CBS: More Problems Loomed For KerikIt appears there was a lot more behind Bernard Kerik's withdrawal as a candidate for homeland security chief than nanny taxes.
Two hours before Kerik quit, Newsweek reports it faxed the White House with questions about an arrest warrant issued in a 1998 lawsuit relating to Kerik's New Jersey condo.
The day before the nomination unraveled, New York Newsday reported Kerik was forced to testify in a lawsuit relating to an affair he allegedly had with a subordinate while New York City Corrections Commissioner.
The New York Daily News cites questions about thousands of dollars in cash and gifts the paper says Kerik didn't disclose when he was New York City Police and Corrections Commissioner.
http://cbsnewyork.com/topstories/topstories_story_347195449.htmlNY Daily News: News finds Kerik in cash conflict Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik accepted thousands of dollars in cash and gifts without making proper public disclosures, a Daily News investigation has revealed.
Kerik failed to report the gifts on financial disclosure forms he was required to file with the city as head of the both the NYPD and, before that, the Department of Correction.
The revelations come in the wake of Kerik's stunning announcement Friday night that he was withdrawing his nomination as President Bush's secretary of homeland security.
Kerik maintained yesterday that he pulled out on his own after discovering he may have failed to pay required taxes on behalf of a nanny whose immigration status was uncertain. However, his announcement came after a week of intense media scrutiny into his business and private life.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/krnewyork/20041212/lo_krnewyork/newsfindskerikincashconflictFew insiders believe Kerik's troubles end with nanny issue. ---Newsweek tease on MSNBC homepage
Newsweek: A Tough Guy TumblesWithin three days, Kerik was done for, compelled to withdraw his name as Homeland Security czar. For the record, the proximate cause was a nanny problem: in going over his financial records, Kerik informed the White House, he had discovered that his housekeeper/nanny appeared to be an illegal immigrant and that he had failed to pay all the necessary taxes for her. Since the Homeland Security Department runs the U.S. immigration agencies, it wouldn't do to have the secretary employing illegal aliens.
But few Washington or New York insiders believed that Kerik's problems stopped there. On his way up, Kerik had shown an inclination to make his own rules, and he had made some powerful enemies. The very qualities that appealed to President Bush—a willingness to get things done, and damn the naysayers—were bound to come back to haunt Kerik, especially in the equally vicious worlds of the New York glitterati and the Washington bureaucracy.
Consider, for instance, Kerik's relationship with Judith Regan. A flamboyant, stiletto-heeled—and highly successful—book publisher, Regan published Kerik's sensational memoir, which begins with the scene of Kerik's mother, a prostitute, murdered in her pimp's bed. Occasional workout partners, Kerik and Regan became close friends. But their relationship soured, and Regan told friends Kerik had hounded her, and that she hired a bodyguard. Kerik's lawyer confirmed that Regan and Kerik were friends, but says "there was nothing untoward about their relationship." The lawyer called the allegation that Kerik had hounded her "absurd."
. . .
Kerik's somewhat cavalier attitude is best captured by his time in Iraq. After the invasion in the spring of 2003, Kerik was sent to Baghdad to organize the Iraqi police. But Kerik didn't seem to show much interest in Iraqis, said a senior U.S. official who worked with him. He appeared to enjoy going on night raids against "bad guys" with some South African mercenaries who were serving as bodyguards to U.S. officials. On his screen saver, Kerik had a photo of a big house he had just bought in New Jersey that he said was across the street from former New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms's. Kerik told his colleagues he planned to be in Baghdad for three months while the house was undergoing renovations. "So," the official says he told Kerik, "you're here because you needed a place to go while they're doing renovations on your house." Kerik grinned and cocked a finger as if to say, "You got it." A spokesman for Kerik said that story was "absurd" and that Kerik was a patriot.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6700947/site/newsweek/CNN: Nomination process questioned after Kerik withdrawsLawmakers debated White House culpability Sunday in the doomed nomination of Bernard Kerik as Homeland Security secretary, asking why the administration failed to find critical information in its vetting process before officially selecting him . . .
Kerik withdrew his name from consideration Friday night, saying he discovered someone he had employed as a nanny and housekeeper had questionable immigration status. He insisted the White House had not erred in its vetting process, but that he found the problem during a "deeper, closer" look at his background in preparation for confirmation . . .
But that was not the only factor from Kerik's past that called his fitness for the office into question.
In the days after the selection was announced, news broke on other fronts that could have made for a grueling Senate confirmation hearing, including business dealings that were called into question and accusations that he misused resources while head of the New York Police Department.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/12/kerik.fallout/index.htmlThis is clearly not a case of the press going easy on Kerik or being complicit in his bull story. The media usually falls down on the job. We should give them credit when they do their job, as they've done in this instance.
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