An Arizona congressman who believes it's a security risk to prosecute suspected 9/11 terrorists in Manhattan has apologized for dragging Mayor Michael Bloomberg's daughters into his political diatribe.
In a rant to Congress last night, Rep. John Shadegg said this:
"I saw the Mayor of New York said today, "We're tough. We can do it." Well, Mayor, how are you going to feel when it's your daughter that's kidnapped at school by a terrorist? How are you going to feel when it's some clerk -- some innocent clerk of the court -- whose daughter or son is kidnapped? Or the jailer's little brother or little sister? This is political correctness run amok."
Shadegg took heat for the obtuse comment both from the media and Democratic lawmakers.
New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, on the House floor today, demanded an apology.
“For any member of this House to suggest that somehow to support the decision to have a trial would jeopardize the family member of the mayor of the City of New York is outrageous,” Weiner said. “That member should apologize. That member then should be quiet.”
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He also didn't mention that a slight majority of New Yorkers are in favor of holding the trials in the city where most of the victims lived and worked. For his part, Bloomberg said last week "it is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center site where so many New Yorkers were murdered." Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser said today "we're not dignifying this with a response.''
This wasn't the first time Shadegg has drawn someone else's kids into his political grandstanding. Remember this?
