NYT: In Kerik, Bush Saw Values Crucial to Post-9/11 World

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 - President Bush first met Bernard B. Kerik near the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center on Sept. 14, 2001, a day that instantly changed Mr. Bush's relationship with a city he had never much liked.

(snip)

"The president loves cops," said a Republican close to the White House who insisted on anonymity because he did not want the president and his advisers to know he was talking about the collapse of a cabinet nomination. "They're not pretentious, they do a hard job, they don't get paid a lot of money, they're real people and they live in a world that is fairly black and white, with good guys and bad guys. And that's the way President Bush looks at the world."

White House officials did not say how often Mr. Bush saw Mr. Kerik after their first meeting in 2001, but neither man seems to have forgotten the emotion of the day.

"The greatest president we've ever had," Mr. Kerik said at a veterans' breakfast at the Seventh Regiment Armory in Manhattan on Nov. 11, 2001, when Mr. Bush embraced him.

Mr. Bush was especially grateful, White House officials said, that Mr. Kerik agreed to train a police force in Iraq in the summer of 2003 and then campaigned extensively for the president's re-election this fall. As a symbol of Sept. 11, Mr. Kerik had that "9/11 glow," the Republican close to the White House said, and was critical to a re-election campaign based on national security.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/politics/19kerik.html?oref=login

bush is such a total failure of a man.

Bush, Bush, Bush.

:eyes:

Kind of reminded him of himself, I guess!:eyes:

B-)

thing..bush sees a goon and wants them around him.

Name one good person bush has lapping anywhere near him?

graded on a curve like a dumb highs chool class. So sick of the free pass this Admin. gets. Sometimes I am overcome with an indescribeable dread and it all seems so clear that the U.S. will keep feeelingmore and more surreal skitzo, nasty, violent, big brotherish, indifferent, brazil/biffworld /bizarro world for a long time and that we'll be digging out of this mess for years to come even if the Pres. was impeached tommorrow. Me, a usually happy go lucky guy is bummed.

I feel the pressure from The Man more every day. I look around at the 50% that support the theft of their own freedom and I am grieving inside. I feel the exits slowly closing and and can almost hear bullhorns and the cadence of riot batons smacking plexishields. I live in Tucson and regularly see Air Force fighters practicing overhead. When I look at them now, as they buzz the city, I see them from the perspective of Fallujah. The horror of it, the obscenity of it...is overpowering. America has become a spiritually polluted environment. The majority in support of the evil done in their names are either fearful, ignorant or weak. I can now see, that the day may come when it is time to leave. I travel in Mexico as often as possible. The physical and spiritual relief from escaping the toxic drug of America is very liberating. Mexico is a place that really does have strong 'family values'.

into Fallujah can happen in the blink of an eye. Bush's most telling words were when he said (being interviewd) Why do I care how I'm remembered?... I'll be dead." With that kind of attitude....

Gotta say though, the internet has put me in touch with more decent folks than I have met in years. If the internet has done one thing, it has turned millions into readers and writers -- both good introspetive, spiritual processes.

or some such bs.
tib

It's clear that Bush saw in Kerik a kindred spirit, someone who is full to the brim with BS and who thinks the rules never apply to him.

I need to go throw up now. :puke:

turned out to be radioactivity.

The greatest president we've ever had," Mr. Kerik said at a veterans' breakfast at the Seventh Regiment Armory in Manhattan on Nov. 11, 2001, when Mr. Bush embraced him.

Here, it appears to mean: ability to suck up and look bad-ass. Oh, and 9/11.

I'm sure Bush wanted someone who could convey the need for unswerving loyalty to the Maximum Leader and the Fatherland...I mean Homeland.

Bush wants someone who has no "moral" dilemma when it comes to torturing American dissidents.

...someone willing to kill & ignore the Geneva conventions...

:hi:

The Gonorrhea Girl yikes

"The Gonorrhea Girl" - Double yikes! :D

"Mr. Kerik had that '9/11 glow'" - how bizarre!

For an administration that seems to rely mostly on visceral images, faith vs. facts, and creating its own reality, I guess that's really not so surprising.

overlooking the remains of the WTC towers

So,...WTF "values" are they really talking about?

More double speak.

is the worst thing about him, in my estimation, that he loves bush so much after being such a crude schnook. just goes to show you what kind of people love bush.

The ability to pathologically lie unabashedly!

I'm not fucking defined by 9*11.

And neither is America.

These slimy little cowardly worms that slither around us, staining all they touch, perveting things held precious, can go the fuck to hell.

yeah, that means you bush, and you, imposter patriots and lurking morans.

a Bush/Kerik meeting PRIOR to 9/11.

It's interesting that the media is now clarifying that the two first met AFTER 9/11. Okay...

"The greatest president we've ever had", Kerik said of Bush.

Who knows what groveling flattery he's inundated Giuliani with. Giuliani probably loves it.

then Kerik is definitely W's kind of man.

but, unlike *, kerik didn't have a multi-million dollar family to coddle him through yale and harvard.... instead, kerik dropped out of high school in 1972 and didn't get his college diploma until 2002 when he received it from empire state college (a corrospondence school)....

The bond between the president Mr. Kerik was a major factor, Republicans say, in Mr. Bush's decision to nominate Mr. Kerik for homeland security secretary. Although no one has suggested that the relationship was close, Republicans called it warm and based on equal parts self-interest and admiration.

Mr. Bush often saw Mr. Kerik with former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who named Mr. Kerik police commissioner and is now in business with him. But White House officials went to some lengths last week to say that Mr. Bush had acted on his own instincts in nominating Mr. Kerik and had not acted simply on the recommendation of Mr. Giuliani.

What business are these two clowns in?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6684832/

bizzare indeed...

Bushie is famous for not relying on his intellect but going with his "gut instinct" on things, which he considers more reliable. But he has a pretty poor record with his instinct, too. I'm thinking Putin (peered into his soul), Saddam (he has to have WMD, 'cause he's a bad man), and now Kerik.

The other problem is that no one in the WH, evidently, gave Kerik a good look before announcing his name. Then, when it became immediately obvious he wasn't going to pass muster, they came up with the phoney "nanny problem". Both incompetence AND mendacity!

My friends who live there have not reported seeing him in the street, chatting up the locals and supporting the local businesses. How long did he actually spend in the city during the GOP convention? Seems to me that he didn't even want to overnight there in one of the many fine hotels. Aside from making that crack about not knowing that New Yorkers could wave "with all their fingers", when has he ever made an effort to reach out? Let alone try to provide actual support to the people who are ill from the asbestos etc. that his administration lied about.

He will use the tragedy for his own political gain, but he does NOT love New York!

IMHO the entire admin knew exactly what Kerik was including BushCo. The problem is, they need to get rid of Ghouliani so he won't be in McCain's way in 2008. If you don't have enough dirt on someone, ya do the next best thing........go after his buddy ie Kerik.

Left of Cool

really irks me a I read it. This mantra put forth throughout the election period of the country being safer in this administrations hands and more secure yet the issue that the attacks occurred on their watch was never exposed. What were the advisers to Kerry thinking? If Clinton were in office the Republicans would have had a field day.
Hell, they are still bitching over a stained dress yet choose what they believe to be moral. Look at this guys record and he was a step away from confirmation.
I believe that the reason they are allowing the heat to continue on this guy is because it deflects away from the complete failure to vet the man. Why are there no questions being asked as to how he was nominated in the first place. This is a government totally revolving around continued political dominance and not actual governing. I am fed up.