Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 246, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 31, 2011 Page: 9 of 12
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CM K
Sweetwater Reporter
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 ■ Page 9
AP Interview: Post-9/11
politics of Rudy Giuliani
BETH FOUHY
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — He was the living symbol of the
Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, a hero to a traumatized
nation seeking leadership in a time of crisis. Walking
miles through the streets of Manhattan, Mayor Rudy
Giuliani urged New York and the world to be calm, said
the city would survive. With empathy and restraint, he
said the number of 9/11 dead would be "more than any
of us can bear."
"It was the worst experience of my life. It was the
most devastating experience for the city I was respon-
sible for," Giuliani told The Associated Press in a wide-
ranging interview.
A decade later, the man most connected with 9/11 —
earning the enduring moniker of "America's Mayor" —
parlayed his experience into a lucrative security consult-
ing career. But he proved a flop as a presidential con-
tender in 2008, when the heroics of 9/11 didn't translate
into a plausible strategy for winning the Republican
nomination. And he says he's bothered by suggestions
that he profited from his 9/11 fame.
Giuliani says he's considering another presidential bid
in 2012. But he's found it hard to reclaim the mantel of
greatness he earned on the city's darkest day.
man for the tragedy. His reassuring and authoritative
presence eclipsed that of President George W. Bush,
who had flown out of Florida shortly after the attacks
and was kept on Air Force One and out of view for much
of the day.
His most searing memory was watching a man fall
from the sky.
Giuliani arrived at the World Trade Center the morn-
ing of Sept. 11 minutes after a second plane slammed
into the south tower. He was headed for the command
post beneath the burning north tower when police asked
him to look skyward to avoid falling debris.
"I kept looking up and I saw a man, on the 101st
floor, put himself right in the window and he just flung
himself right out," Giuliani told the AP. "I saw the fire
behind him. 1 just froze and watched him because it was
so incomprehensible."
There was no time to stop and absorb what he had
seen. He strode through lower Manhattan, flanked by
his administration, directing security and rescue efforts,,
visiting hospitals and trying to prevent the city's opera-
tions from falling into more chaos.
"We'd handled everything — airline crashes, build-
ing collapses, fires, hostage situations, other terror-
ist threats," Giuliani says now. "But this was so far
beyond what we'd contemplated, there must have been
a moment where 1 thought, we can't handle this."
In the afternoon, he stepped before cameras to describe
the breadth of the devastation.
"My heart goes out to all the innocent victims of this
horrible and vicious act of terrorism, acts of terrorism,"
he said. " Our focus now has to be on saving as many
lives as possible," Giuliani said.
Asked how many had died, he said, "The number of
casualties will be more than any of us can bear, ulti-
mately."
With that, Giuliani had become the national spokes-
Charities
Continued from page
BIG EVENTS, SMALL RETURN
Weeks after the 9/11 attacks, Theodore Sjurseth of
Leesburg, Va climbed aboard his Harley Davidson and
led about 250 bikers to New York City to pay homage to
the dead.
Since then, the ride has become an annual charity
event, with nearly $2.2 million in gross revenue between
2003 and last year. This year's r e, held last week, had
nearly 3,000 registered participants.
Yet in one important respect, it has fallen short in its
mission.
The nonprofit group formed to organize the ride,
America's 9/11 Foundation, has spent far more putting
on the event than supporting its mission of assisting
first responders and their children. As of last year, it
had donated 10 motorcycles to various police depart-
ments around the eastern U.S. and Canada, at a cost
of about $200,000- giver $150,000 in scholarships
to the children of police officers and firefighters, paid
some modest grants to police departments struggling
to support their motorcycle brigades or canine units,
and supported a playground rehabilitation project in
Linden, N.J.
The reason it hasn't donated more: lavish spending on
the ride itself. The event is now four days long and takes
participants from the Flight 93 crash site in Shanksville,
Pa to the Pentagon to ground zero in New York.
