Campaign Update: Tower Three

"Every day I think about it," Giuliani said. "It can be a person
jumping, or seeing body parts, seeing a little boy or girl at
a funeral. And then I also try to remember all the wonderful
heroism the firemen and the police showed that day."

With the Moussaoui trial devolving into disaster porn, "America's Mayor" had no qualms turning it into a campaign venue.  If discretion generally governs depiction of the stricken World Trade Towers, this courtroom drawing practically turns Rudy's head into surviving Tower Three.

Placement and scale not only reinforces Giuliani as a centerpiece of 9/11, it foreshadows a core election meme --  that Hizzoner can stand his ground with the terrorists.  (And if that doesn't seem like treasure, see how hard it is to erase Rudi and sketch Bush in there instead.)

I find it troubling this image even slightly evokes RG in front of a window, instead of the obvious video screen.  But then, we might as well get used to it.  The closer we get to New Hampshire, the more that frame will becomes the exclusive property of Giuliani '08.

(revised 4.8.06.  8:07am pst)

(image: Art Lein/AFP.  Alexandria, Virginia.  April 6, 2006. Via YahooNews)

Comments

[ummabdulla]

After looking at this drawing for a minute, I stopped seeing it as Guiliani holding his own with the terrorists. I started seeing him as a weak old man.

Moussaoui, on the other hand, looks more powerful, and his hand (pointing his index finger) looks stronger than Guiliani'a limp-wristed one.

This may just depend on who's looking at it, because after living in a Muslim country for 15 years, I'm more used to men that look like Moussaoui and I'm not so used to men dressed like Guiliani. Maybe the concept of the "other" doesn't come into play - at least not in regards to Moussaoui.

One thing about Moussaoui, though. Sometimes they show this photo of him: http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/Biographies/Bios/Moussaoui/Moussaoui.jpg, but the drawings of him always look very different. I know his beard is longer, but has he changed that much during his time in prison?

By the way, when I went to find that photo, I saw another court drawing from CBS News, and it certainly shows him as more powerful (and threatening?) than the guys in suits in the background: http://www.cbsnews.com/images/2006/03/27/imageWX10303261754.jpg

[tina]

Moussaoui's photos don't look anything like this drawing because this drawing is not an accurate depiction of him. In the drawing he looks like a stereotypical Arab terrorist type. The nose is MUCH bigger in the drawing, the skin is lighter....etc.
RG looks like he is protecting the towers from the terrorist...in vain. The pointing finger signals the Arab terrorist's targeting of the towers. RG is thrusting his arm into the way, a little too late. I think RG looks paternal and protective here.
Moussaoui looks like he's shooting at the towers.

[cj]

Hmmn? Maybe I'm missing something here.... This looks so.....academic-- like Professor G, giving student M a lecture about American culture, and student M trying to raise a point of observation..... It's in the wrists and the eyes.... In this drawing, I see neither G particularly strong, nor M particularly threatening. Except for the representation of the towers in flame, I would have no idea what role these two actually play in the drama.

cj

[Asta]

"My father once told me that artists use lies to show the truth, while politicians use lies to cover it."

-- Evey Hammond, "V for Vendetta"

[PTate in MN]

Based on this drawing, I would say RG doesn't have a chance at the 2008 election: 9/11 is receding in our memory--we're viewing it through a window in the distance. The smoke is stylized, the fire pale. RG is reminiscing--he's telling a story from long ago. The immediacy and passion isn't there. The colors are pastel, slightly faded blues and grays.

Meanwhile, down front, M in a different, more intense palette. He takes up nearly 1/3 of the picture. As others have pointed out, he has vigor. The Muslim is trying to get the attention of the speaker, but RG isn't listening. He is lost in a memory.

[Keir]

You might be correct about how the former mayor will utilize 9/11 to his advantage. But I wouldn't worry too much about it. Say it out loud: "President Giuliani". Funny stuff, not gonna happen.

Anyway the courtroom drawing you have here is not the work of the former mayor but of the "artist", who has depicted (as I see it) two accomplices calmly gesturing to the scene out the window.

[Cactus]

I think the Guiliani as savior and hero of NYC was pretty much limited to NYC. Remember this happened in the midst of a very nasty philandering/divorce scandal. No wonder he latched onto it like a Titanic swimmer would a life vest. Speaking purely subjectively, from the left coast, we shook our heads at his messy personal life, but didn't really get too involved in what he did after 9/11, at least not like those IN NYC. I think our attention was almost immediately diverted to where the heck was Geedub?

Moussaoui reminds me of the serial killer who, just before the dead-man walk, says he remembers where ten more bodies are buried. He's playing the prosecution and court system and laughing with his cohorts in Afghanistan.

