Bernard Kerik

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 »

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.”

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?")

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.

Before Rudolph W.  read more »

Mike Bloomberg backed away from a health department plan to advocate circumcision as a means of reducing the spread of AIDS.

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

The Daily News editorial board wants Andrew Cuomo to put aside his personal opposition to the death penalty and help the Queens District Attorney.

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

Betsy Gotbaum wants more seats in city public schools.

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

Christine Quinn's budget proposal is $61 million higher than the budget Mike Bloomberg proposed.

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

Mitt Romney leveraged his own money in order to raise contributions for his presidential campaign.

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.

And Tom Cruise will raise money here on April 19 for a Scientology-based New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project.

-- Azi Paybarah

There may be a rift between Mike Bloomberg and one of his appointees to the city's Commission on Human Rights.

They city will promote circumcision.

The bruising budget battle diminished Eliot Spitzer's approval rating.

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

Spitzer spent $500,000 of his own money to keep his television ads about his Medicaid plan on the air.

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

James Baker III said the only bi-partisan plan for Iraq is the one his group recommended about 100 days ago.

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

And a candidate in the New Paltz mayor's race was removed from the ballot.

-- Azi Paybarah

It's still unclear what damage will result from today's revelation that Rudy Giuliani had been briefed about some of Bernard Kerik's connections to a suspicious construction company before the former mayor championed his former security guard as secretary of Homeland Security. Giuliani has in large part based his run on the perception that he is a man of impeccable integrity and judgment. The Kerik story seems to undercut that.

But Giuliani has proved extremely resilient. He has so far managed to maintain high poll numbers despite a barrage of stories about his rather liberal stance on social issues and his soap opera personal life, which took another twist last week when it was revealed that his third wide, Judith Nathan, had a previously unknown first marriage, making Rudy her third husband.

But some rivals of Giuliani think that the more potent weapon against him is to point out Rudy's endorsement of liberal Mario Cuomo as proof that he is not the steadfast fiscal conservative he claims to be. To that end, a craftily edited YouTube clip recently appeared, raising questions about Rudy's commitment to cutting taxes. Rudy's defenders were quick to point out the clip's innacuracy. But it nevertheless shows how sensitive they are to that line of attack. --Jason Horowitz

Jeanine Pirro's campaign received an in-kind contribution from Bernie Kerik's lawyer days before their scandal broke.

Senate Republicans sent more money to defend John Flanagan's seat on Long Island than to defend the Westchester seat Nick Spano won by 18 votes two years ago.

John Faso misspelled the name of some guy headlining his fundraiser tomorrow.

Dick Cheney hung up on Bob Woodward, who thinks the White House doesn't like people disagreeing with them.

More good poll numbers for Democrats. President Bush's approval rating is down 5 points in a month.

Get ready for the second coming of John Kerry.

Mark Foley's pension is untouched and could be as high as $32,000 a year.

A Congressman on the House Ways and Means Committee, which Rep. Charlie Rangel may control soon, questions the tax exempt status of intercollegiate athletics.

And pictured above are Reps. Joe Crowley and Charlie Rangel talking about what they'll do when Democrats take over the House. I think.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

The press has to love the sway of a prosecutor.  read more »

The press has to love the sway of a prosecutor.  read more »

Kevin Sheekey keeps pitching the 'Bloomberg for President' storyline, and the mayor keeps traveling outside of New York.

Jeanine Pirro stays married to her politically-damaging husband because he pays her $15,000 a month.

The feds have subpoenaed Pirro's financial records and are looking to see whether she paid Bernie Kerik to spy on her husband.

Pirro said she only wanted photos to prove her husband was cheating.

The feds are also investigating Bronx Democratic County leader Jose Rivera and some real estate deals in that borough.

Eliot Spitzer has muzzled his lieutenant governor and stopped him from debating the G.O.P. lieutenant governor candidate.

Not everything will be changing on Day 1 of a Spitzer administration, now that an Albany insider is poised to be the new senate minority leader.

Charter schools, legislative pay raises, and the state's horse racing franchise are among the issues George Pataki may tackle in his last 100 days as governor.

Rep. Charlie Rangel pays four aides more than $150,000 each.

And MoveOn.org opened an office in Brooklyn.

-- Azi Paybarah

Lots of Pirro today.

