For what it is worth or not worth:
http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-vppin144083210dec14,0,2522589.column?coll=ny-news-columnists
JUDGMENT QUESTIONED
Kerik flap hurts a Giuliani '08 bid
If the former mayor wants to rise on the national stage, he'll need to overcome new character issues
James P. Pinkerton
December 14, 2004
OK, so Bernard Kerik is history. But how about a man who is thought to have a future - a presidential future - Rudy Giuliani?
Giuliani, "America's mayor," has been leading in 2008 opinion polls, both for the Republican nomination and for the general election. But the Kerik implosion has turned into a character issue for Giuliani. After all, it was Rudy who raised Bernie from bodyguard to police commissioner, and then tried to install him as a cabinet secretary.
What additional light do those actions shed on Giuliani's professional life?
And what does it say about the potential president's judgment in people-picking?
Some conservative pundits saw no damage from the revelations about Kerik's "nannygate" problem and the 1998 arrest warrant filed against him. John Podhoretz, writing in the New York Post, asserts that for all the difficulties Giuliani will face on his hoped-for path to the White House, "the Kerik fiasco isn't even a bump on the road." But perhaps Podhoretz, whose column appeared on Sunday, wrote too soon.
That same day, the Daily News printed a messy litany of allegations. Kerik had been "deeply entangled with a New Jersey construction company long under fire for its alleged mob ties." In addition, Kerik "accepted thousands of dollars in cash and gifts without making proper public disclosures," including, for example, a $2,000 bejeweled police badge from Tiffany. Inquiring minds want to know - did Kerik pay income taxes on any freebies?
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1152&slug=Kerik%20Giuliani
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Wednesday, December 22, 2004 · Last updated 1:36 p.m. PT
Kerik resigns from Giuliani Partners
By SAM DOLNIK
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NEW YORK -- Former police commissioner and U.S. homeland security nominee Bernard Kerik said Wednesday he will leave Giuliani Partners, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's consulting firm.
At a news conference in Manhattan, Kerik said he had apologized to Giuliani for being a distraction because of his messy withdrawal as a candidate to head the Department of Homeland Security.
The former New York corrections commissioner said he told Giuliani his resignation would be effective immediately. He said he would seek other unspecified business opportunities.
He did not take questions from reporters.
Kerik, 49, was tapped by President Bush earlier this month to head the Department of Homeland Security. He abruptly withdrew his name Dec. 10 after revealing that he had not paid all required taxes for a family nanny-housekeeper and that the woman may have been in the country illegally.
A rash of other scandals soon followed, including allegations that he had connections with people suspected of doing business with the mob and accusations that he had simultaneous extramarital affairs with two women.
Recently, the city Department of Investigation said it had been reviewing Kerik's tenure as police commissioner. According to DOI findings, Kerik submitted a background form when he became commissioner of the Department of Correction in 1998 but did not fill one out when he was appointed police commissioner two years later.
For good measure, on Monday the News reported that Kerik had been cheating on his wife with two other women. And don't be surprised if a lot more sewage comes spilling out. As it does, it will spatter Giuliani further. People will recall, for example, that in December 2001, Giuliani renamed the Manhattan Detention Complex as the Bernard B. Kerik Complex.
The close association continued into the private sector. Giuliani and Kerik went into profitable business together until, according to The Washington Post, Giuliani made an "impassioned personal plea" to the White House to secure for Kerik the Homeland Security post. After Bush picked Kerik, Giuliani then cheer-led for his protégé, praising him as "smart ... effective and sophisticated." Well, if Kerik is so smart, how did he let himself get into this pickle?
OK, we all make mistakes. The real test is whether we learn from them. Yet now, in the wake of Kerik's withdrawal from Washington, Newsday reports that the ex-top-cop will be returning to his job at Giuliani Partners, including, one supposes, their joint side-gig, Giuliani-Kerik LLC. Does that suggest that maybe Giuliani has a blind spot when it comes to Kerik? And if so, what else is Rudy blind about?
A look at the Giuliani Partners Web site reveals some buzz words that are said to be guiding the company. The first of these words is "integrity." Underneath we read that "People of integrity are not inflexible, but their decisions are made in the context of strongly held values. Principled leaders must not only set a moral compass, but also effectively communicate a code of conduct to those they lead."
So it's fair to ask: How's Giuliani doing on that score? Does Kerik fit Giuliani's vision of integrity, not to mention effective homeland security, including the enforcement of our immigration laws?
One can be sure that reporters - and opposition researchers working for rival '08 Republicans - are going to be looking more closely at the Kerik Kan of Worms. Giuliani Partners' clients include such eye-catching outfits as the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and Entergy Nuclear Northeast.
Giuliani was a great mayor. No seamy revelations will undo his success in reducing crime or restoring morale after 9/11. But, if Giuliani wants to rise higher in public life, he will have to raise the standards he imposes on his colleagues - and improve his own judgment about what will play on the national stage.
James P. Pinkerton's e-mail address is
[email protected].
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
[All in all, the guy was newswothy as Bush had only just picked for homeland security and then all those things came to light. ]