Sorry to say this, but we've all seen a lot of courtroom sketches and this one is just not very good. It looks more like an artist's study in hands since they seem totally irrelevant to the subject. I would not know it was Guiliani had I not been told. However, Moussaoui's face and clothes come off better than Guiliani's. Is that a bit of artistic editorializing?

[Chiaroscuro]

The positioning, the suggestion of the window--yes. But I agree with Cactus. I didn't recognize that as Giuliani until I read the post. I thought it was an anonymous lawyer.

[Asta]

Anonymous lawyer or Lyndon Baines Johnson.

[readytoblowagasket]

What I find interesting about this illustration is that Giuliani and Moussaoui are given equal weight. They can't literally have been so physically close together in the courtroom; by "fitting" them both into the frame with no depth between them, they overlap, and in fact, Moussaoui may be more prominent, more important. They also seem to be making overlapping points, competing for the judge's attention. Moussaoui looks normal, not crazy. Or rather, no crazier than Giuliani.

[readytoblowagasket]

As for the case, it's certainly lucky for the prosecution that Giuliani is a former prosecuter. So, Giuliani wouldn't have needed any coaching by Carla Martin or anyone else; he already knows exactly how to play a jury.

I can't imagine what effect it would have on me to be forced to sit through the video of people jumping to their deaths, one after another (not that I would ever be selected for this jury, being staunchly opposed to the death penalty). But who could hold up under that barrage of flaming body parts? Pornographic is right.

[Enzo Titolo]

Heaven Forbid Giuliani getting elected again for anything! He is a ghoul feeding off disaster and division.

I'm a New Yorker, and Giuliani only looked good in September 2001 because the Bush43 Administration and Governor Pataki were so flustered. Pataki wanted to take emergency funding to bring pork upstate, and Bush was flying around the country throughout the day of the attacks, after taking his sweet time in photo-ops while the towers were getting hit, instead of protecting the capital by commanding the air force. It was unimaginable that the Pentagon could be hit by a plane (or even an ICBM before Bush43). Giuliani was merely competent that month, but the sub-medicrity that was the norm in NYS and the Federal Government of that era made Giuliani look reliable in comparison.

By nature, he is an authoritarian. He was anti-First Amendment in NYC affairs, cutting off protest, assembly, and the arts, and its funding, especially if it or any nonprofit organization disagreed with him or his tastes. He once whipped the police up into a racist fervor at a political rally, and while he was Mayor he fueled racial divisions, and the Police literally stuck it to black men because, as they said, 'it was Giuliani time.'

As an authoritarian, Giuliani shined most brightly during a time of death, fire, smoke, and crisis. True to form, he insisted in late 2001 that his concluding Mayoral term be extended into 2002, which was unconstitutional, since he believed that only he could be Mayor of NYC during this time of crisis. Bloomberg, however, did fine on January 1st, 2002 after the court struck down Giuliani's unprecedented power grab to over-reach the term-limit law.

But we are talking about the picture:

My take on it was that Giuliani looked like the convalescing Tony Soprano of this season's Sopranos.

http://www.hbo.com/sopranos/episode/season6/episode69.shtml

Just put glasses on Tony, and you get the same philosophical bully tough guy who survived the hospital, except Tony Soprano sometimes fights his own fights and buries his own bones. Giuliani used cops to do that for him.

I feel bad saying this because in the early 1980s I admired Giuliani's grandstanding crusades against the Mob as a young Reagan era appointee Prosecutor.

The artist seems to have drawn his hand like that of Michelangelo's God in the Sistine Chapel.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://michelangelomethod.com/images/michelangelo-sistine-chapel-2-475.jpg&imgrefurl=http://michelangelomethod.com/resources.html&h=216&w=475&sz=72&tbnid=UAjoyAMIA-y7JM:&tbnh=57&tbnw=126&hl=en&start=4&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsistine%2Bchapel%2Bhand%2Blife%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official_s%26sa%3DG
But the son, the Adam in this famous painting is foresaking the aging God's meaningless feckless gesture, and instead Moussaoui reaches to the fire on the towers, which points toward his fiery heaven, which he values more than life and the effete older-God.

http://www.sccollege.edu/pic/39/athens.gif

http://www.susqu.edu/facstaff/z/zoller/Images/raphael%20-%20plato%20and%20aristotle.jpg

Moussaoui in this illustration looks quite a lot like Osama Bin Laden, the real guy on trial. But he is at-large still, and as such he seems powerful and everywhere, when really, with his kidney/dialysis, he's probably doing physically worse than Giuliani and Tony Soprano. As for his jihad, this illustration bodes well for that.