| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
04 Apr 2007 08:29:55 AM |
| Object: |
Giuliani, Bush, and Kerik in Cesspool of Political Incest and Corruption |
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/analysis/198
Tue, 04/03/2007
Giuliani, Bush, and Kerik in Cesspool of Political Incest and
Corruption
Ex-NYPD Commissioner and former GOP Hypocrite of the Week Bernard
Kerik is beleaguered by legal and moral problems.
No wonder George Bush and Rudy Giuliani liked having him around their
corrupt, crony-filled administrations.
Most recently, Kerik is on the verge of being charged with multiple
felonies, including tax evasion and conspiracy to commit wiretapping.
The wiretapping charge stems from an incident when Kerik and
Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro were overheard
planning to wiretap Pirro's husband in order to catch him engaging in
an extramarital affair.
Ironically, this conversation took place over a line that federal law
enforcement had legally wiretapped.
More ironically, Kerik was himself caught having two simultaneous
extramarital affairs a few years ago.
(He achieved the distinction of cheating on his mistress with another
woman, all while being married to a third woman.)
Giuliani (a total of six marriages for him and his current wife) and
Kerik have had a tight relationship over the years.
Kerik served as his driver, campaign advance man, corrections
commissioner, and ultimately top police official.
After leaving office, Giuliani tapped Kerik to serve as a partner in
his business firm.
Proving to be a loyal minion, Giuliani pushed Bush to appoint Kerik as
Interim Minister of Interior of Iraq, where Kerik botched the
disastrous "training" of police.
But everything came to a halt when Bush nominated him to be Secretary
of Homeland Security in 2004.
After just a week in the national spotlight, Kerik withdrew his
nomination when forced to admit that he hired an undocumented worker
as a nanny and housekeeper.
Then more started to come out:
big stock-option windfalls, alleged connections with the mob, and, of
course, the affairs (which both took place in a rent-free apartment
donated to assist the 9/11 recovery efforts at Ground Zero).
Kerik pleaded guilty last summer to improperly receiving $165,000
worth of free renovations to his residence in 1999 from a company
allegedly tied to the mob.
Given the ease and quickness of the Kerik revelations, Bush and
Giuliani could certainly have found out about them before the Homeland
Security nomination and the other appointments.
They either didn't look hard enough or just didn't care.
In fact, Giuliani recently told a grand jury that he had actually been
briefed of Kerik's alleged ties to organized crime before making him
NYPD commissioner, which he now says was a mistake.
Kerik is just another example of the official Republican "loyalty
first, expertise second" patronage policy.
Even besides his legal problems, Slate pointed out in 2004 that Kerik
wasn't even qualified to run Homeland Security.
He had already left office when the NYPD began its intensive
counterterrorism campaign and had a "notably unspectacular" tenure in
Iraq, according to one Pentagon official.
Slate also notes a series of minor scandals along the way, which
turned out to be major scandals and prosecutable crimes.
So much for the old conservative rallying cry of restoring
accountability and morality to government.
Giuliani - as well as Kerik - has been married three times, and Bush
has lied repeatedly to the American people.
But both leaders demand only one thing of their subordinates:
faithfulness.
Bush was willing to put Kerik in charge of America's national
security.
That act of Bushevism cynical "Omerta" politics could have been a
direct threat to our lives, given Kerik's highly questionable
professional history and allegedly illegal activities.
But then Bush and Giuliani are excellent role models for being in jobs
that are several levels above their Peter Principle and ethical
threshold.
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
______________________________________________
Harry
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