White House Puts Blame on Kerik

[seemslikeadream]

Nominee Initially Denied Having Hired an Illegal Immigrant, Officials Say

By Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 12, 2004; Page A01

White House officials yesterday blamed Bernard B. Kerik for repeatedly failing to disclose potential legal problems to administration lawyers vetting his nomination to be homeland security secretary, as President Bush prepared to quickly name a replacement and try to put the controversy over the former New York police commissioner's background behind him.

Kerik, who withdrew his own nomination Friday and apologized yesterday for embarrassing Bush, was asked numerous times by White House lawyers if he had employed an illegal immigrant or failed to pay taxes on domestic help, the sources said.

Kerik was told he would humiliate his family, himself and the president if he lied on either account, the officials said. He responded with firm denials. After digging deeper, however, Kerik said he discovered last week that he might have a problem on both accounts and withdrew his name.

In the vetting process, which was conducted by the office of White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, Kerik also never mentioned that a New Jersey judge had issued a warrant for his arrest in 1998 over a civil dispute over unpaid bills, the sources said. The existence of the dispute was first reported by Newsweek Friday night.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57960-2004Dec11.html

[George_S]

1. And he's a cop?

Any chance he would lie on the stand?

Nahhhhhh.

[The Zanti Regent]

38. WHAT ELSE WAS IN THE CLOSET?

Oh, CNN will never tell us, Wolf just gets off flaunting his brown lipstick!

[Chelsea Patriot]

55. Leslie always demands the best make-up money can buy.

[stevedeshazer]

2. NOTHING is ever their fault

EVER.

The buck stops >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> over there.>>>>>>>

[aikido15]

36. EXAAAACTLY!

I'm so sick of it...that's the first thing about this story I noticed today...The White House passing the buck...AGAIN!

[johnfunk]

54. Bernie's fault? What about the people propping him up? We're not stupid...

[SHRED]

3. Uhhh...No

I mean yes...I mean...now I remember...


I'm feelin' real secure about shrub's choices...oh yeah...real secure.

:scared:

[gordianot]

4. Just too good. ROFLMAO

Never mind all his potential shady business dealings. Oh that Bushco is prime for laughs.

Just remebered something wasn't the only mistake Bush would admit to in debates was hiring the wrong people. Oh wait this is the other guys fault. Kerry and Clinton made him do it.

[Mokito]

40. Oh, that evil Clinton penis!

When will it stop with it's shenanigans? :eyes:

[Erika]

5. Bush accept responsibility for a mistake? Never.

He blames OBL completely for not being found. OBL should have been a gentleman and turned himself in. He should be honest and up-front and keep Bush from having to investage and search for him.

Bush is really a piece os.

[saracat]

6. Seems a bit more serious than "nannygate"!

Interesting that the warrent was regarded as not a big deal by the WH and they think Kerick could have survived that but the nanny problem was serious? I guess they don't like the light that puts Bush's guest worker program in? LOL!

[sweetheart]

7. A lesson from Blair

Blair got Gilligan screwed from the BBC from reporting what turned
out to be the truth.... and even got the BBC to apologize to him for
being a ball faced liar, when their reporter was deemed innapropriate
to have told the truth.

The future of justice in media is typical. Blame the innocent and
accept no responsibility.... the bush way of crime.

[Goldeneye]

8. The WH quickly turning on Kerik brings to mind this song

You with the sad eyes
Don't be discouraged
Oh I realize
It's hard to take courage
In a world full of people
You can lose sight of it all
And the darkness, inside you
Can make you feel so small

But I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful,
Like a rainbow

Show me a smile then,
Don't be unhappy, can't remember
When I last saw you laughing
If this world makes you crazy
And you've taken all you can bear
You call me up
Because you know I'll be there

And I'll see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful,
Like a rainbow

So sad eyes
Discouraged now
Realize

When this world makes you crazy
And you've taken all you can bear
You call me up
Because you know I'll be there

And I'll see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors, true colors

Cos there's a shining through
I see your true colors
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors, true colors
True colors are beautiful.

[HuckleB]

9. He did it! She did it! They did it! Look over there!

The new motto that ought to be emblazoned on the Presidential Seal: "I didn't do it."

