You Knew This Was Coming : Dispatches from the Culture Wars

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Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science and co-founder of The Panda's Thumb. He has written for such publications as The Bard, Skeptic and Reports of the National Center for Science Education, spoken in front of many organizations and conferences, and appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows and on C-SPAN. Ed is also a Fellow with the Center for Independent Media and the host of Declaring Independence, a one hour weekly political talk show on WPRR in Grand Rapids, Michigan.(static)

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You Knew This Was Coming

Posted on: January 10, 2008 8:34 PM, by Ed Brayton

Asked to comment on Hillary's tears, you knew what Rudy Giuliani was going to say, right?

The reality is, if you look at me, September 11 -- the funerals, the memorial services -- there were times in which it was impossible not to feel the emotion.

He really has become a walking parody of himself.

Comments

I am not a Rudy fan, but I think the 9/11 reference in this quote isn't so bad. He's basically saying that crying isn't necessarily a sign of weakness or wimpiness on a person's part, that the act is sometimes understandable and even expected. In my opinion, that's a perfectly respectable position to have. If he hadn't brought up that terrible day so many othe times, I doubt many people would see Rudy bringing up 9/11 in this particular instance as something worth criticizing or mocking.

Posted by: daniel rotter | January 10, 2008 9:51 PM

Any one reference isn't so crazy. But the sheer volume just makes any further entry into the cannon of Giuliani 9/11 references that much more bizarre.

Posted by: Bad | January 10, 2008 10:27 PM

Excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom. I never told anyone this, but on 9/11, I had to stop rescuing New York for five whole minutes to go to the bathroom. And later that day, 9/11, again!

Posted by: decrepitoldfool | January 10, 2008 10:30 PM

Daniel is right, I think, but so is Bad.

Even if I didn't find fault with Rudy Giuliani otherwise, I would have a problem with electing to office a person whose vocabulary seems to consist mostly of variations on "9/11."

Posted by: Kevin L. | January 10, 2008 11:27 PM

At the next debate, I hope someone asks Rudy what his favorite Public Enemy song is.

Posted by: Mister DNA | January 10, 2008 11:39 PM

I have begun to view Guliani as a Denny Crane-like figure, only much less amusing. I can imagine him walking through the halls of a court hallway saying nothing but "9-11" over and over again.

Posted by: James | January 11, 2008 2:41 AM

Can't resist spamming with two quotes:

"While what he just said doesn't seem to make any sense whatsoever with regard to the events of Sept. 11, it does speak to the tragedy that is '9/11 Tourette's.' Won't you, 9/11, help us 9/11? Because 9/11 is a terrible 9/11 to 9/11."
-Jon Stewart

"Rudy Giuliani ... now leads Senator McCain in the latest polls by 22 points. 22. Or, as Giuliani himself might phrase it, 'Twice the number of points as the day of the month on which the World Trade Center was attacked while I was mayor. Did I mention I was mayor ... when the world was attacked ... on 9/11?'"
-Jon Stewart

Posted by: Paholaisen Asianajaja | January 11, 2008 6:09 AM

At least as funny as the 9/11 comment is the way he seems unsure of himself "there were times in which it was impossible not to feel the emotion." It's like he's implying that he usually tries very hard not to feel anything, but can't help being human sometimes.

Posted by: squicks | January 11, 2008 9:19 AM

At the next debate, I hope someone asks Rudy what his favorite Public Enemy song is.

BWwwwHAHAHAA!!

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | January 11, 2008 9:32 AM

Another +1 for Mister DNA! Thanks for that.

Posted by: itchy | January 11, 2008 9:38 AM

Keith Olbermann on MSNBC last night took a Florida Giuliani ad, which used images of all the TV news anchors and pundits to decry the current campaign coverage and talk about the need for leadership (apparently only St. Rudy of 9/11, as Olbermann calls him, can provide that), and re-edited it to include several dozen Giuliani 9/11 references. I hope it's on YouTube because it was frickin' hysterical.

Posted by: CPT_Doom | January 11, 2008 11:54 AM

CPT, it's probably on the Countdown site at msnbc.com.

Posted by: Pieter B | January 11, 2008 4:33 PM

I'm not so sure anymore that Rudy's actually running for the presidency. I think he's just engaging in absurdist performance art. And it's brilliant.

Posted by: James Hanley | January 11, 2008 6:49 PM