The Post calls yesterday's news of a federal investigation into Jeanine Pirro over allegations of illegal wire-tapping a "devastating blow to her campaign," while the Daily News has a sidebar piece - leading with the cancellation of a planned fund-raising appearance by Rudy Giuliani - headlined "Uh, Jeanine, hope you had career Plan B."

Jeanine Pirro's plan to bug her husband's boat is, according to her lawyer, perfectly legal under federal law.

And the Times coverage includes a stand-alone piece on the fact that former NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik is once again in the spotlight, with predictably unflattering results.

Last night, the AP reported that Giuliani defended President Clinton's anti-terrorism efforts, saying, "Every American president I've known would have given his life to prevent an attack like that."

Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey is getting a great reception. In Florida.

Some Republicans want to lose the midterm elections because the party has drifted from its fiscal conservatism.

The Journal takes note of a clever political calculation in the GOP decision to hold the 2008 convention in the Twin Cities instead of, say, New York: "It has become less of a Democratic bastion and more of a swing-voting state, a change attributed in part to population growth in the Twin Cities suburbs."

Congress will approve a bill to spend more money on the Iraq War than was spent in the Vietnam War and during the arms race under President Reagan.

The City Council is going to convene a "nightlife summit" to mull issues of safety at bars and clubs.

Forest City Ratner agrees to shrink the Atlantic Yards project.

And Tom Frieden's trans-fat offensive is unpopular among restaurant owners and the Post editorial board.

Tom Golisano returns.

So do some Swift Boat tactics.

But the Republican convention doesn't.  read more »

And picturedto the right is Jeanine Pirro, whose press conference about her husband's infidelity, her venting to Bernie Kerik, and the fed's probe into the whole thing...is here.

-- Azi Paybarah

Pretty dramatic stuff at the Jeanine Pirro press conference at the Sheraton in midtown.

With a story set to break on WNBC, Pirro confirmed to a group of reporters that she iswas under investigation by federal law enforcement officials. They are reportedly looking into an allegation that she had placed an illegal wire-tap on the phone of her husband Al.

About a year ago, Pirro said, she initiated a conversation with Bernie Kerik (of all people) about possibly investigating her husband, who she suspected of carrying on an extramarital affair.

Teary-eyed, and with her voice cracking, she went on to say that the investigation -- mounted by the same U.S. Attorney's office that prosecuted her husband seven years ago for tax fraud -- was a political smear campaign. She denied that any wire-tapping took place.

"In the midst of matrimonial discourse, I was angry and had him followed to see if what I suspected was true," she said.

"Many of you have asked me why I stay in my marriage....my husband is a great father..."

She said that she's not planning to drop out of the AG race.

-- Azi Paybarah

Michael Caruso, a longtime pal of Bernie Kerik and a former employee of the city's Department of Investigation, has filed suit against the city and the highest-ranking staffers of DOI.

Caruso was at Walker's restaurant in 1999 when Kerik and Ray Casey, the waste commissioner, had a conversation that was a subject of the Kerik grand jury investigation. In that conversation, according to reports of the grand jury testimony, Kerik recommended his wedding party's best man, Larry Ray, for work with Casey.

Caruso was summoned to testify before the grand jury regarding that meeting.

The complaint alleges that Walter Arsenault told Caruso before testifying that "Remember Kerik vouched for Larry Ray at the Walkers' meeting and everything will be O.K." (Arsenault was appearing as an assistant D.A. at the Bronx grand jury and is also the First Deputy Commissioner of the DOI.)

The complaint says Caruso had already told Arsenault the day previous that he "could not truthfully testify" to that; he did not.

Three days later, Caruso was terminated from the DOI. His complaint alleges his removal was in "retaliation" for providing "truthful grand jury testimony" and "because of the relationship between Plaintiff and Kerik."

A month prior to his termination, the complaint claims, Caruso's boss wrote to him that he'd be named Inspector General of the Sanitation Department and given a raise—and be given a larger office.

The six counts include wrongful discharge and defamation, and a demand for jury trial. No filed response to the complaint was available in the U.S. District Court. Caruso's lawyer did not immediately return a call to his office.

—Choire Sicha with Theodore Bressman

Yesterday, as Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff described "isolated criminal misbehavior" while, on the split-screen, anarchy ruled, it was possible to wonder how Bush's first choice for the job would have performed.

