From The Washington Post, 4/8/07:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/07/AR2007040701398.html?hpid=topnews
White House Looked Past Alarms on Kerik
Giuliani, Gonzales Pushed DHS Bid Forward
By John Solomon and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, April 8, 2007; Page A01
When former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani urged President Bush to
make Bernard B. Kerik the next secretary of homeland security, White
House aides knew Kerik as the take-charge top cop from Sept. 11, 2001.
But it did not take them long to compile an extensive dossier of
damaging information about the would-be Cabinet officer.
They learned about questionable financial deals, an ethics violation,
allegations of mismanagement and a top deputy prosecuted for
corruption.
Most disturbing, according to people close to the process, was Kerik's
friendship with a businessman who was linked to organized crime.
The businessman had told federal authorities that Kerik received
gifts, including $165,000 in apartment renovations, from a New Jersey
family with alleged Mafia ties.
Alarmed about the raft of allegations, several White House aides tried
to raise red flags.
But the normal investigation process was short-circuited, the sources
said.
Bush's top lawyer, Alberto R. Gonzales, took charge of the vetting,
repeatedly grilling Kerik about the issues that had been raised.
In the end, despite the concerns, the White House moved forward with
his nomination -- only to have it collapse a week later.
The selection of Kerik in December 2004 for one of the most sensitive
posts in government became an acute but brief embarrassment for Bush
at the start of his second term.
More than two years later, it has reemerged as part of a federal
criminal investigation of Kerik that raises questions about the
decisions made by the president, the Republican front-runner to
replace him and the embattled attorney general.
A reconstruction of the failed nomination, assembled through
interviews with key players, provides new details and a fuller account
of the episode -- how Giuliani put forward a flawed candidate for high
office, how Bush rushed the usual process in his eagerness to install
a political ally and how Gonzales, as White House counsel, failed to
stop the nomination despite the many warning signs.
"The vetting process clearly broke down," said a senior White House
official.
"This should not happen."
Federal prosecutors have told Kerik that they are likely to charge him
with several felonies, including providing false information to the
government when Bush nominated him, sources have told The Washington
Post.
Kerik recently turned down a proposed agreement in which he would
plead guilty and serve time in prison because, his attorney said, he
would not "plead to something that he didn't do."
The investigation has put Giuliani's relationship with Kerik back in
the spotlight at a time when the former mayor leads the Republican
presidential field in national polls.
During an appearance in Florida last weekend, Giuliani told reporters
that they had a right to question his judgment in putting Kerik in
charge of the New York Police Department and recommending him to Bush.
"I should have done a better job of investigating him, vetting him,"
Giuliani said.
"It's my responsibility, and I've learned from it."
The White House explanation has shifted significantly. Just after
Kerik withdrew, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that "we
have no reason to believe" he lied and that it "would be an inaccurate
impression" to say the vetting was rushed.
Now current and former White House officials assert that Kerik lied
"bald-faced," as one put it, and say they erred by speeding up the
nomination.
Aides said they now believe they were lulled by Kerik's swaggering
Sept. 11 reputation, and were too passive in accommodating the
president's desire for secrecy and speed and too willing to trust
Giuliani's judgment.
_______________________________________________
Are you willing to trust Giuliani's judgement?
Harry
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