Gary Hart: An Open Letter to Mayor Giuliani

[babylonsister]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-hart/an-open-letter-to-mayor-g_b_47140.html

04.28.2007
An Open Letter to Mayor Giuliani

Dear Mayor Giuliani:

Since you have based your presidential campaign almost exclusively on your reaction to terrorist attacks on New York City, and since you have recently accused Democrats of being on the defense against terrorism and therefore guilty of inviting more casualties, I have one question for you: Where were you on terrorism between January 31, 2001, and September 11th?

The first date was when the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century issued its final report warning, as did its previous reports, of the danger of terrorist attacks on America. The George W. Bush administration did nothing about these warnings and we lost 3,000 American lives. What did you do during those critical eight months? Where were you? Were you on the defensive, or were you even paying attention?

Before you qualify to criticize Democrats, Mr. Giuliani, you must account for your preparation of your city for these clearly predicted attacks. Tell us, please, what steps you took to make your city safer.

Until you do, then I strongly suggest you should keep your mouth shut about Democrats and terrorism.

You have not qualified to criticize others, let alone be president of the United States.

Gary Hart
(co-chair, U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century)

P.S. You might ask these same questions of George W. Bush while you are trying to find a better reason to run for president.

[Grandrose]

1. Righteous!!!

Thank you Mr. Hart for your continued service to the country and the party!:applause: :yourock: :kick:

[Hart2008]

2. Draft Hart!

:applause: :applause: :applause:

The Hart draft is coming!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce::bounce:

http://www.garyhartnews.com
http://www.rungaryhart.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3193854#3240251

:kick: HART 2008! :kick:

[Democrafty]

3. K & R n/t

[mloutre]

4. Big props to Hart for this one.

Don't hold back, Gary, tell us how you really feel.

[flyarm]

5. THANK YOU GARY HART!! THIS IS ONE FINE MAN!! EOM

[fedupinBushcountry]

6. Thanks Mr. Hart

for telling it like it is.

:yourock:

[globalvillage]

7. OMG, that is SWEET!!!

Gary Hart

:yourock:

[KurtNYC]

8. PLUS what Rudy did AFTER 9/11 was to reopen lower Manhattan

without consideration for what happens when people breathe in powderized glass, concrete and asbestos. No clean up, no testing, he just declared the area open for business again 4 days after the attacks.

[Cha]

29. And the New York City Firemen

are royally pissed at rudy.

"Rudy Giuliani takes more heat, this time from the bipartisan New York firefighters union which blasts his "egregious" treatment of them after 9/11.

In a letter to its members Friday, the International Association of Fire Fighters, excoriated Giuliani for his November 2001 decision to cut back the number of firefighters searching the rubble of Ground Zero for the remains of some 300 fallen comrades.

The 280,000-member union accused him of carelessly expediting the cleanup process with a "scoop-and-dump" operation after the recovery of millions of dollars in gold, silver and other assets from the Bank of Nova Scotia that had been buried.

"Scoop and Dump" Rudy, it kind of has a ring to it, doesn't it?"

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/3/9/18752/07816

"If Rudolph Giuliani was running on anything but 9/11, I would not speak out," said Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was among the 343 FDNY members killed in the terrorist attack. "If he ran on cleaning up Times Square, getting rid of squeegee men, lowering crime _ that's indisputable.

"But when he runs on 9/11, I want the American people to know he was part of the problem."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/30/AR2007033000190_pf.html

[ProSense]

9. Awesome! Hart is a man after my own

:loveya:

[DinahMoeHum]

10. January 31, 2001??? what about starting in January 1994???

The first attack on WTC was February 1993. What did Rudy do starting in 1994 to make things safer??

:evilfrown:

[democrat2thecore]

37. VERY good point!!!!! -nt

[blm]

11. EXACTLY - Bush AND Rudy ignored the Hart-Rudman Report on Global Terror

that was handed to Bush on Jan 30, 2001, and which any CONCERNED government official could access afterwards.

The FOCKING NYT and WashPost ignored the report, as well.

