How many alleged criminals can a law-and-order candidate be associated with before it starts to hurt

[babylonsister]

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1635929,00.html

Will Rudy's Get-Tough Image Backfire?
Thursday, Jun. 21, 2007 By DAVID VON DREHLE


How many alleged criminals can a law-and-order candidate be associated with before it starts to hurt? That's the question facing former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, following the indictment Tuesday of Thomas Ravenel, his volunteer campaign chairman in South Carolina.

Giuliani entered the Presidential campaign early this year with one tarnished pal stuffed into his baggage: his former bodyguard, police commissioner and business partner Bernard Kerik. Kerik's career began to unravel in 2004 after Giuliani urged President Bush to name him Secretary of Homeland Security — a nomination that was quickly withdrawn amid reports of Kerik's questionable business and personal dealings. Kerik eventually pleaded guilty to ethics violations while on the city payroll and remains under investigation for tax evasion and other offenses, which Kerik's attorney has said, "he didn't do."

Now Ravenel, the state treasurer of South Carolina, has been charged with cocaine possession and distribution — a felony punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison. Neither he nor his attorney has made any statement.

Giuliani's campaign lost no time in announcing Ravenel's resignation from his unpaid post, and let it be known that the indictment took them entirely by surprise. And Ravenel's offense was alleged to have occurred in late 2005, before his official association with Giuliani.

Still, for a candidate promising to track the whereabouts and lawfulness of every non-citizen living in the United States, it can't help his cause when he fails to spot possible crooks on his corporate and campaign letterhead. And Giuliani's opponents wasted no time in circulating news of Ravenel's indictment; one McCain staffer fired off a dispatch within minutes to reporters' e-mail boxes. Anti-Giuliani bloggers swiftly added the Kerik angle.

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[whistle]

1. It should be just one and you are out

[acmavm]

2. The only criminality now days that counts is the crime of not toeing the

republican party line.