Security chief pulls out - does it take a saint????

hwere is the NYT take:

Kerik Pulls Out as Bush Nominee for Homeland Security Job
By ERIC LIPTON and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

Published: December 11, 2004


ASHINGTON, Dec. 10 - Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, abruptly withdrew his name from consideration to be President Bush's secretary of homeland security late Friday night, citing questions related to the immigration status of a former household employee.

Mr. Kerik's swift fall - he was nominated only a week ago by President Bush to succeed Tom Ridge - came in a letter in which he called the offer "the honor of a lifetime" but said that "moving forward would not be in the best interest of your administration, the Department of Homeland Security or the American people."

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In reviewing his personal finances this week as he prepared for confirmation hearings, Mr. Kerik said in a statement issued late Friday, he determined that a housekeeper and nanny he had once employed was not clearly a legal immigrant and that he had not properly paid taxes on her behalf.

"I uncovered information that now leads me to question the immigration status of a person who had been in my employ as a housekeeper and nanny," Mr. Kerik said. "It has also been brought to my attention that for a period of time during such employment required tax payments and related filings had not been made."

His lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said that Mr. Kerik called the president at 8:30 p.m. to inform him of the decision. The White House had not pressured him to withdraw, Mr. Tacopina said, but he decided he had to do so because as homeland security secretary, he would be in charge of supervising the nation's immigration laws.

Within two days after the issue surfaced, it became apparent to all involved that Mr. Kerik had no choice but to withdraw his name, said former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who had urged Mr. Bush to nominate Mr. Kerik. The hiring of an illegal immigrant or failure to pay taxes had forced the withdrawal of other cabinet nominees, including Kimba M. Wood, Zoe Baird and Linda Chavez.

"When an issue like this emerges, it makes it impossible to go forward," Mr. Giuliani said on Friday night.

A former New York City official who knows the circumstances of the withdrawal said that the housekeeper, who had worked for the Kerik family for about a year, left for her home country two weeks ago. Her name and nationality were not disclosed. Mr. Kerik lives in Franklin Lakes, N.J., with his wife, Hala, and their two small children. Mr. Kerik has two older children, one from a previous marriage and one whom he fathered while serving in the military in Korea.

From the moment Mr. Kerik's nomination was announced by President Bush, news organizations have been digging into Mr. Kerik's background, from his time as a security chief at a hospital in Saudi Arabia in the early 1980's to his work during the last three years in the private sector for companies doing business with the Department of Homeland Security. The stream of stories - which raised questions about how he used his position of authority or whether his work in the private sector might present a conflict of interest when he returned to the government - had begun to produce questions about the status of his nomination.

Democrats on Capitol Hill, where the Senate was preparing to take up his nomination, had also begun to investigate reports of his conduct as a New York City official, and several said privately that they were beginning to have doubts about Mr. Kerik's fitness for the job.

In just the last three years, Mr. Kerik, 49, made millions of dollars, mainly through his partnership in a security consulting firm headed by Mr. Giuliani and by serving on the board of a stun-gun manufacturer that has been seeking to do business with Homeland Security. Most recently, Mr. Kerik sold $5.8 million of stock in the stun-gun company.

But as recently as Friday afternoon, White House officials were standing behind Mr. Kerik, saying that his nomination was on track.

"We've looked into all these issues," the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, said on Friday afternoon. "And obviously he'll be talking about some of these matters during his confirmation hearing. But the president appointed Commissioner Kerik because he knows he is someone who is firmly committed to helping us win the war on terrorism and make sure that we are doing everything we can to protect the homeland.".......

Full story http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/11/politics/11kerik.html?ex=1103432400&en=952e19601ee651de&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVER

Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56247-2004Dec10.html


"......Even before the nanny issue arose, Democrats had targeted Kerik as the most vulnerable of Bush's second-term nominations. White House officials realized he was becoming a lightning rod, although they had thought he would survive.

Democrats were focusing on the quick riches he had accumulated since resigning as police commissioner, a post he held during the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Since leaving his city office, Kerik had earned $6.2 million by exercising stock options he received as a director for Taser International, a stun-gun company that did business with the Department of Homeland Security.

With Kerik at his side, Bush said in announcing the nomination at the White House on Dec. 3 that his pick was "one of the most accomplished and effective leaders of law enforcement in America."

Kerik said he had "initiated efforts to fulfill any outstanding reporting requirements and tax obligations related to this issue" but said he realized that disclosure of the issue would generate "intense scrutiny" that would distract from the mission of the Department of Homeland Security. Among them is enforcement of the nation's immigration laws.

The disclosure disrupts the swift and orderly schedule Bush had tried to impose for replacing nine of his 15 Cabinet secretaries after winning reelection last month.

Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who had made Kerik corrections commissioner and later police commissioner, had recommended him strongly to Bush. Giuliani said in a telephone interview that Kerik had employed the woman recently to take care of his two young children.

"Bernie told me that they really loved her and the kids loved her but she had to go back to her country," Giuliani said. He said she returned voluntarily but would not say what country it was. He did not have the date but said it was "pretty recently," although he said he believes it was before the nomination.

"When he actually sat down and did the form, he realized there was a real problem here," he said. "He hadn't focused on it. There are personal reasons for it."

Giuliani said Kerik was "uniquely qualified" and the former mayor said "he feels badly for him and for the president."........."

Actually, those personal reasons sound a lot like he didn't expect to make it past the confirmation process, anyway.

Not to say that the visible problems are enough to disqualify a person - if we're sure there is nothing else.

Bush is the first convicted criminal to serve as President; you definitely don't have to be a saint.

Hmmm - maybe you do to be APPOINTED, not elected?

lol.

Maybe so.

Then again, there's Clarence Thomas.