And THEY all attacked and blamed Democrats when 9-11 happened.

[indepat]

22. But all supporter/enablers, including most of the MSM, gave W & Rudy and all 'pukes a pass and to

this day don't seem curious in the least about the hows and whys of this monstrous failure/dereliction.

[progressivebydesign]

12. Right on! I have been touting his Report for years... and how Bush sat on it.

Cheney's office decided to shelve the report, and do the work themselves.. eventually. I honestly don't see what the Saint Rudy thing is all about... ANY MAYOR would have done the same damn thing if their town had been attacked. WTF did they expect him to do? Run and hide under his bed? (oh wait, that's what Bush did). I thought ALL the New York officials did a good job. I was impressed by Hillary Clinton, and the other Senators, etc. Giuliani didn't do squat before the attack.. and he treated his wife like shit. In my book, that's enough to disqualify him.

[pretzel4gore]

13. the 911 meal ticket

gooliani is a disgusting fool- he made new york citah as boring as peoria...

[BrklynLiberal]

14. There should be A LOT more discussion of exactly what it was that Rudy did to be called a hero.

I live in NYC, and Rudy was at the lowest approval ratings ever. If it wasn't for 9/11 no one would have ever heard from him again after the end of his term.
After the 1993 attack on the WTC-which was during RUDY'S time as Mayor!- absolutely nothing was done to actually secure the city against further attack. No steps were taken to improve conditions, should anything happen in NYC in the future.
The breakdown in communications between NYPD and FDNY were totally his fault!
The fact is that his ego, and doing a favor for a bigtime fundraising buddy, are responsible for having the Emergency Control Center in the WTC-THE SITE OF A PREVIOUS ATTACK- rather than across the river in Brooklyn. If it had been further from the WTC, the continuing of successful communication and control could have saved many lives.

This man is no hero to anyone who lives or lived in NYC before, during or after 9/11~~

[lildreamer316]

15. SMACK!

Ow. That had to hurt......

[Island Blue]

16. Ouch.

That's gonna leave a mark.

Thank you Gary - brilliant letter!

[saltpoint]

17. Great post, and a great letter by Hart to Rudy Giuliani.

It hits the key points with a lot of force, because Hart's work was the work ignored. Not just by Giuliani, but Hart is right to slam Rudy because Rudy is using "terra terra terra" against us.

Increasingly I'm thinking that Gary Hart might be interested in a role in the 2008 campaign.

[babylonsister]

19. Is America ready to forgive and forget? I've liked him

every time I've seen him or read things he writes. I guess, if conservatives can 'forgive and forget' Rudy, it shouldn't be a problem!

[saltpoint]

20. Very good point on Giuliani. And maybe Gingrinch, too. The GOP

is running some really interesting folks these days.

Hart's got that good mind. I'm going to keep an eye out for him to maybe jump in.

[democrat2thecore]

18. Gary Hart: America's next Secretary of Defense or Homeland Security!

Awesome. Hart is sorely needed back in the political/government arena.

[Norrin Radd]

21. Succinct and firm. I like it. n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

23. Gary Hart:: everything Bill never was and a penis problem too.

Gary would have been a great president.

[Hart2008]

26. Really? Gary and Lee Hart have been married for 50 years.

He is now 70 years old, and to date to a single woman has accused him of sexual impropriety, i.e. no sexual harassment complaints, no rape complaints, etc. Comparing Hart to Clinton is very wrong. In Hart’s case, the MSM was unable to counter Hart’s ideas, so they resorted to character assassination. Unable to find any woman willing to go on the record to support the charge that Hart was a “womanizer, they decided to “out” women suspected of involvement with him. Unlike the parade of women making allegations against Bill Clinton, no woman ever accused Gary Hart of anything similar.

The hypocrisy of the story is that it was common knowledge in D. C. that then Vice-President Bush had been carrying on an affair with his secretary for over a decade:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Fitzgerald#Vice_presidency
(I think when the Secret Service interfered with the Fire Department to sneak Bush out of his mistress’s burning building in order to protect his secret that it deserved to be published.)

