Another Lefty Double-Standard...

Lefties Blame Giuliani For 9/11 Rescuer Lung Problems
NYT (Who else?)

As more and more workers who inhaled the dust at ground zero fall ill, it has become increasingly clear that much of the problem can be traced to the Giuliani administration’s failure to insist that all emergency personnel and construction workers at the site wear respirators.

The then-mayor and his agency heads put their emphasis on a speedy cleanup and return to normalcy. In that, they were remarkably successful, clearing the site in less than 10 months. Unfortunately, the price is now being paid by thousands of workers who have developed lung and other ailments.

The evolution of this tragedy was described by Anthony DePalma in The Times and other analysts. In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the twin towers, it was understandable that emergency workers would rush in in hopes of rescuing victims, and hang the precautions. But as rescue operations turned into a search for remains and then debris-removal, workers continued to ignore warnings from both city and federal officials that respirators should be worn at the site.

There was some understandable delay rounding up enough of the recommended respirators. But there was no excuse for a lag in fitting the respirators to individual faces and training the workers to use them. The more fundamental problem was that many workers hate to wear respirators because they can be uncomfortable and inhibit talking. There was also a certain macho disdain, especially when authorities were putting out mixed messages about the safety of downtown air.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/opinion/22tue1.html?hp

You can't hold him responsible when the workers themselves chose not to wear protection. How much more self-explanatory does the sign need to be? This is just one more nefarious attempt by the Lefties to smear a candidate that's rising just a leetle too high in the polls. Ms. Sir-Edmund Hillary was elected to the Senate to represent NY nearly a YEAR before 9/11--what was SHE doing about this issue when Sept. 11, 2001 rolled around?

It seems that the Dems want to hold local officials, like Rudy, responsible for city catastrophes, but not Nagin for the situation in New Orleans. Hmmmm... bit of a double-standard there, Demmies... as usual.