Kiss of death

Seeing Rudy Giuliani waltz through your fire station wasn’t a happy occasion seven years ago. Sometimes it meant a pair of planes did a kamikaze dive into the towering high-rise overhead. Other times it meant half your fire company was dead or missing after the aforementioned high-rise collapsed.

Then it all changed for some reason. The former New York City mayor became synonymous with household jingoes like These Colors Don’t Run, God Bless America, and Remember 9-11. Suddenly, Giuliani couldn’t set his feet on the ground without someone offering to toss a red carpet or rose petals beneath them.

And then it changed again. As the nationalistic fervor died down, it became clear that Giuliani wasn’t going to supplant anyone from the Bush Administration, nor would he have the backing of his party for a run after W’s pending retirement. Though he would later limp through an impotent run in the primaries in 2008, it was clear way earlier on that his best days in politics were basically buried with the rubble of Tower One and Tower Two.

All this hasn’t stop the bumbling New York GOP from trotting Giuliani out anytime they figured a close race was at hand. Most notably was the race for the 20th Congressional District in 2006. Incumbent John Sweeney was facing the ride of his life after six years of sleazing through congress unabated. Suddenly, the district’s electorate awoke to realize the fellow they had in Washington was nothing more than a strong-arm thug that had drank his way to the top and jumped in the sack with every lobbyist along the way.

But the Republicans figured Sweeney could get a bump from Giuliani. They figured district voters would still vividly recall the images of the soot-covered mayor leading crowds of terrified people through the smoke-filled streets of Manhattan. They figured his shimmering status as America’s mayor would add a sheen to Sweeney’s lackluster campaign.

They figured wrong. In fact, Giuliani’s appearance in a Saratoga Springs Fire Station was enough to spur a city Ethics Board investigation. The theory was the station itself was a public building and not intended for political stumping, which is exactly what Giuliani and Sweeney used it for. The board reached the decision that found Giuliani’s appearance was a violation and resulted in disciplinary action against the fire department.

“Officers or employees shall not make use of a city workplace to request, or authorize another to use a city workplace to request that any officer or employee participate in an election campaign, political event, or contribute to a political party or committee,” the ruling stated. “Officers or employees shall not display, distribute or otherwise utilize election campaign literature or materials at a city workplace.”

And we all know how well Sweeney’s campaign turned out. But apparently, this is all ancient history for Sandy Treadwell, who is trying to mop up the pieces left in the wake of the Sweeney Tsunami that washed the Republicans out of a badly gerrymandered GOP-dominated district.

Treadwell, the independently wealthy trust-fund son of a General Electric magnate, was obviously too obsessed with spending through his millions when he decided to ignore the foreboding signs Giuliani offered his predecessor. Instead, he appeared alongside the former mayor at two fire stations Wednesday, brazenly riding Giuliani’s badly tattered coattails from the post-September 11th era.

“My first year, Mayor Bloomberg was elected. And Governor Pataki was elected for the third time,” Treadwell told the Saratogian. “Now I'm the candidate.”

So let’s recap: Treadwell helped elect a mayor who openly shunned his party several years later, re-elected the governor who presided over a one of the most corrupt administrations that personally contributed to the ballooning state debt and is appearing on stage with another New York mayor who was too obsessed with his own contracting business to launch any semblance of a political career outside of shouting ‘nine-eleven’ in crowded fire halls. Now that’s the type of winner you can vote for!

But let’s give Treadwell a bit of credit where credit is due. At least he’s admitting to his abject failure as the state Republican’s number-one booster, albeit in a rosy way that’s sort of like saying that the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima saved lives. However, the fact that he’s out-of-touch enough to think a hack like Giuliani can push ahead the campaign of a hack like himself is unnerving to say the least. Voters should take this message to the polls with them and realize that every Enola Gay needs at least one bombardier.