Quote of the Day

"TV made him a hero, and we'll use TV to take him down" - New York City fire chief Jim Riches

Looks like the FDNY has had quite enough, thank you very much, of Rudy Giuliani trying to climb into the Oval Office on their shoulders:

A group of 9/11 firefighters and victims' family members with eyes on derailing Republican Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign is close to a decision on forming an entity that would run issue ads in key early nominating states.

"TV made him a hero, and we'll use TV to take him down," New York Fire Chief Jim Riches told ABC News.

The final decision about the formation of an outside entity will happen sometime within the next few weeks after the group finalizes its plans at a meeting scheduled for after Thanksgiving. So far, though, under Riches' leadership, the group has sought legal guidance and help from political consultants.

If the group decides to move forward, it would set up a 527 committee -- or something similar to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which in 2004 helped sink Democratic Sen. John Kerry's White House bid.

This Monday, the firefighters and family members are holding a meeting at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire hoping to spread the word about what they say is Giuliani's "egregious" use of 9/11 for political gain.

The group also is considering additional trips to early presidential primary states Iowa, Florida and South Carolina.

Riches, who lost his firefighter son Jimmy in the World Trade Center's north tower, said, "We don't want him running on 9/11 or the bodies of all these dead people or my dead son saying that he did a great job that day."

Actually, that's pretty shitty journalism -- equating the lies told by the Swiftboaters with the FACTS to be presented by the FDNY. But that's the world we live in, where a lie told often enough becomes truth, whereas the truth if not told by wingnuts is regarded as lies. But of course we've come to expect that sort of thing from ABC.

The issue about the radios is real and is documented. And until Rudy Giuliani set himself up as the Saint of 9/11, the Tough Guy Who Knows All About Terrorism, and started lying about having been obsessed with terrorism for decades when he told the 9/11 Commission under oath that he really hadn't thought about it, it's unlikely that anyone would have made the radios an issue. But if Rudy is going to run on 9/11, then let's let him run on ALL of 9/11.