The foundation picks up all tolls for the riders, pays
for their meals, and in some years has put on concerts.
To attract police officers to the event it puts them
up in hotel rooms for each night of the ride and waives
their registration fees. In some years, the foundation has
made compensation payments to municipalities along
the ride route to make up for the hassle of closing traffic
while the bikers pass.
Calculating how much the group ultimately gives to
charity is difficult, because the foundation counts the
officers' free hotel rooms and municipal compensation
payments as donations, rather than ride expenses.
But even under that interpretation, the group has
spent less than 20 percent of the money it raised on
charitable causes.
Sjurseth - who wanted to be a firefighter as a teenager
until a pellet gun accident cost him sight in one eye,
agreed the ride could be a more effective fundraiser if
it cut costs or raised registration fees — now at about
$120.
But, he said, he thinks the foundation has "done great"
for an all-volunteer group.
"Has it blossomed the way I wanted it to? No, he said,
"I'd love for this thing to be making millions of dollars."
Before the attacks, New Yorkers had seemed eager to
be rid of Giuliani, a lame duck weighed down by ebbing
popularity and a series of personal crises.
The soap opera-like unraveling of his marriage to
second wife Donna Hanover and his relationship with
a mistress — his now-wife, Judi Nathan — had begun
overshadowing accomplishments as mayor, particu-
larly his widely praised rehabilitation of New York after
decades of decline. He was first elected in 1994 and won
a second term in 1998.
Giuliani's marital woes, which surfaced as he was
diagnosed with prostate cancer, forced him to abandon
a likely Senate bid against Democrat Hillary Rodham
Clinton. The turbulence left Giuliani, then 57, facing an
uncertain future in the final months of his second term.
But then came the attacks on his city. The plaudits he
received that day made him a wealthy man after he left
office in early 2002.
Giuliani became a rainmaker at a major international
law firm now called Bracewell and Giuliani. He formed
a security consultancy, Giuliani Partners, which advises
businesses and governments on how to manage their
security needs. He delivers paid speeches on security
and economic issues in the U.S. and around the world.
And he supports several charities, who sometimes auc-
tion off rounds of golf with America's Mayor for as much
as $40,000 apiece.
Today, Giuliani says he's "a little sensitive" to critics
who suggest he has profited from his 9/11 fame.
"I was pretty successful before Sept. 11 and fully
expected that when I left being mayor I would be very
successful," he said, adding he'd always planned to prac-
tice law and form a security concern.
"What did Sept. 11 do? It took me from 60-70 percent
name recognition as mayor of New York to about 90
percent. Of course it had an impact. But it's not the only
reason I was successful," he said.
Hampshire in favor of Florida, whose primary came
weeks later. He went down to an embarrassing defeat,
dropping from the race after spending nearly $59 mil-
lion to win just one delegate.
Today, he says he's learned from the experience.
"There is a reality to the primary process and you don't
win primaries by being ahead in national polls. You win
them by winning Iowa, by winning New Hampshire, by
winning South Carolina, winning Florida," Giuliani said.
"There were a hundred other mistakes but maybe the
hundred others we could have overcome."
Giuliani says he's seriously eyeing another run for the
nomination despite the spectacular failure last time.
He's critical of President Barack Obama, saying the
Democrat has made a faltering economy even worse.
Giuliani would focus mainly on winning New
Hampshire, a state whose Republicans are more mod-
erate than those in Iowa and where independents can
vote in the primary. The issue environment has vastly
changed since 2008, and Giuliani insists he's got the
credentials voters are seeking.
"I wouldn't de-emphasize (national security) but right
now you have to talk about what people are concerned
about, and what they're concerned about is the econo-
my," Giuliani said. "I do have the economic credentials.
I ran one of the most complicated economies in the
United States and one that was in terrible trouble. And
I turned it around."
Giuliani said he wouldn't make a final decision until
well after the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks,
probably the end of September. Several other top con-
tenders, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are already campaign-
ing for the nomination.
