Major Firefighters Group Challenges Giuliani's Hero Mayor Status

For the past 6 years Rudy Giuliani has enjoyed hero status, largely because of media depictions of his actions during the 9/11 disaster. I was one who never bought into that hype, mainly because of some of the glaring errors that he made before and after the disaster. One of the biggest mistakes was putting the Emergency Operations Center at the World Trade Center Site, even after the 1993 terrorist attack.

The problem with the inadequate NYFD radios was a long standing issue prior to 9/11 and there was no sense of urgency to deal with the problem. The communication problem was so bad on 9/11 that firefighters had to communicate by relaying information person to person (According to the NYFD's own after action report). Even though an evacuation order was given- instructing the firefighters to leave the Towers, many of the firefighters never heard the order, and parished in the collapse.

I completed a report last year on New York's 9/11 response, and found several lapses in preparedness and communications. This made the whole "Giuliani the Hero" madness even more irritating to me.

Now the Giuliani myth is being challenged by a major firefighters group, The International Association of Fire Fighters.

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Meanwhile, the Giuliani camp is facing another sticky situation - the racist history of one of its South Carolina campaign officials, Arthur Ravenel Jr.