[babylonsister]

20. Or a good bumper sticker? nt

[CatWoman]

21. LOL

The Bart Simpson president :D

[Kenergy]

10. I don't see any problem with his nomination...

He's as dishonest as the rest of the Bush admin.
He needs to run on the Republican ticket in '08.











<sarcasm >

[quiet.american]

13. Smile :)

[quiet.american]

11. Smokescreen Galore

So, none of this other stuff mattered as well?

Kerik's relationship to a stun gun manufacture presents a serious conflict of interest.

Kerik abandoned a critical post in Iraq to go on vacation.

Kerik used his New York Police Department credentials to shill for pharmaceutical interests.

Kerik, who recently made millions in the private sector, once filed for personal bankruptcy as a New York cop.

NEWSWEEK has discovered that a New Jersey judge in 1998 had issued an arrest warrant (for Kerik) as part of a convoluted series of lawsuits relating to unpaid bills on his condo.

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=83323&lftnav=talkingpoints

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6697161/site/newsweek/


"Moral values" on the march.

[mitchum]

29. Exactly!

Kerik's "nannygate" is just a smoke screen to distract from those far more serious transgressions. And, of course, it gives the media whores their cue to remind everyone of Zoe Baird. See, it IS always Clinton's fault.

[quiet.american]

30. "See, it IS always Clinton's fault."

Hello!

[KDLarsen]

34. Are you kidding..

Kerik's relationship to a stun gun manufacture presents a serious conflict of interest.

Kerik abandoned a critical post in Iraq to go on vacation.

Replace Kerik with Bush & Stun gun manufacturer with oil business - that's Bush resume right there for you!

[liberalcanuck]

52. I'm sure there's much, much more. I think these snips are worth

further reading...

It was this personal connection to Giuliani that paved the way to Kerik’s wealth and fame. A martial arts expert, he had served in the military, worked as the warden of a county jail in New Jersey, and later as a security contractor for the Saudi monarchy. He then joined the New York City Police Department, working on drug busts as an undercover agent.

(snip)

After Giuliani’s election, he was rewarded for these personal services with a series of increasingly senior posts in the city hierarchy—first as a deputy commissioner, then as head of the Correction Department, and finally as commissioner of the NYPD. He left in his wake a series of corruption scandals, and a residue of bitterness over the subjective and vindictive way in which he rewarded his supporters and punished anyone who challenged him.

(snip)

Although Kerik left the jail system in August 2000, after he was tapped to head the NYPD, a series of scandals arising from his tenure continues to generate investigations. Among them is a kickback scheme engineered between the Correction Department and major tobacco companies on the sale of cigarettes to inmates.

Previously, the tobacco companies had provided sports equipment and similar items in return for control of the lucrative jail market. After Kerik’s arrival in 1995, however, a new deal was negotiated in which the companies paid out checks to a newly formed foundation that collected and disbursed funds without any city oversight.

(snip)

Up to a million dollars was spent by the foundation. No accounting has been provided of these expenditures, either to the city or the Internal Revenue Service.

In a separate operation now under investigation by prosecutors, Kerik’s top aide reorganized the jail system’s handling of scrap metal, which had previously been turned over to the city for resale. Under Kerik’s watch, an off-the-books operation was set up in which the metal was directly sold to private dealers. Investigators are trying to determine what happened to the proceeds, which amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

(snip)

Kerik’s two top lieutenants at the city jails—his successor as commissioner, William Fraser, and Anthony Serra, the officer who was in command at Rikers Island—have both been forced to resign because of the mounting scandals. Both men were accused of coercing subordinates to perform work at their homes. In Serra’s case, jail guards have charged that he forced them to work for Republican Party campaigns.

(snip)

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/dec2004/keri-d04.shtml

[Bark Bark Bark]

53. With Kerik's Tongue Firmly Anchored...

...in the depths of Guiliani's anus, perhaps he will drag that dirty SOB down with him.

Hey Kerik! Welcome to the ranks of the disgruntled! Write it allllll down.

[yardwork]

58. Sounds like insider stock trading got Kerik his millions

After being bankrupt less than five years ago, he suddenly became a millionaire when the stock he owned in security companies went sky-high after......(wait for it).........our invasion of Iraq!!

What a coinkydink!

