From the 2008 leftover pile: If Rudy and Jeb are the cream of the GOP leadership-in-waiting, hoo boy!

Bernie Kerik came this close to being secretary of homeland
security. (Does Chimpy the Prez know talent, or what?)

by Ken

The idea was supposed to be to attack this pile of stuff I never got around to writing about in 2008, knocking each item off in a single paragraph, with a link to where somebody has written about it. But as you know, "a single paragraph" isn't something I do a lot of. So let's start with quick (quickish?) glances at the two leading statesmen among the Republican leaders-in-waiting.


* RUDY! RUDY!

This is actually an item Howie shot back from Africa (under the above subject line): news of a revised and amplified set of indictments against Bernie Kerik, who as NYC corrections commissioner and then police commissioner was Mayor Rudy Giuliani's good right hand on security matters. Later, of course, after they had left office and were in the private sector together, those unfortunate indictments against Bernie got Rudy to chop off that old hand right quick.

Back in the good old days it was Rudy and Bernie, standing side by side, who kept the city safe -- from, you know, stuff like the terrorist attacks on which Rudy presents himself as such an authority. Oh wait!

Well, they like to make believe that they're the bee's knees in security consciousness. (Certainly Rudy is an acknowledged master at sustaining 9/11 consciousness, not to mention Rudy consciousness.) Just look how much time Rudy and Bernie devoted to securing -- oops, I almost said "procuring" -- gov't-provided love nests for their extramarital shtupping. Okay, that's maybe unkind. For guys this repulsive, both personally and physically, they must have had to become pretty darned powerful just to get opportunities for fornicating, especially on the public's time and dime.

Rudy of course came this close to 9/11-ing his way into the White House, and now presumably he's preparing for his next run. Don't forget, it took him two tries to race-bait his way into City Hall. In 2010 he has his pick in of a run for governor or senator. I'm sure he's hoping that by then his old comrade-in-arms Bernie will have plea-bargained his way back into well-deserved obscurity.

Then came this NYT blog report:

WHITE PLAINS -- Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner who at one point was President Bush's top choice to lead the federal Department of Homeland Security, pleaded not guilty on Monday morning to new tax-fraud charges that were added to his public-corruption case.

As part of a superseding indictment, Mr. Kerik, 53, was arraigned on two new charges of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns for the tax years 2002 and 2005, and one new charge of making false statements regarding a loan application for a home loan. Mr. Kerik was originally indicted in November 2007 on corruption, conspiracy and tax fraud charges.

If convicted on all the current charges against him he could face 142 years in prison -- according to the United States attorney's office in the original indictment -- along with $4.75 million in fines and forfeiture of $255,000 that authorities say were the proceeds of a criminal conspiracy.

* JEB! JEB!

Speaking of the "depth" of that Republican leadership bench, we were talking recently about the sudden, miraculous revival of Jeb Bush's political hopes, which the poor guy undoubtedly thought had been ended by the permanent "political pariah" status his big brother earned for the Bush name -- as witness those extra hundred or two pounds he's put on. But Jeb discovered that, as far as the American electorate is concerned, as long as it's nothing more serious than gross incompetence and trampling the constitution, "permanent" memories can vanish in a heartbeat -- and then he too took a look at the strength of that current GOP lineup: Willard "The Rat" Romney, Minister Mike the Huckster Bee, Princess Sarah Palin. Jeb can be forgiven for thinking that he's back. Heck, maybe he can go on Minister Mike's weight-loss program.

And in 2010 Jeb too has a plum job opening up to get him back into public service (and the public eye). Sen. Mel Martinez, of all people, has turned out to be too principled to sustain a career in Republican politics. (Off his record as party chairman and then his time to date in the Senate, who'd a-thunk it?) So he's not running for reelection, clearing the seat for Jeb to waddle into if he's interested, since the strongest statewide candidate Florida Dems seem able to field is "none of the above." (Unless you count begging former governor and senator Bob Graham to once again unretire.)

Jeb has been out of the public eye so long now that all Floridians seem to remember is how much they used to love him, even though from everything I've heard, his successor as governor, fellow Republican Charlie Crist, has been a way better governor. As governor, Jeb seemed to seize every opportunity to be as committed a far-right ideologue as his brother George on social issues, and an even bigger corporate and special-interest whore on all issues where money was involved.

Florida has been one of the states hardest hit by the mortgage meltdown, and it's turning out, not surprisingly, that Governor Jeb played a powerful role in putting the state at the mercy of a horde of thieves, including actual criminals. Christy Hardin Smith at Firedoglake called attention last week to a series that the Miami Herald has been running since July (in other words, since before the shit really hit the fan) called "Borrowers Betrayed," and also to a report on the series on Columbia Journalism Review's blog The Audit which includes an interview with Herald reporter Jack Dolan, who's been one of the principal reporters on the series.

Here are the Herald website's thumbnail summaries of the early installments in the series:

Part 1: State regulators allow thousands with a criminal past to peddle home loans -- costing consumers millions.

Part 2: Despite pleas from consumers, Florida does not require loan originators to pass criminal background checks.

Part 3: Even when brokers break the law, they are frequently allowed to keep their licenses -- only to break the law again.

In the interview, CJR's Ryan Chittum asks reporter Dolan why the state regulators failed so abysmally to regulate.

A big part of the problem on Wall Street and across the country has been this laissez-faire attitude toward regulation. Was it philosophy? What caused them to just not do their job?

JD: Nobody ever came right out and said on the record “Jeb Bush appointed us and he’s not a big fan of government, so we didn’t do it.” One of the more telling things that one of the higher-ups at the agency told me; he said “Look, my whole career has been spent regulating guys in silk suits. These mortgage brokers, they’re not bankers. They have little storefronts. Those are guys in polyester suits.”

He said that, and that kind of summed it up for me. These were kind of white-shoe regulators, and the mortgage brokers were, you know…

Which leaves open the question of how effectively Jeb's blue-blood-loving regulators in fact watched over those guys in the silk suits.

If enough investigators do enough investigating of the other Bush regime, assuming Jeb chooses to make the Senate race, even whatever sad sack candidate the Dems come up with should be able to send him back to private life.

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