THE INCOMPLETE RUDY

I see that Robert Greenwald, the filmmaker who brought us Iraq for Sale, Outfoxed, and other documentaries, has an anti-Giuliani Web site called The Real Rudy.

At the Huffington Post, Greenwald explains the inspiration for the current video offering at the Real Rudy (also at YouTube):

At a recent debate in Iowa, Rudy Giuliani was asked, "In 30 seconds, what is a defining mistake of your life and why?" He made a joke about how he couldn't possibly list all his mistakes in 30 seconds. Ha!

So we gave it a try....

Here's the list in Greenwald's video:

faulty radios for firefighters
looking bad in drag
"open and notorious adultery"
flip-flopping on abortion
estranged from children
emergency command center in #1 terror target
daughter backs Obama for president
annulled marriage to second cousin
Bernie Kerik
married three times

Er, no mention of police brutality on Giuliani's watch? No mention of the torture of Abner Louima or the deaths of Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond? No mention of Giuliani's reaction to these incidents?

Giuliani's response [to the shooting of Diallo] was callous. He refused to meet with black leaders for a month -- then again, he pretty much always refused to meet with black leaders. And he absolutely refused to reconsider his police department's policies....

In the outcry following Dorismond's death, Giuliani was snide and unapologetic. He released Dorismond's juvenile records to justify Dorismond's homicide eight years later. He also, famously, sneered that Dorismond was "no altar boy" and defended his comments with a breathlessly cynical legalism, saying it was impossible to libel the dead.

"The Dorismond case has focused dissatisfaction on the Mayor," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac College Polling Institute. "Ninety percent of New Yorkers know something about the case, and only 16 percent of New Yorkers approve of the Mayor's public response to this incident."

Rudy's treatment of Dorismond -- who had, in fact, been an altar boy -- was evidence of what had become Rudy's signature trait. He smashed ants with a hammer.

Righrt now we have an administration that brutalizes people without even bothering to turn up genuine evidence that they're acting outside the law, led by a snappish, empathy-challenged president who's unapologetic about those practices and won't listen to critics on that or any other subject -- and we're sick of that president. Yet strong evidence that we may be about to elect another guy just like the current guy is being disregarded by Greenwald and other Democrats.

In New York, these incidents (and Giuliani's response to them) eventually led to widespread revulsion among people of all races. But Greenwald won't mention them, presumably out of fear of being seen as being sympathetic to scary dark-skinned people like the ones suburban soccer moms and NASCAR dads always think are hiding under the bed.

I suspect this means that, if Giuliani becomes the GOP nominee, neither the official nor the semi-official Democratic campaign is going to dare to talk about these incidents, ever. Maybe that's based on a realistic assessment of the electorate in Middle America, but it frustrates me.

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Also, I don't like this mock "Gays for Giuliani" ad from Greenwald's site -- I guess you want to remind homophobes that Giuliani hasn't really been with the homophobe program, but is it necessary to be homophobic in the ad that makes this point?

)Cross-posted at Too Sense.)