[Overseas]

59. EXACTLY ! WELL SAID !! n/t

[bettyellen]

12. and they made sure he said clearly it was his own mistake...

gosh, i knew he was scripted on that one by our teflon don........
i love when he does it, it's a mistake, and for the rest of us, that would be called a crime, right? Sheesh!

[quiet.american]

31. Bend over, whipping boy n/t

[Erika]

14. It also makes Rudi, the nation's mayor, look a fool

and remind people how unpopular he was in NYC prior to 9/11.

[JoFerret]

16. THAT is the real icing on this cake

.

[bin.dare]

22. no, no, wrong angle. He was rudolf's driver ....

so what did he see? what did he do?
clearly rudolf owes him big time, but what for?
how does a driver move up so fast?

Guilliani and Partners, Guilliani/Kerik Inc ?

how so fast?

[ebayfool]

46. I'd like to know the answer to that one ...

Guilliani needs some checking out for all the spew he put out during the campaign. You just know he has some trash piles that haven't been sorted through, yet. And I just bet that his 'driver' knows where they are! One *ush underling at a time, lose the underpinnings & let him try to stand on his own - he can't do all his 'hard work' w/out his henchmen. One down ... NEXT please!

(don't know which one of them I dislike most - but since Kerik is done, I guess Guilliani moves into the lead)

[msgadget]

48. Finally!

I'm waiting to see if their connection will be further explored in the press.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2815691&mesg_id=2817632

[Spinzonner]

15. I see that Gonzales

applied the same intense review to vetting Kerik as he did to the execution memos while he was in Texas.

[Southsideirish]

60. It warms my Democratic heart to think how p.o.'d the old boy must be!!!

You know how he likes everything to go SO perfectly and now he has egg all over his little beaky nose.

[asjr]

17. The WH knew all about it. Until it got into the press Shrub

was gung ho for Kerick.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

18. clinton's fault again. damnit it can't bill do anything?

[gordianot]

19. Kerry also had something to with this.

He made Bush admit his mistakes in hiring the wrong people during the debates.

But you're right Clinton's fault!

[KarenS]

23. Yep,,,, ol Bill Clinton strikes again!!

or Hillary

or Kerry

or the godless liberals

:nopity:

[shance]

24. What insulting propaganda. This has nothing to do with "nannygate".

I hope Americans are growing tired of the conveyor belt of lies.

[seemslikeadream]

25. So true

Know your BFEE: Homeland Czar & Petro-Turd Bernie Kerik

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2788428

[UTUSN]

26. So GONZALEZ Fucked Up the Vetting, in Other Words n/t

[Rose Siding]

27. Really! How hard is it to unearth an old arrest warrant?

BUSH league

[Octafish]

35. He just killed in Texas.

Remember all the one-page case summaries of the condemned the great legal mind created for his Big Boss "man"? Not a single one introduced the thought of compassion, even based simply on exculpatory evidence. Of course, consider what he works for. Bush actually ridiculed Karl Faye Tucker. To me, that's proof the Little Turd from Crawford is nothing more than Satan's Monkey.

[Erika]

41. A Man Of God He Is Not

Look what Bush has done to Christ's Golden Rule. Says it all as to where his heart is.

[mitchum]

28. How did someone like Kerik continue to fall upwards in the past 25 years?

Very strange and very interesting

[Octafish]

33. He was a good driver?

Passed from meister to pupil, Reverse Robin Hood must be a neo-Conman Thing:

The Curse of Dick Cheney

The veep's career has been marred by one disaster after another

By T.D. ALLMAN

Should George W. Bush win this election, it will give him the distinction of being the first occupant of the White House to have survived naming Dick Cheney to a post in his administration. The Cheney jinx first manifested itself at the presidential level back in 1969, when Richard Nixon appointed him to his first job in the executive branch. It surfaced again in 1975, when Gerald Ford made Cheney his chief of staff and then -- with Cheney's help -- lost the 1976 election. George H.W. Bush, having named Cheney secretary of defense, was defeated for re-election in 1992. The ever-canny Ronald Reagan was the only Republican president since Eisenhower who managed to serve two full terms. He is also the only one not to have appointed Dick Cheney to office.

This pattern of misplaced confidence in Cheney, followed by disastrous results, runs throughout his life -- from his days as a dropout at Yale to the geopolitical chaos he has helped create in Baghdad. Once you get to know his history, the cycle becomes clear: First, Cheney impresses someone rich or powerful, who causes unearned wealth and power to be conferred on him. Then, when things go wrong, he blames others and moves on to a new situation even more advantageous to himself.

