The manufactured candidated

I've long been writing about the fallacy of Giuliani's "credibility" when it comes to terrorism -- his failure to learn from the mistakes during the first WTC attack in 1993, his refusal to fix the ruptured relations between the NYPD and NYFD, to the point where nobody was in charge in emergencies, the inability to get radios that worked despite numerous warnings, his decision to house his Office of Emergency Management in the bullseye of a high profile terrorist attack -- but even I didn't know this.

Hauer doesn't dispute that he eventually backed the 7 WTC location, but he clearly favored MetroTech. His memo said that MetroTech "could be available in six months," while it took four and a half more years to get the bunker up and running at 7 WTC. He said that MetroTech was secure and "not as visible a target as buildings in Lower Manhattan"— a prophetic comparison. Listing eight positives about MetroTech, the memo also mentioned negatives, but said they weren't insurmountable. "The real issue," Hauer concluded, "is whether or not the mayor wants to go across the river to manage an incident. If he is willing to do this, MetroTech is a good alternative." Notes from meetings indicate that Hauer continued to push MetroTech in the discussions with the mayor and his top deputy.

But Hauer says Denny Young, the mayor's alter ego, who has worked at his side for nearly three decades, eventually "made it very clear" that Giuliani wanted "to be able to walk to this facility quickly." That meant the bunker had to be in lower Manhattan. Since the City Hall area is below the floodplain, the command center—which was built with a hurricane-curtain wall—had to be above ground. The formal city document approving the site said that it "was selected due to its proximity to City Hall," a standard set by Giuliani and Giuliani alone.

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The 7 WTC site was the brainchild of Bill Diamond, a prominent Manhattan Republican that Giuliani had installed at the city agency handling rentals. When Diamond held a similar post in the Reagan administration a few years earlier, his office had selected the same building to house nine federal agencies. Diamond's GOP-wired broker steered Hauer to the building, which was owned by a major Giuliani donor and fundraiser. When Hauer signed onto it, he was locked in by the limitations Giuliani had imposed on the search and the sites Diamond offered him. The mayor was so personally focused on the siting and construction of the bunker that the city administrator who oversaw it testified in a subsequent lawsuit that "very senior officials," specifically including Giuliani, "were involved," which he said was a major difference between this and other projects. Giuliani's office had a humidor for cigars and mementos from City Hall, including a fire horn, police hats and fire hats, as well as monogrammed towels in his bathroom. His suite was bulletproofed and he visited it often, even on weekends, bringing his girlfriend Judi Nathan there long before the relationship surfaced. He had his own elevator. Great concern was expressed in writing that the platform in the press room had to be high enough to make sure his head was above the cameras. It's inconceivable that the hands-on mayor's fantasy command center was shaped—or sited—by anyone other than him.

A man cave. Or a playhouse (one that decidedly let in girls).

I read the Village Voice article with a sort of grim pleasure, once again reminded that nothing ever got in the way of Giuliani's massive ego and the utter fradulence of the "great leadership" on which his entire persona has been built.

But when I was finished reading, I realized that Giuliani is sure to be the Republican nominee. While the humidor, monogrammed towels, and the weekend trysts with "Judith" were juicy new details, the rest of Collins' and Barretts' bill of attainder have been identified in plenty of stories. The fact that likely Republican voters seem unfazed by them while the press seems to be gleefully ignoring them, instead citing Giuliani's "credibility" in "fighting terrorism, means that we're getting a replay of 2000, when a callow and deeply dishonest man was not so much nominated as crowned by the Republican party apparatus and its enablers in the press.

Add to that the notion that this pro-choice, pro-Gay rights, thrice-divorced...this Lothario with a comb-over...doesn't seem off-putting in the least to the "values voters" we hear so much about, means that the cynical process is already well underway.