"I'm going to sit down and talk it over with Judith,
wake up one morning and have a decision," Giuliani
said. "Part if it will be how the other candidates perform
and whether I have confidence one of them can beat
President Obama. I'm not sure of it yet."
The national political stage is one area where Giuliani's
been decidedly unsuccessful.
He entered the 2008 presidential race with great
fanfare, leading all national polls of Republican vot-
ers despite his moderate positions on social issues like
abortion and gay rights. He stressed his credentials on
security and terrorism in the campaign — so fervently
that then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, competing for the
Democratic nomination, mocked him in a nationally
televised debate.
"Rudy Giuliani, there's only 3 things he mentions in
a sentence. A noun, a verb, and 9/11," Biden said, to
laughter and applause.
Giuliani's campaign also made serious strategic
errors, eschewing early state contests like Iowa and New
exas bringing
back successful
hog-killing contest
BETSY BLANEY
Associated Press
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Residents in all 254 Texas
counties will soon gear up for a now-annual feral hog
killing contest.
The three-month "Get the Hogs Outta Texas" compe-
tition is set to begin Oct. 1.
The top five hog-killing counties win a total of $60,000
in grant money to continue abatement programs.
The first contest a year ago lasted a month and was so
successful — with 4,000 feral hogs killed — that the state
brought it back and made it longer.
The renewal is just in time for hunters in helicopters,
too. Starting Thursday, a new state law will allow hunt-
ers to take aerial aim on the destructive animals.
Texas has an estimated 2 million feral hogs, more than
any state. They cause about $400 million in damages
annually.
Texas district paid $360K
ior simple math charts
JUAN CARLOS LLORCA
Associated Press
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Documents show that a West
Texas school district paid $360,000 for simple math
instructional materials touted as "specialized data"
under a no-bid contract that led to federal charges of
fraud and embezzlement against the superintendent.
Prosecutors allege that El Paso Independent School
District Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia lied when he
claimed in the 2006 proposal that Infinity Resources
& Associates was the sole provider of the materials
designed to prepare students for high-stakes testing.
Authorities say Garcia had a financial stake in the
company and a personal relationship with the owner.
Documents indicate that the district paid for 26 charts
depicting basic equations and conversions, and 18 days
of teacher training.
Details of the documents were first reported by the El
Paso Times.
Garcia's attorney didn't immediately return a phone
message.
Sept. 11, 2001, was primary day in New York City, and
voters were heading to the polls to choose candidates to
succeed Giuliani.
The primary was postponed because of the attacks.
And in November, another Republican, billionaire
media executive Mike Bloomberg, narrowly Won a close
race against Democrat Mark Green in part because
Bloomberg received Giuliani's endorsement.
With Bloomberg stepping down in 2013 after three
terms, would Giuliani ever consider running to reclaim
the post that made him famous? He laughs and says
no.
"I don't go back, I go forward," Giuliani said. "You also
have to realize, been there, done that."
He added, "Going back and doing something over
never works. All my ideas, all my thoughts, all my expe-
riences are set in a certain time period. New York City
probably needs something different now."
Texas agency
changes process on
funds for braces
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Health and
Human Services Commission says it's changing the
process that allows Medicaid funds to pay for children
to get braces.
The commission announced a series of corrective
measures Tuesday in the wake of reports from Dallas
television station WFAA that Texas spent more last
year on orthodontic treatment for children than the
other 49 states combined.
The changes include requiring the contractor
responsible for approving requests for orthodontic
services to develop an action plan to ensure that poli-
cies are followed.
The agency also said it will begin requiring full-cast
dental molds with all requests for braces.
Texas health officials have acknowledged a federal
investigation into the state's use of Medicaid funds for
braces. The money isn't supposed to pay for children
to get braces for cosmetic reasons.
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Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 246, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 31, 2011, newspaper, August 31, 2011; Sweetwater, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth229552/m1/9/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sweetwater/Nolan County City-County Library.