Friday Night News

mc mark · Dec 10, 2004

Kerik Withdraws His Name for DHS Chief

WASHINGTON - Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, President Bush's choice to be homeland security secretary, has withdrawn his name from consideration, the White House announced late Friday.

Presidential press secretary Scott McClellan, in a conference call to news organizations, revealed that Kerik had withdrawn "for personal reasons."

"The president respects his decision and wishes the commissioner and his wife, Hala, well," McClellan said in a statement.

"Commissioner Kerik is withdrawing his name from director of homeland security," the spokesman said. "He informed the White House this evening that he was withdrawing for personal reasons from consideration to be secretary of homeland security."

McClellan said that Kerik telephoned the president at about 8:30 p.m. EST. Kerik also sent a letter to the White House in which he announced his wishes.

McClellan said the White House "will move as quickly as we can to name someone else to fill this nomination."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20041211/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/bush_homeland_security

Rocket River · Dec 10, 2004

from what I have read. . . i don't think he was that qualified

Rocket River
he is a good man for recognizing that

whag00 · Dec 10, 2004

It’s a little disappointing because he seems like the kind of red-a$$ you need for this position.

“Washington stunned by Friday night release of Bernard Kerik from consideration of homeland security secretary... Reports claim Kerik withdrew due to 'Nanny Problem'.. possibly had an illegal alien baby-sitting his kids and failed to properly report her taxable income...”

http://www.drudgereport.com/

Zion · Dec 10, 2004

I suspect there is a lot of dirt on this guy and with the appointment people would have started digging. Far from being qualified he's basically living off of 9-11 just like his buddy Giulliani.

From The Guardian

Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday December 9, 2004
The Guardian

In the legend of the war on terrorism, Bernard Kerik, with his trademark shaven head, bristling moustache and black belt in karate, occupies a special place as rough and ready hero. Having risen from military policeman to narcotics detective to New York City police commissioner, he finds himself on 9/11 shoulder to shoulder with Mayor Rudy Giuliani. As the towers crumble the mayor confides in his buddy: "Bernie, thank God George Bush is president."
After the invasion of Iraq, Bush assigns Kerik to train the new Iraqi security forces. Mission accomplished, he returns to Giuliani Partners and becomes motivational speaker to captains of industry, his net worth skyrocketing. One of his most notable aphorisms: "Political criticism is our enemies' best friend." Kerik, the decorated detective, leads an investigation into the safety of cheaper Canadian prescription drugs and accompanies Giuliani before the Senate subcommittee on investigations where he testifies on their danger. (Kerik and Giuliani are rewarded handsomely by their client, the US pharmaceutical drug lobby.)

After John Kerry closes the gap in the presidential debates, Kerik rushes to the rescue, ominously warning of terrorist attacks, "If you put Senator Kerry in the White House, I think you are going to see that happen." Finally, Bush announces Bernard Kerik as the new secretary of homeland security.

The department of homeland security is a bureaucratic Byzantium consisting of 22 agencies with a huge budget exceeding $40bn. Bernard Kerik's appointment was suggested to Bush by Giuliani. With this favour, Kerik's meteoric career has reached its zenith. The high school dropout Kerik fathered an illegitimate daughter in Korea, whom he refused to acknowledge and support. He became a bodyguard for Saudi royals and then a New York narcotics cop. In 1993, he was tapped as Giuliani's chauffeur and bodyguard.

Giuliani made Kerik deputy police commissioner and chief of the corrections department. One million dollars in taxpayers' money used to buy tobacco for inmates disappeared into a private foundation run by Kerik without any accounting. In 2000, Giuliani leapfrogged Kerik over many more qualified candidates to appoint him police commissioner.

Kerik spent much of his time after 9/11 writing a self-promoting autobiography, The Lost Son. The city's conflict of interest board eventually fined him $2,500 for using three policemen to conduct his research.

Dispatched to Iraq to whip security forces into shape, Kerik dubbed himself the "interim interior minister of Iraq." British police advisers called him the "Baghdad terminator", and reported that his reckless bullying was alienating Iraqis. "I will be there at least six months," he said. He left after three.

In waging bureaucratic battles among complex organisations and players, Kerik has less experience in Washington than Baghdad. He cannot be expected to change the funding formula determined by Bush's political calculations to favour interior Republican states. And, undoubtedly, many of those seeking the department's lucrative contracts will be signing up as clients of Giuliani Partners. The looting of Washington, unlike post-invasion Iraq, is legal.

In line with other second-term cabinet appointments - Alberto Gonzales as attorney general, Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state - Kerik will be an enforcer, a loyalist and an incompetent. The resemblance is less to Inspector Clouseau or Chauncy Gardner than to Caligula's horse.

· Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to President Clinton, is Washington bureau chief of salon.com

sidney_blumenthal@yahoo.com
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