Rep. Mark Kirk got a special visit from Republican heavyweight Rudy Giuliani on Friday, who stormed through Winnetka to meet with local police officers and headline a fundraiser:

"We've got three hours with him," Kirk said as he headed out the door behind the man he described as "the voice of America's law enforcement" following a brief public appearance at Waukegan Regional Airport.

The "voice of America's law enforcement"? Tell that to the firefighters who lost their lives on September 11th because Giuliani wasn't able or interested in resolving the communication problems between the city's police and firefighters. Or tell that to "thousands of cash-strapped cops, firemen and city workers involved with the cleanup at the World Trade Center," who, as Matt Taibbi writes, "were developing cancers and infections and mysterious respiratory ailments like the 'WTC cough.' "

Although respiratory-mask use was mandatory, the city allowed a macho culture to develop on the site: Even the mayor himself showed up without a mask. By October, it was estimated, masks were being worn on site as little as twenty-nine percent of the time. Rudy proclaimed that there were "no significant problems" with the air at the World Trade Center. But there was something wrong with the air: It was one of the most dangerous toxic-waste sites in human history, full of everything from benzene to asbestos and PCBs to dioxin (the active ingredient in Agent Orange). Since the cleanup ended, police and firefighters have reported a host of serious illnesses — respiratory ailments like sarcoidosis; leukemia and lymphoma and other cancers; and immune-system problems.

"The likelihood is that more people will eventually die from the cleanup than from the original accident," says David Worby, an attorney representing thousands of cleanup workers in a class-action lawsuit against the city. "Giuliani wears 9/11 like a badge of honor, but he screwed up so badly."

As the "voice" of the police, Giuliani sure didn't seem to care about their lungs.