Really the whole Bush dynasty began 20 years ago with the MSM campaign against Gary Hart. Bush the elder was masterminding the Iran-Contra affair as VP and it was the real scandal of the day. Some parts of that scandal have never been fully investigated. The Iran-Contra network had roots in Miami, but the Miami Herald, to the best of my knowledge, never found anything about it. Instead they sent 3 reporters to stake out the man most likely to bring Bush the elder to justice. Even Richard Nixon said they were out of line. How tragic that more people in our own party remained silent, and that is where you need to start to understand the last 20 years.

I think you should say, "Hart will make a great President."
;)

http://www.garyhartnews.com
http://www.rungaryhart.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3193854

:kick: HART 2008! :kick:

[Warren Stupidity]

27. I like Hart and would support him running again.

But yes he did have a penis problem. That does not mean that he abused women, it means that he self destructed his own campaign by having an affair, and eventually a very public affair. Right or wrong, hypocrisy or not, that is what happened. I'd rather we were a more mature society that did not fall for this sort of crap, that a married man having an affair was considered his own business even if he was running for president, but we don't.

[Hart2008]

32. Thank you for your endorsement!

I don’t think many people will care about what happened 20 years ago. I know Hart himself is done talking about it.

Can you name one woman who claims to have had sex with Gary Hart while he was married?

Despite all of the rumors, the only woman will admit to this is his wife!
(Donna Rice never made such a claim.)

One of the things that we are doing on the draft site is to offer our explanation of what happened in ’87-88 and why Hart was blacklisted from the MSM until after 9-11.

I would say that it wasn’t a secret that the Harts had some marital problems. They separated twice. Lee Hart never complained. In fact she took much of the blame for problems in their marriage herself:
“Lee Hart, a warm and feisty woman, defends her husband. She says the rumors are ''not worth dealing with'' and that reports about the difficulties in their marriage tend to place too much blame on her husband. There were, she says, ''things I would initially want to blame on Gary, but ultimately would have to realize that I was the one.''
May 3, 1987
GARY HART THE ELUSIVE FRONT-RUNNER
By E.J. DIONNE JR.; CHIEF NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE NEW YORK TIMES.

Hart self-destructed? There is more to the story than met the eye.
People who have written about the ’87 campaign don’t share your opinion. One author wrote that the campaign was sabotaged. I don’t know anyone from the inner circle who disagrees with that assessment. The stakes in ’88 were high. If Bush lost he could go to jail for masterminding Iran-Contra. We feel he was set up and the full story has never really been told. We intend to give our side on the draft site, and then be done talking about. (Journalism students and teachers may find our information of interest.)

I really don’t think that the generation that has come in the last 20 years and went through the Clinton scandals will understand what was so scandalous about Hart.
There is no semen stained dress.
There is no sexual harassment complaint.
There are no State Troopers
There are no drugs or prostitutes.
The black community in Denver never claimed Hart had a mulatto love child.
In fact, no woman ever claimed to have had sex with him!

Where was the scandal?

The Miami Herald did not end Hart’s campaign in ’87. That story he could have survived, because it was not accurate. Donna Rice did not spend the night at his Washington townhouse. Really it was the Washington Post. The Post blackmailed him with reporting on his activities while he was separated from his wife and “outing” another woman, who was a private citizen. That made him leave to protect her reputation and they killed the story. Most people don’t know that. Hart was always a gentleman.

http://www.garyhartnews.com
http://www.rungaryhart.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3193854

:kick: HART 2008! :kick:

[CGowen]

24. What happend to the New World Order?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_FOlHuCXnk

[Hart2008]

25. There is no love between Hart and the Bushes, if that is what you are implying.

During Bush the elder's confirmation hearing as CIA director, Hart brought out that Bush had been a CIA asset in Miami at the time of the Kennedy assassination. Bush tried to say it was another George Bush, but it didn’t check out. Hart voted against his confirmation as CIA director. Hart also opposed aid to the Contras in the Senate. The Iran-Contra affair resulted when then Vice-President Bush organized the unlawful arms sales to Iran and the contras. Had Hart not been attacked at the start of his ’87 campaign in an unprecedented way, Bush, the elder, could have faced criminal charges for his role in the Iran-Conra affair, since Hart was favored to beat Bush.

