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Body blow
Ok, here we go: The New York Times reports that Rudy Giuliani, lately running for President, was briefed about the mob ties of his freshly nominated police commissioner-to-be, Bernie Kerik.
Rudolph W. Giuliani told a grand jury that his former chief investigator remembered having briefed him on some aspects of Bernard B. Kerik’s relationship with a company suspected of ties to organized crime before Mr. Kerik’s appointment as New York City police commissioner, according to court records.
Mr. Giuliani, testifying last year under oath before a Bronx grand jury investigating Mr. Kerik, said he had no memory of the briefing, but he did not dispute that it had taken place, according to a transcript of his testimony.
Kerik, if your memory isn't serving, is the sleaze who carried on an affair with Judith Regan in an apartment set aside for rescue workers overlooking Ground Zero. She later resigned as publisher of her eponymous imprint after making one anti-Semitic remark too many while trying to publish O.J. Simpson's If I did it memoir.
But back to Rudy Giuliani, Saint. Let's just say this: if you're told that the guy you're nominating for police commissioner has mob ties, you have several courses of action. None of these include forgetting about that little piece of information; that is, if you even extend him the benefit of the doubt on forgetting it while under oath in the first place. People forget dinner reservations, not being told that their nominee for police commissioner has mob ties.
Rudy Giuliani wants to be your next President. Let me just suggest this: the President makes appointments, something he does not seem to treat with the due diligence required for that process. You don't just forget, I imagine, that the guy you're nominating for police commissioner may have mob ties. Not when you're a former U.S. Attorney who made his name doing mob prosecutions. Neither do you ignore that information because he happens to be a pal.
And if you do, you have no business being anywhere near the Oval Office. We're getting an abject lesson in the perils of cronyism right now, with the current "administration". Somehow, I doubt that America wants to see this particular republican habit continue for four more years.
How is anybody taking this
How is anybody taking this guy's candidacy seriously?
"Serious" candidacy
A good friend of mine, who's pretty bright, recently said she's Republican on fiscal policy. She's not, really. She means that she truly believes that before we raise taxes we should get rid of ridiculous bureaucracy.
The thing is, the Republicans have been claiming to be the fiscally responsible party for a long time so, like Pavlovian dogs, people's memories trigger "Republican" whenever any fiscally responsible program is proposed.
(Of course, it doesn't help that neither Governor Spitzer nor the Democrats in Congress seem to be showing any restraint when it comes to spending these days.)
In Rudy's case, people think "America's mayor," or (you may want to finish your lunch before proceeding) "the hero of 9/11." The fact that Giuliani's poll numbers on September 10, 2001 were lower than Bush's are now has become irrelevant. So has the fact that he actually didn't do very well following the attacks.
There's a reason for Brutus's irony when he said:
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with the bones.
What truly frightens me is not that so many Americans think Rudy (or George W.) are worth supporting, it's that these guys seem to think they're worth it too.
Ahem...May I just point out...
Covered the "fiscally responsible Republican myth" some time back.
very well put. I still say
very well put.
I still say that Newt is the most dangerous republican out there.
Let's also remember...
He is running on the 9/11 platform while the real heroes of 9/11, the firefighters, despise him. That's going to get awfully awkward.
What did Rudy say to Kuriansky
The Times article noted that attempts to reach former DOI Commissioner Kuriansky, the person who gave Kerik a free pass when he was appointed Police Commissioner, "could not be reached for comment". In following this issue, it is essential that the Times, and other interested media, track Kuriansky down and get his version of the story. No Giuliani crony but a respected investigator and long time State Commissioner, Kuriansky certainly knew how to collect data and clearly understood the significance of the dirt that was emerging about Kerik. (In addition to the mob ties, Kerik also, as Corrections Commissioner, administered a private fund that was being actively investigated - I believe by DOI - for innappropriate use.) Yet this did not stop the appointment. This raises the issue of what Rudy told Kuriansky to do - or not to do - in reviewing Kerik's appointment. Given Rudy's bullying history, one can only imagine. The fact that Kuriansky tried to fudge this issue in his Grand Jury testimony by also feigning lack of memory, should not stop the press from vigorously questioning his story.
From the outset, Rudy's role in Kerik's Police Commissioner appointment has been the biggest - and potentially most lethel - missing link in this entire affair. If the press does its job here, some very interesting facts will probably emerge.
There's almost a year
for all this information to filter into the public consciousness. We should certainly do our best to see that it does. And I suspect we'll have some help: the McCain campaign, the Romney campaign, the Brownback campaign, the Tancredo campaign, the Thompson (!?) campaign.....