I mentioned earlier that we’re putting together a list of all Bernie Kerik’s scandals and scams. But there’s another list we’re working on — one that interests me just as much. Rudy’s been asked once or twice about his knowledge of Kerik’s mafia ties in advance of making him Police Commissioner and then later getting him appointed as Secretary of Homeland Security. First he denied knowing and then later, when faced with clear evidence to the contrary, sort of admitted it. (He said, Yeah, maybe I heard but I don’t remember.)
But this one instance of Kerik’s mafia ties hardly exhausts the man’s history of cartoonish conduct and boffo wrongdoing. Much of it Rudy must have known about. I don’t buy that a top city official and close friend of the mayor gets sued (with the city as a codefendent) twice over an inappropriate workplace affair and the mayor never finds out about it. Don’t believe it. And there are many other examples.
So we’re putting together our list of Kerik’s scams and scandals. And I think that will help clarify to some degree how much Rudy must have known about in advance of appointing Kerik.
But if you know of published accounts in which Rudy is asked about his knowledge of specific incidents with Kerik, drop us a line and let us know.
Greg Sargent starts putting the pieces together on why the Mukasey vote was rushed through so quickly last night that the four Democratic senators running for President–all opposed to Mukasey–couldn’t get back to DC in time to vote.
Nearly every article about Bernie Kerik’s very brief 2003 stint in Iraq overseeing the training of the Iraqi police includes a reference to Kerik’s abrupt departure. What remains unclear is why he left so quickly.
But, as Spencer Ackerman reports, in the short time he was in Baghdad, Kerik let it be known that he was the “eyes and ears of the Oval Office on the ground.”
I’ll see your Kerik and raise you a Keating!
Don’t have a dog in this fight exactly, but I’d rather have Keating on my bill than Kerik …
CBS has obtained a FEMA photograph of the fake press conference held by Deputy Director Harvey Johnson. The photo shows that those in attendance were high-level FEMA aides personally known to Johnson, CBS reports. Up to now, the agency has defended Johnson as being unaware that the press conference was fake.
Take a look at that picture and then explain how the Department of Homeland Security’s own internal review concluded that the fake presser was not intended to deceive the public.
The Kerik scandal cuts at a core rationale of the Giuliani candidacy.
Why did Majority Leader Harry Reid let the Mukasey vote through–and why so suddenly late last night?
There’s yet more on FEMA’s hilarious defense that its fake press conference was not intended to deceive.
The former director of external affairs for FEMA, John P. Philbin, penned a letter to the editor of the Washington Post today decrying an editorial about the fake presser (thanks to TPM Reader WF for the link). Philbin, who left the agency shortly after the fake presser and seems to have lost a prospective job at the Directorate of National Intelligence because of it, writes:
Here is what happened: There was pressure to inform the public quickly, and the staff, exhausted from round-the-clock duty, dropped the ball on announcing the news briefing. I was busy with meetings and unaware before the briefing that reporters had not been given adequate time to arrive and that the phone line for reporters was “listen only.” The staff tried to salvage the event by asking the kinds of questions they had been fielding that morning. . . .
Because I was in charge, I take responsibility for letting this hastily planned briefing go forward.
However, neither I nor anyone on the staff is guilty of any attempt to deceive.
I refer you again to the picture CBS scrounged up today. Go take a look. It’s a hilarious example of no intent to deceive.