You are correct that Hart predicted the terrorist attacks, but was ignored in most of the US MSM. Hart’s prediction of a terrorist attack on September 6, 2001 was reported in screaming headlines in Toronto, “Hart predicts terrorist attack”, but not in the U.S. Hart had largely disappeared from U.S. MSM news until after 9-11, and had been on a media blacklist.

http://www.garyhartnews.com
http://www.rungaryhart.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3193854

:kick: HART 2008! :kick:

[EVDebs]

28. Ptech STILL has access to WH, FAA, military computer systems

Notable clientele

Ptech's roster of clients included several governmental agencies, including the United States Armed Forces, NATO, Congress, the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Customs, the FAA, the IRS, the Secret Service, and the White House. Despite the company's connections to terrorism, as of May 2004 they were still contracted by several federal agencies, including the White House.

Ptech had a security clearance to work on sensitive military projects dating to 1997.<4>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptech

Maybe there was a reason Clinton's national security adviser Clarke wanted to have meetings URGENTLY re al Qaida during the transition period, eh ?

BTW, anyone wondering about DOJ and WH computer emails ? Ptech's UML software involvement ? Possibility of overseas 'compromised' intelligence via a foreign controlled outsourcing ? If the Bush administration isn't corrupt beyond a shadow of a doubt it is incompetent.

[democrat2thecore]

30. Except -- Gary doesn't want to - (GREAT quote inside)

From an interview on Democracy Now! on Tuesday, March 28th, 2006
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/28/1431259

AMY GOODMAN: Are you planning to run? (For president in 2008)

GARY HART: Oh, of course, not. No, no, no, no, no. Too old and too poor. No, the costs of campaigns. I mean, talk about scandals. The way we finance our politics is massively corrupt.

(Great quote by Hart, btw)

[Hart2008]

31. Not planning to run in March does not equal he doesn’t want to run. ;)

Does his last post on HuffingtonPost sound like he isn’t running?

I have been in his camp for a very long time. Previously he has let us know when we should look for another candidate. So far his statements are like Gore’s and Clarke’s, “No present intention”, but not “I won’t run.” Until we hear a firm “I’m out”, we are preparing for him should he opt in. He knows the “rungaryhart.com” website is being built and hasn’t told us to stop and the people behind it are long time Hartistas close to him. Really with the hostility he attracts from the MSM, waiting until after the summer to announce anything makes sense.

If the political landscape does not change between now and when his book comes out criticizing several candidates by name, his plans may change. In fact we expect them to change. If enough people ask him to run, we believe he will enter the race late, like his hero RFK. Really there are many people here looking for another candidate to enter this race. Why not Gary Hart? No one else addresses the issues they way Hart does. No one else has his authority on defending the homeland and national defense policy. He has a policy on these things. He does more than just react to situations.

Hart has never been a prodigious fundraiser it is true. We believe Howard Dean showed how to use the Internet to raise a lot of money quickly. Combine Howard Dean’s anti-war message with Hart’s resume and experience and we create an 800 pound gorilla of a candidate. Hart went on record opposing the war on September 11, 2002: http://www.garyhartnews.com/hart/writings/columns/columns/columns_09_11_2002.php

I did meet with him a while back and he asked if he was too old to run for President. I responded, “If Reagan wasn’t too old, how could you be?” He laughed heartily saying, “They’re going to compare me to Reagan.” He is still far more intelligent than Reagan ever was, and with his age comes wisdom. By comparison, he is younger than both McCain and Gravel, and in better humor than either.

