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Giuliani's 9/11 Posturing Leaves Workers In The Dust

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By GAIL COLLINS

Published: September 11, 2007

Rudy Giuliani is going to be at ground zero today, taking part in ceremonies to remember the victims of Sept. 11. That was inevitable - the man has so identified himself with 9/11 that it's amazing he hasn't tried to patent it.

It's also a terrible idea.

After the attacks, Giuliani did his best work in front of a microphone, speaking simply and honestly to the city and the nation. Ground zero, however, is the site of his worst failure.

That's saying a great deal when you consider that this is the man whose crack plan for disaster response involved building the city emergency command center in one of the towers of the best-known terrorist targets in the nation.

But think about this: In the final months of his mayoralty, Giuliani went to ground zero 41 times, with whatever visiting statesman, movie star or sports hero who happened to be in town. He would walk them around the edge of the disaster zone and retell the story of 9/11.

They could see ironworkers and crane operators dismantling the ruins and emergency workers looking for remains of the victims. Beneath those workers, the still-burning wreckage coughed up benzene and PCBs and asbestos. The city had received many reports about the danger of that air. Looking down, Giuliani could see that very few people - except the health supervisors - were wearing protective gear. And he did nothing about it.

Workers exposed to toxic air can be protected by respirators. They're uncomfortable and heavy, and people don't like to wear them, even when it's important to their health and safety. So the person in charge of a dangerous site needs to make it clear that only those with proper equipment can come anywhere near it.

That's what happened in Washington at the Pentagon, where there haven't been health problems. Over in Staten Island, where workers were examining rubble that the ground zero crews had excavated and loaded onto trucks, people were so well-protected that some of them looked like bit players in a space movie.

At ground zero, the priority was getting the site cleared as quickly as possible to show the world that New York was back to normal. The workers were left on their own. This happened on the watch of a mayor who had been eager to save us from our own imperfect impulses by bringing down the heavy hand of the law on every jaywalker, Chinese New Year firecracker-thrower or ferret owner in the city, not to mention the famous squeegee wielders.

He has never acknowledged it might have been better if he had focused less on getting the disaster site cleared away fast, and more on getting all the workers out in one piece. Recently, he had the temerity to claim he's a victim, too. 'I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them,' he said last month during a campaign stop in Cincinnati.

Questioned later, Giuliani copped to the universal politician non-apology - a failure to communicate. Then he added, 'But I was there often enough so that every health consequence that people have suffered, I could also be suffering.'

It was, you see, all about him.

Gail Collins is a columnist with the New York Times.

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