Bonus Andy McCarthy!
Since 9/11, when the problem of interoperability of first-responder communications systems became starkly apparent, NYC, NY state and the Department of Homeland Security have all spent goo-gobs of money addressing it, thus far with questionable success, mainly due to its technological complexity. Giuliani was mayor for eight years before 9/11, during which time interoperability, to the extent it was an issue at all, had to compete with various other budgetary demands… …Ramesh says Giuliani should have solved it before 9/11, when there was no 9/11 to use as an example for why it was so important. OK, but if it was that easy, why has it proved so difficult to solve since then? And is there someone else running who was out in front on interoperability before 9/11? And does the fact that interoperability didn’t get solved before 9/11 really mean that Giuliani did not ride herd on the bureaucracies beneath him to accomplish his objectives? Is Ramesh saying that lowering taxes, removing people from welfare, and dramatically reducing crime — not exactly priorities for the NYC bureaucracies of the 1980s — should be discounted because, on 9/11, NYPD and NYFD didn’t have radios that communicated with one another? Fair enough, I guess, but I wonder if any other GOP candidate is being held to that kind of standard.
OK, sure. It is true that Fred Thomson is not beig held to the same standard: then again, his culpability for the mush that passes for contemporary country music in Nashville doesn’t rather define his candidacy.
But someone will surely tell me if I am wrong to recall that Giuliani moved the New York City counter-terrorist emergency response bunker into the only building that had actually been attacked by terrorists before he had become mayor? That building? Oh, the World Trade Center…
But no: Rudy, not responsible for anything he did as Mayor r anything he might d in the future. Obvioulsy only an America-hating moron would have any qualms about his candidacy or fitness for office…
[I do give Rudy and Andy a sort of pass on the radio question: after all the British Army hasn’t had reliable communications in the field since we ceased using pigeons.]
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