Y'know, it seems appropriate to post this today. From THE NEW YORK TIMES:

Some Balk at Giuliani Role in 9/11 Ceremony

Each year since Sept. 11, 2001, Rudolph W. Giuliani has spoken at New York City’s commemorations of the attacks. At past ceremonies he has read off the names of some of the dead, given readings by Lincoln and Churchill, and recited poetry.

This year Mr. Giuliani is no longer just the former mayor who led New York in the wake of the attacks, but a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. So when the city announced that Mr. Giuliani would speak next month at the sixth anniversary of the attacks, some relatives of people who died on Sept. 11 said they were dismayed, some because they feared his presence might inject politics into the event and others because they had been critical of him in the past.

“I think it’s disgraceful that he’s going to be there,” said James Riches, a deputy fire chief who lost his son Jimmy in the attacks, and who said that he faulted Mr. Giuliani as not giving firefighters the proper equipment before or after the attacks. “It’s a photo-op for him.”

Anthony V. Carbonetti, a senior adviser to the Giuliani campaign, said that Mr. Giuliani was invited to attend the ceremony by the Bloomberg administration and that he would do so, as he has every year.

“This is something that is not unusual,” Mr. Carbonetti said. “He’s down there to pay his respects. He did, I did, we all did lose many friends, and as mayor he not only lost personal friends, he lost people who put their lives in harm’s way for his city. It’s his duty to be down there.”

The politics of Sept. 11 are complicated. Some firefighters have faulted the mayor for communications problems at the World Trade Center; some parents and widows have agitated for a greater role in designing the memorial; some first responders criticize the city as doing too little to protect them from dangerous pollutants.

Sally Regenhard, whose son, Christian, a probationary firefighter, was killed in the World Trade Center attack, said of the invitation: “I’m still very shocked and I’m very, very upset, for two reasons. Number one, the majority of firefighters and their families have made it clear how they feel about Mayor Giuliani. The second reason is that it’s totally unorthodox to have someone running for major elected office in the United States to have a forum.”

But Mr. Giuliani, who attended scores of funerals after the attacks, also has his supporters among relatives of the victims. Lee Ielpi, a retired firefighter who lost his son on Sept. 11 and is now supporting the Giuliani campaign, said in an e-mail message last night that Mr. Giuliani’s appearances at the commemorations are “critical to both the healing process and helping all to remember the courage, bravery and sacrifices made on that day.”

At least one other presidential candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is New York’s junior senator, will attend the ceremony this year, as she has every year except 2004, when her husband was recovering from heart surgery. In 2002, Mrs. Clinton read some of the names of the dead, but because the city now limits speakers to mayors of New York and governors of New York and New Jersey, Mrs. Clinton was not asked to speak this year.

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Pardon me, but on behalf of all REAL, Non-Whoremongering New Yorkers: FUCK RUDY!!!!!

What's the definition of a real new yorker? That sounds a lot like when the christian right wing claims that REAL americans are supposed to be jesus freaks.

Wait a minute...let me get this straight. You're from New York and you don't like Rudy?

Sacrilege!

Where do you stand on hookers?

He was the Mayor during and after the attacks- he helped to hold the city together- i cannot think of a valid reason why he shouldn't be there unless the families only want families of victims and no one else.

Hookers? They're kind of like chocolate: They're fine once in a while, for a treat. But you don't want a steady diet of them. That's how you get sick and

But Rudy was against them all together. Look what he did to Times Square.

Bottom line, though, besides being a phoney, jackbooted bastard, he's a presidential candidate. It's a different role. Hillary isn't speaking. Neither should he.

I figured the correct response was "on their necks"

Warpy old pal, you never lived under the Thug's regime. I hated him long before 9/11.

And those families you mention represent the overwhelming majority of the families of the nearly 400 firefighters who died that day. Seriously, ask any firefighter what they think of him. You will never hear such a string of profanity again in your life.

This is party politics-driven bullshit from the Firefighter's Union that's been going on since the day he was elected. New York's a one-party town. The unions just can't deal when they have to negotiate with a politician who is not already in their back pocket. As far as NYC politics go, I'll take Rudy the thug over the thug David Dinkins ANY DAY.

I don't like Rudy either- I won't be voting for him BUT he did do alright during 9/11 and should be there.