Kerik gave us a 'Rudy' awakening [View All]

By MARGARET CARLSON
Monday, December 20, 2004 11:49 AM CST

Bernard Kerik, the erstwhile Homeland Security nominee, may have saved the country from taking the Rudy-in-'08 juggernaut too seriously.

In one swift, fantastic implosion, Kerik reminded us of the pre-9/11 Rudy, who had been lost in the mists of that horrible day three years ago. Remember the old Rudy? The controversial mayor who fired his most effective police chief, William Bratton, forced out his schools chancellor, berated the homeless, who treated police brutality as the cost of a low crime rate?

Like Kerik, he also had a compromised domestic life, keeping company with a woman who was not his wife and announcing his divorce at a news conference before telling his wife or children. Even those who thought he'd saved the city were sick of him. In a preliminary matchup in the 2000 Senate race against the flawed, carpetbagging first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, he could muster only 40 percent. He decided not to run.

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After Kerik withdrew his nomination, Rudy referred to all this sleazy behavior as mistakes that were "human" and "normal, at least by Washington or New York standards." Actually, what they were was normal by Rudy standards. Rudy apparently thinks it's normal to use an apartment near Ground Zero donated for the use of exhausted rescue workers to conduct an affair. Kerik was lucky to have an illegal nanny to blame for dropping out before things got any worse. Whatever, Rudy continues to love the guy, welcoming the philandering, mobbed-up, unethical, deadbeat, immigrant-exploiting cad back to Giuliani Partners with open arms.



We know Rudy overlooked Kerik's behavior. But why did Bush, who had been warned he was no Boy Scout? The White House explains that Bush liked Bernie and Rudy so darn much he got carried away. Come to think of it, what would Bush find not to like about a guy who, behind a swaggering, macho bravado, has busily used his political connections to amass a personal fortune? Is becoming a millionaire on the basis of your government connections really any different, when you get right down to it, from taking the taxpayer gift of a baseball stadium on the basis of your name, as Bush did?

So thanks for the memories, Bernie, and for the inside look at the operations, values and instincts of our president and his would-be successor. You never served, but you did something for your country anyway.

http://www.decaturdailydemocrat.com/articles/2004/12/20/news/opinion/editorial02.txt