Ben reports that the Giuliani team is insisting all security expenses were perfectly appropriate, instead of explaining why they were billed to obscure city agencies.

Bernie Kerik jumped to his former boss's defense. (The Giuliani campaign, no doubt, will be delighted.)  read more »

Rudy Giuliani's rivals are not at all satisfied with the former mayor's dismissal of the newest twist in the Bernard Kerik scandal.Commenting on book publisher Judith Regan's allegation that a senior executive at News Corp told her to lie to federal investigators about her affair with Kerik to protect Giuliani's nomination of Kerik as homeland security secretary, one McCain aide said,

"Obviously there are some very serious charges involved for a guy who was his protégé and one of his closest friends. And for Rudy to go out and say this is not worthy of discussion when it directly involves him and his decision making, and in the case of department of homeland security, the security of our country - it's disturbing that Rudy would think it's not something he is going to have to address. "

More after the jump.  read more »

Another dire prediction from one of Rudy Giuliani's old adversaries in New York...

Here's what Representative Gregory Meeks had to say to me about last week's indictment of Bernard Kerik and its impact on Giuliani's presidential bid.

"The Kerik stuff just shows some of the decision making process that this guy had as mayor and how haphazard he was and how haphazard he ran the city," he said. "The true character of Giuliani will soon come out - you can't hide who you truly are."

Meeks said Giuliani "has been a bully all of his life. The Kerik situation is just another little peep into who the man really is."

(Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella responded in an email: "Umm..Gregory Meeks? Really?")

Rudy Giulani's campaign is hitting back at the former mayor's onetime friend John McCain for his comments earlier today linking Giuliani to freshly indicted former aide Bernard Kerik.

"It's kind of shocking, since there is nothing new out there, that John McCain now changes his tune on Rudy Giuliani just because he is running for president," a Giuliani aide, speaking on background, just told me "That's not straight talk."

The aide was referring to the remarks McCain made this morning at a press conference with Tom Ridge, the former head of the Department of Homeland Security, after today's indictment came down.

At the event, McCain cited Kerik's training the Iraqi police force in 2003, when McCain was visiting Iraq.

"Kerik was there at the time," McCain said. "Supposedly his mission was to help train Iraqi police. He stayed a couple of months and then up and left. That should have been a part of anybody's judgment whether to recommend that individual to be the head of the Department of Homeland Security. His contribution to the training of the police and law enforcement people in Iraq, which was ostensibly why he was there, was less than successful."

UPDATE: This is now getting ugly.

McCain Campaign Manager Rick Davis released the following statement.

"Rudy Giuliani's history with Bernie Kerik is a story of poor judgment. After being briefed on Kerik's ties to organized crime, Giuliani named him chief of the New York Police Department. Without any further vetting, Giuliani asked him to join his security consulting firm. Despite obvious ethical problems, Giuliani went so far as to personally recommend Kerik for the top job at the Department of Homeland Security."

"A president's judgment matters and Rudy Giuliani has repeatedly placed personal loyalty over regard for the facts."

And the Giuliani campaign sends over this statement from communications director Katie Levinson in response to McCain seeking to secure a loan to bolster his cash-strapped campaign.

"Let me get this straight - first, campaign finance crusader John McCain oversees a campaign that spiraled completely out of control and went bankrupt and now he wants a questionable $3 million loan? Doesn't quite pass the smell test, does it?

"Americans need someone in the White House who knows how to balance their own checkbook before they try to balance the federal government's. They don't need John McCain, they need Rudy Giuliani - who has actually balanced a budget and made a payroll."

In a separate and subsequent statement by Levinson, the Giuliani campaign communications director adds the following:

"Is this what desperation looks like? Bernie Kerik's issues have been known since 2004 and John McCain still had glowing things to say about Rudy Giuliani and his leadership. What, exactly, changed today? Best as I can tell, it's just John McCain's pure desperation in the face of a failing and flailing campaign trumping his so-called straight talk. It is truly a shame that John McCain has chosen to stoop this low."

And to round out the day, McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker writes in the following statement. 

"The only person who broke the law is Rudy's good friend Bernie Kerik.  And the only person who showed questionable judgment was the man pushed him to be Secretary of DHS, Rudy Giuliani."  

 

So, who stands to benefit from the Bernie Kerik fallout for Rudy Giuliani?

Political consultant Ed Rollins thinks the Democrats, rather than any of Giuliani's Republican opponents, are the ones who can really capitalize on it.

Rollins, who has worked on Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign and ran the campaign of a G.O.P. senate candidate against Hillary Clinton last year, told me, “Certainly what Republicans will do with it won’t matter as much as what Democrats will do with it, if he becomes the nominee.”

He added, “Suppose he’s the nominee in March or April. Trial goes on six months from now. Every single day. New York Times, L.A. Times, every single other newspaper is [writing about] Rudy’s Corrupt Cop. It diminishes somewhat, the ‘I was super mayor. I made all these wonderful things happen.’ So I think to a certain extent it’s serious.”

So I guess it's really time to ask what the Bernard Kerik news going to mean for the Giuliani campaign. What's the long view here?

During an interview I did this week for a profile on Tony Carbonetti, Rudy Giuliani's senior political advisor talked about former police commissioner and Giuliani aide Bernard Kerik, who is expected to be indicted today on charges of tax fraud, corruption and conspiracy counts. 

Here's what Carbonetti said:

"Rudy accepts responsibility for it," said Carbonetti. "That being said, let's move to my real thoughts on this, which are, how would we know? Everything he's been accused of was personal to him."

"When you look at the allegations and issues he had in the past, none of that had to do with his work as police commissioner. It was all private to him. Him and his home."

I asked Carbonetti if the Kerik scandal reflected poorly on Giuliani's judgment.  

"That's' what I'm trying to get to," said Carbonetti. "Because you like to think you learned something every time. And you say, 'OK. What did I learn in this?' And I can't point to something. What was my sign? I want to take something out of this knowing we might be in a position one day to appoint more people.  And I'm saying 'what did we miss?' And it bothers me because I can't come up with what I missed. But there's got to be something, you say to yourself."

I asked if he or Giuliani had ever seen any signs to suggest something suspicious about Kerik.

"I'd never been to his apartment," Carbonetti said. "Rudy had never been to his apartment. We knew this guy as you know, a guy who as corrections commissioner kicked ass in the city jails, brought crime down 90 percent in the city prisons, and cut overtime by 40 percent. He shows up at City Hall, and he's a big guy, he's a stud, he's kick ass, and you're like 'him!'"

Regarding the subsequent revelations about Kerik, Carbonetti reiterated that there was no way he or Giuliani could have known.

"How the hell am I going to know that," he said.

A contractor with ties to the mob and Bernie Kerik probably shouldn't be working on the new Yankee Stadium, Bloomberg said.

Mike Gormley looks at Eliot Spitzer the candidate versus Spitzer the governor.

Reverends Calvin Butts and A.R. Bernard are teaming up with the guy who wanted to buy Starrett City.

The police department will get a new $1 billion facility in Queens.

Governor Jon Corzine asked his ethics adviser to review recent labor contracts to see if they were influenced by his relationship with a union leader, Carla Katz. Barack Obama will be in New York on Monday to raise more money.

They city will promote circumcision.

Judges across the state are upset they didn't get pay raises in the state budget.

Bernie Kerik may not be able to travel to the Caribbean to work with security clients because of legal troubles at home.

Barack Obama raised more money for the Democratic primary than Hillary Clinton, according to Ryan Sager.