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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (219451)	1/17/2002 1:49:18 PM
From: Thomas A Watson	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

Neo, on the humorous side. It seems the politician are dumb struck on the statue issue. Prominent Pols MIA in Flag Statue Face-Off Talk radio callers can't get enough of the topic and letters to the editor continue to pour in, but elected politicians have been strangely silent on the politically correct changes planned for the 9/11 statue tribute to the deed now known as the "Flag Raising at Ground Zero." Beginning on Monday NewsMax.com set out to get official reaction to the FDNY's decision to accept a whitewashed version of the famously inspirational photo, where the ethnicities of flag-raising firemen Dan McWilliams, Billy Eisengrein and George Johnson would be changed to please the racial bean counters. So what does newly elected New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have to say about the quota-ized statue? Well, not much. Nothing, in fact, though the statue story has been at the center of the post-9/11 period's most contentious debate for nearly a week. Aside from not volunteering any reaction on the flag-raising statue controversy, Bloomberg's press secretary declined to return two phone calls from NewsMax.com. Ditto for his new fire commissioner, Nicholas Scopatta, who has been as mute on the topic as his boss. How about New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who made a very public push this week to rewrite the rules of compensation for World Trade Center victims? She's been silent, too. Another two phone calls from NewsMax unreturned, plus a third to her hubby, Bill. And Clinton's New York colleague, Sen. Charles Schumer - who's famous for his ability to sniff out a television camera within a 50-mile radius? When it comes to the issue of the slighted firefighters, his nose for publicity has failed him. Suddenly Schumer's camera-shy. His office failed to return one phone call from NewsMax about the firefighters. It's worth remembering how anxious these suddenly silent pols were to associate themselves with rank and file firefighters in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, making repeated pilgrimages to Ground Zero to rub shoulders and shake hands with heroic fire and rescue squads as they searched for 343 of their dead colleagues. Surely Mayor Mike, Sens. Hill and Chuck and new Fire Commish Nick can't be worried about public opinion, which seems to be running approximately 99 to 1 in favor of the aggrieved firemen. On Wednesday the New York Daily News devoted most of its letters section to the topic but had to add this disclaimer on its editorial page: "We could have filled today's Voice of the People column with anti-statue letters. We wanted to present a balance of opinions - but balance wasn't possible." But despite overwhelming popular support for the firemen, the powers that be remain missing in action. "It almost seems like you don't know who made the decision [to change the statue]. It seems like people are shying away from it," FDNY's unofficial 9/11 spokesman, Mike Moran, told Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" Wednesday. (See: [18]FDNY's Mike Moran 'Infuriated' Over Statue Cover-up) The cowardice of New York's political class should be long remembered - along with the bravery of the 9/11 firefighters who they seem ready to sacrifice on the altar of political correctness newsmax.com tom watson tosiwmee