The New York Times-20080125-Two Sides of Giuliani
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Two Sides of Giuliani
Rudolph W. Giuliani's presidential bid has been built on an image of him as the hero of Sept. 11. The International Association of Fire Fighters, however, is spending several hundred thousand dollars to debunk that image and has begun confronting Mr. Giuliani in Florida wherever he campaigns.
In Orlando, the families of firefighters killed on Sept. 11 rallied last week, propping up a 16-foot inflatable rat meant to represent Mr. Giuliani. In Bradenton, the group left anti-Giuliani fliers on cars parked at a campaign stop. And in Miami, it so pressured a local union that it hid its numbers on a truck that Mr. Giuliani rode on at a parade.
The union also sent a mailing to 178,000 Floridians -- mainly Republican women ages 40 to 80 -- asserting that 121 firemen were dead because Mr. Giuliani's lack of preparation for a terrorist attack had left the New York Fire Department with antiquated radios.
We will be dogging him wherever he goes, said Harold Schaitberger, the union president.
The Giuliani campaign is hardly backing down. A Web advertisement features Mr. Giuliani wearing an F.D.N.Y. baseball cap as an announcer calls him tested in crisis.
The campaign has also countered with a statement from Larry Peterson, the campaign's firefighter chairman and a Jacksonville division fire chief. Firefighters from across the country, Mr. Peterson said, are supporting Rudy Giuliani for all the things he has done to advocate for firemen and first responders.
LESLIE WAYNE
