that sense ... one of them." In fact, the Times found, he only spent 29 hours at the terror site between Sept. 17 and Dec. 16.

What was he doing instead? Giuliani's beloved New York Yankees made it to the World Series in 2001. We decided to compare the time he spent on baseball to the time he spent at the ruins of the World Trade Center.

The results were, considering the mayor's long-standing devotion to the Bronx Bombers, unsurprising. By our count, Giuliani spent about 58 hours at Yankees games or flying to them in the 40 days between Sept. 25 and Nov. 4, roughly twice as long as he spent at ground zero in the 90 days between Sept. 17 and Dec. 16. By his own standard, Giuliani was one of the Yankees more than he was one of the rescue workers.


A Yankee fan? I don't doubt that about Mr. Giuliani. As for being a vital part of the aftermath of 9/11, he doesn't even come close.