“I don't know why my party isn't doing its job. I don't know why. It drives me mad. I have a book out in September called The Courage of our Convictions," which addresses this question: what's wrong with the Democrats? And I name names.
…
AMY GOODMAN: And who, in particular?
GARY HART: Well, I mention Senator Clinton, I mention Senator Biden, I mention Senator Lieberman, and others. “

As you can tell from the interview, he is philosophically very different than Hillary or Biden on the war and foreign policy. I can’t speak for Hart himself but there are hard feelings in the Hart camp towards the Clintons for what happened in ’87-88 and the failure to offer Hart a cabinet position. ( I don’t want to go into details here, but Hart introduced the Clintons to national politics as McGovern’s campaign manager in ‘72.) It is extremely unlikely that Hart would serve in any hypothetical Clinton administration. If no candidate is capable of challenging the Iraq and Iran policies forcefully enough, he is very capable of entering the field, jumping in like RFK. Like Mike Gravel, he is very angry about our present imperial foreign policy. If we can give him a forum to be heard, we feel he will take it and use it to run. That opinion comes from those who have been with him a very long time.

The draft site, “rungaryhart.com” should be up by the end of May.

http://www.garyhartnews.com
http://www.rungaryhart.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3193854

:kick: HART 2008! :kick:

[democrat2thecore]

34. Don't get me wrong - I LIKE GARY!

I want him to run. I really do. But you seem to be the only person thinking he will. That Huffington Post article, as good as it was, doesn't mean he's running. He's been writing great pieces for various pubs for years. And, to be brutally honest, a website, "by the end of May?" That's an eternity in politics. There's no reason a good-looking, functional draft site couldn't be up in 48 hours. Just being honest. But again, I love Gary Hart and would be very happy to see him get in the race!

edit to correct typo

[Hart2008]

35. “Eye of the Tiger”

Well hopefully the draft site will be up sooner.

Yes, I was expecting the website could be up sooner. For any other candidate you would be correct in your time frame. With Gary Hart and his history, we need to set the record straight and explain to younger voters why he has been out of the spotlight for so long. The website will be the one chance we have to tell a story that really was never told. We need to get it right from the start. We are also working on some video that most people have never seen. I expect it will be worth the wait.

Yes, Hart has written many good pieces in recent years, but I think the latest HuffPost was different. There is an aggressiveness to it that I haven’t seen for a long time, the “Eye of the Tiger”. That is a good sign!
;)

http://www.garyhartnews.com
http://www.rungaryhart.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3193854

:kick: HART 2008! :kick:

[democrat2thecore]

36. I met Hart in 1994

I had lunch with Gary Hart in 1994 at a hotel restaurant in Denver. We were discussing things other than politics, but I had to mention my admiration, having read his books, etc. He said something interesting when I asked him about his future; he said, "I hate politics." He went on to explain that he hates the campaigning, the fundraising, the horse race mentality of the media and all that goes with "politics." But, he said he loves "the national debate and public policy." Unless you are selected as a cabinet member, elective office is about the only way to go. Back then, he said he might consider it again, but the thought of another campaign made him cringe. That wasn't too long after the '88 debacle, so maybe things have changed. If he wants to be president - this is his last chance. Age has a way of catching up with all of us. But he's sharp as a tack now and would make a great president - no question about it.

[Hart2008]

38. Hart is always thinking about policy.

His proposals are his own. They never come from some special interests. Last time he ran, even George Will gave him compliments on his campaign themes. He has the ability to out think his opposition. When he is heard on the issues, he usually wins.

In ’88 it wasn’t just Hart’s campaign, but that entire campaign was a debacle that set a new low in national politics. We are still suffering from what was started in ’88.
What happened to the “peace dividend” for ending the Cold War?
It has gone to Iraq!

I remember what Hart said when he withdrew in ’87 in the midst of all of the controversy. He feared we would get the kind of leaders we deserved. Sadly, he was right about that too.

Oh, and check your inbox!
;)

http://www.garyhartnews.com
http://www.rungaryhart.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3193854
:kick: HART 2008! :kick:

[underpants]

33. Oh hohoho (belly laugh)

Mouth shut. Good advice for Rudy.