This is local sacrilege these days, after the frenzy of damaging revelations that followed the announcement of Bernie Kerik's planned appointment.  read more »

But does anyone else think he might have grasped the urgency of the law-and-order crisis in New Orleans more quickly, and reacted more forcefully?

Mark Humbert of the AP has a story on Mike McKeon's allegation that the Pirro mob contributions story comes from the Clintons (rather than, say, from reality). Humbert quotes my vague denial that our source is a Clintonite.

Anyway, for the record, I went back to the source and asked if I could use a fuller characterization.

He said he wanted his name to stay out of the press, but he is a 23-year old college student in New York City, who says he has some time on his hands, and who is a "political hobbyist" and a reader of The Politicker.

"I'm not with Clinton, I'm not on the campaign staff," he said, sounding a little taken aback at the notion. (Also, he's not on the city's political scene, and Google doesn't show that he has any connection to professional politics.)

Rather, he was reading reports of the Pirro announcement, and saw Azi's note that Bernie Kerik is quoted on Pirro's Web site.

"I think the fact that Kerik is quoted on her Web site kind of tipped me off" to look for mafia connections, he said, recalling reports that Kerik had used mob-linked contractors on a Bronx apartment, and remembering hearing that lots of mobsters had moved to Westchester.

So he went to Pirro's campaign finance reports, and found companies whose names indicate that they are involved in -- natch -- construction and contracting.

Then he put the firm names and "mafia" into Google.

And bingo: Worth Construction.

He emailed his findings to Wonkette (sigh!) and, hearing nothing, to us.  read more »

And this is how stories are made these days. Sorry, Mike.

New York's two political giants, Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, seemed for a moment after Novemb  read more »

"I was born with a charisma!" Cyprus-born singer Anna Vissi declared.  read more »

Rudolph Giuliani's onetime police commissioner and current business partner, Bernard Kerik, certainl  read more »

Had it not been for Sept.  read more »

Whatever the tabloids find under their trees Christmas morning, it can't possibly be as fun to unwra  read more »

In the wake of the Bernard Kerik fiasco, nearly everyone who endorsed the former New York Police Com  read more »

In case you weren't paying attention this weekend, Bernie Kerik imploded. The collapse of his candidacy for Homeland Security Secretary leaves two questions.

1- Was it really the nanny? Kerik claimed he was withdrawing because he discovered he'd employed an illegal alien. Some bloggers, notably Kevin Drum and Josh Marshall, have been making the case that the nanny was just an excuse for Kerik's real reason for pulling out: of embarassing, A1 disclosures about his finances and and personal life, and unanswered questions about his abbreviated stint in Iraq. The Times makes a similar suggestion today.

That makes superficial sense, but it's not what we -- and the Washington Post, and other Times reporters -- are hearing. The White House line is that the problem was that Kerik had...failed to tell...the White House about the nanny, an unforgivable breach of trust. And the timing -- he was dumped immediately after telling the White House about the nanny -- backs up the notion that nannygate was the main reason.

So don't worry, nobody actually cared whether he was up to the job.

2-What does it mean for Rudy? Kerik is already a footnote, but Rudy remains. Does the end of his Teflon Period put a dent in his presidential ambitions? The Daily News editorial board (et tu, Mort?) has America's mayor going "Down in Flames." But cooler heads on the news side quote the ubiquitous Larry Sabato saying, "He's still the hero for 9/11. Kerik can't change that." And the Post colmunist known, we're told, as "the Pod" agrees.

We're inclined toward the theory that this mess may be just the reality-check Rudy needed. Anybody who's followed his and Hillary's paths toward power for the last year or two can see the difference between her well-oiled machine and his solo performance. Newsday signs off with this blind quote from an anonymous -- though we have a couple of guesses -- Republican strategist:  read more »

"I'm sorry, but the people around him are the Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight," said the strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity. "I've had this conversation with U.S. senators and other party leaders and they all say the same thing: Rudy's got to hire a team of people who are ready for prime time and have a plan."

It's hard to imagine a resource more critical to New York than water.  read more »

During the opening night of the Republican National Convention on Aug.  read more »

Remember Bernie Kerik and Judith Regan? Don't miss the weight-lifting scene at the end of Marcus Baram's Bernie Kerik piece today.  read more »

New York City Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen is shopping his memoirs.  read more »

In the coming months, New Yorkers will be confronted by nofewer than eight candidates for Public Adv  read more »