"Cheney's manner and authority of voice far outstrip his true abilities," says Chas Freeman, who served under Bush's father as ambassador to Saudi Arabia. "It was clear from the start that Bush required adult supervision -- but it turns out Cheney has even worse instincts. He does not understand that when you act recklessly, your mistakes will come back and bite you on the ass."

Cheney's record of mistakes begins in 1959, when Tom Stroock, a Republican politician-businessman in Casper, Wyoming, got Cheney, then a senior at Natrona County High School, a scholarship to Yale. "Dick was the all-American boy, in the top ten percent of his class," Stroock says. "He seemed a natural." But instead of triumphing, Cheney failed. "He spent his time partying with guys who loved football but weren't varsity quality," recalls Stephen Billings, an Episcopalian minister who roomed with him during Cheney's freshman (and only full) year at Yale. "His idea was, you didn't need to master the material," says his other roommate, Jacob Plotkin. "He passed one psych course without attending class or studying, and he was proud of that. But there are some things you can't bluff, and Dick reached a point where you couldn't recover."

Cheney might have been flunking in the classroom, but he excelled at making connections. "Dick always had this very calm way of talking," recalls Plotkin, now a retired math professor at Michigan State University. "His thoughtful manner impressed people." Forty years before the son of a U.S. president picked Cheney to be his running mate, the son of a Massachusetts governor picked him to be his sophomore-year roommate. Mark Furcolo, whose father, Foster, had been elected governor as a Democrat, invited Cheney to Cape Cod for a visit. "Dick came back enraptured," Plotkin says. "He was fascinated by the official state cars and planes. The trappings of it got him."

CONTINUED...

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/rnd/1094661464223/has-player/false/id/6450422?rnd=1102821235198&has-player=true

[bklyncowgirl]

51. Kerik is master of the art ass kissing

He does his master's bidding.

[0007]

32. This is good material for the Amos & Andy show!

Can you fucking believe this administration?

[Nordic]

37. Why aren't they blaming Clinton?

I'm confused here ....

[NashVegas]

39. Methinks Rudy Guiliani Got His Kneecaps Broken

yes, indeedie I do.

[Bouncy Ball]

42. This has NOTHING to do with the illegal immigrant maid

I PROMISE you. Hell, FAR worse has been revealed about different people associated with bush than THIS!

No. He was asked to withdraw his name. And for far worse reasons than this. That is my strong suspicion. This is nothing to the neocons.

[GarySeven]

43. Put the blame on Mame, boys

Or on the Bosa Nova.

[daleo]

44. Sounds like Bush wants some serious grovelling now

This guy is a jerk, so I don't have any sympathy (the abandonment of his daughter in Korea did it for me), but the Bush administration's need for abject apologies, grovelling, and condemnation is disturbing.

Perhaps DU needs to lend grovelbot to Bush for a while, and calm him down.

[flordehinojos]

45. don't ever expect bush to admit to any mistakes or missteps other than

eating extra donuts. bush wanted the GOON simply because he is a goon who would have simply followed bush's goonish evil impulses without question. now that some made some ruckus about it, kerik is put out to hang--not bush.

[msgadget]

47. Who says they don't trust the liberal media?

[LynnTheDem]

49. When has the bush admin accepted responsibility for ANYTHING?

Answer: NEVER

[bettyellen]

50. theres more about him screwing over a colleague at the DOC

Dept of Corrections becasue the guy repremanded a corrections officer Kerick was having an affair with. There was testimony about this this week, and a hearing about getting it sealed.
Just saw Rudy grovel on the news! Priceless!! Idiot thinking he has a future with the Repugs!?! LOL!! An Italian from NYC?? HA! What an idiot!

[tuvor]

56. Has bush never heard of a background check?

I guess he's hoping most Americans don't realize that such things exist.

:crazy:

[msgadget]

57. He favors fast tracking everything.

[LiberalFighter]

61. Don't they investigate their nominees before nominating? Geesh

Then again they probably figured they could sneak it by since the media has been doing a poor job of checking things out and/or involved in keeping it hidden.

[spanone]

62. Well, he couldn't blame Giuliani nor himself.