Check your six, Rudy

While "check your six" is primarily an established term in aviation, (meaning, look out behind you) somebody should probably tell Rudy Giuliani to check his six pronto. Since the moment Rudy entered the presidential race and began garnering huge poll numbers, I have been predicting on these pages that he would have a nasty swiftboating in his future. My crystal ball was a bit on the fritz though, as I had anticipated it coming from some far right wing, anti-abortion group. I never imagined it would come from the New York City 9/11 emergency relief workers. (Hat Tip to Jill from Brilliant at Breakfast.)

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.

Now, I live in New York and I really love the place. But it's long been a given that politics in the Empire State - particularly in the Big Apple - tends to leave a stain on anyone who gets involved. And Rudy has been steeping in it for decades. As Sridhar Pappu noted today in the Washington Post, quoting Faulkner, "The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past."

I could go on for a bit about how appropriate this is, given some of the skeletons hiding out in Rudy's closet, but I think Jill already said it best.

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.

Indeed.