Mike, I'm not sure about Giulliani fatique setting in before 9/11. I'm not sure that Rudy was the be all and end all public figure head thrust in the eye of the crisis, and that no other politician or civic leader was equal to Rudy's task. There are a lot of smart people out there, and Bloomberg isn't a chimp himself. All credit to Rudy for doing a great job, in his lame duck and extended time as NY Mayor at that time. But, there were many competent people who made up the staff of that spear and were invaluable to the executive leading the effort. People of all ilk and beliefs pulled together, nearly without exception, as it should be.
I know that our local and cheesehead state politics may not be on the tip of your tongue. But, the reverse will never be true of how we provincials are more than willing to follow and opine on NYC and region politics. You are the epicenter of the world's attention there, for better or worse. So, we country mice will put in our two cents, no matter what. It will in fact be just about all we have to watch for news for many days to come. So, if you'd care to follow news (which you obviously are diligent about with your many interesting and informative links backing up what you opine - which I for one appreciate) also feel free to follow dairyland news, because believe it or not, we got something to show and tell every now and then....
I'm just not getting your points of distinction between shutting down the subway vs Path by a variance of 4-6 hours, and how that really is a rally point in evaluating these state and local gov executives management effectiveness. These response to disaster management and recovery measures are done many months and years of putting competent department managers in place, when nothing is going wrong, and proper protocol templates and manuel of procedures promulgated by their staff, rehearsed and understood by the army of first responders, medical facilities, and support utilities crews who hold joint regional disaster practice scenarios as often as budgets allow. That is where these efforts rubber meets the road, IMO. You drill to be able to respond efficiently and not waste time when it really happens. They don't just make this stuff up on the fly. And, every disaster has - should teach us something. Start with the Johnstown flood of 1889, and lessons not learned from previous dam collapses there, and subsequent ones, that not until 1936 were proper stronger dam measures ordered by.... The Federal Gobment!
Having those unseen and unheard 'bureaucrats' when they do their job well, shuffling procedure protocol papers, and crunching supply and logistic numbers in some basement office at FEMA or your regional centers, may not be sexy, but these people who do it right, are invaluable to the figurehead executives when the shi## hits the fan. (read the story and a movie was made of the disaster management guy at Souix City IA, prior to the DC-10 landing early there) These folks live and breath on the planning stuff. So, I get a little uncomfortable when some pol says these are wasted positions, and government largess. I've been in a couple regional disasters, one where 19 people were killed and 100+injured, and one that lasted a week power off,etc. We used to thrive on the rush of doing your job when it really counts and you need to step up to help your fellow citizens. That is what these folks live for and why they sign on. And, when they are dissed, as some are want to do these days of anti-public worker sentiments, I don't see teaparty organizers running into the burning buildings, or wading into the flooded power line strewn zones, working 12-16hour shifts, not so much...
