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Last year, at the funeral for a firefighter who had spent much time at Ground Zero (he died of complications from several lung diseases striking him quickly and together) I was more than amazed at what I heard as part of the eulogies. A high-ranking fire officer said that he was not trying to politicize the funeral, but he wanted everyone in the church to know that Sen. Hillary Clinton was one of the few people in Washington who were actually doing something to help the firefighters and other rescue workers who were developing lung and heart diseases after their work on the site. He went ton to say that, in the coming elections, many politicians would be trying to build their reputations on the deaths of 9-11, and he wanted us all to know that there was one person who had actually done something other than take a photo-op.
Not what I was expecting to hear... but what I was glad was being told. It was after the funeral, talking with some of Tom's friends that I realized how much the firefighters despised Rudy, blaming him for the radios that didn't work, for rushing the search for the remains of the dead and having them dumped into a landfill, and for "standing on the shoulders of the dead".
