One of Who, Exactly?

Rudy Giuliani: “I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers... I was there working with them. I was there guiding things. I was there bringing people there. But I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I’m one of them.”

As the kids on the Internets say, O RLY?

The New York Times recently did a story analyzing the former mayor's schedule to determine the exact amount of time Rudy spent down at Ground Zero as compared to rescue workers. The found that

A sample by Mount Sinai Medical Center of 1,138 participants in its study of health problems among rescue, recovery and debris removal workers found that they had spent a median of 962 hours at the World Trade Center site, or the equivalent of about 120 eight-hour days.

as for Rudy:

...an exhaustively detailed account from his mayoral archive, revised after the events to account for last-minute changes on scheduled stops, does exist for the period of Sept. 17 to Dec. 16, 2001. It shows he was there for a total of 29 hours in those three months, often for short periods or to visit locations adjacent to the rubble. In that same period, many rescue and recovery workers put in daily 12-hour shifts.

Now, Salon.com analyzes the amount of time Hizzoner spent at New York Yankee games:

By our count, Giuliani spent about 58 hours at Yankees games or flying to them in the 40 days between Sept. 25 and Nov. 4, roughly twice as long as he spent at ground zero in the 60 days between Sept. 17 and Dec. 16. By his own standard, Giuliani was one of the Yankees more than he was one of the rescue workers.

So here's my modest proposal: every Giuliani appearance from now through the Republican Convention should feature a gaggle of folks in Yankee caps, singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."