WILL BERNIE KERIK'S INDICTMENT BE THE DEATH KNELL FOR GIULIANI'S CAMPAIGN?

If Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona, one Republican who could probably teach John Doolittle, Tom Delay, Duke Cunningham, Jerry Lewis and Jack Abramoff a few corruption tricks, can be "America's Sheriff" and if a two-bit thug like Rudy Giuliani can be "America's Mayor," then it's perfectly plausible for Bernie Kerik to be America's Cop. Well, it looks like America's Cop, if not America's Mayor, will soon be spending some time in prison.

The NY Times is reporting that Kerik "will surrender to authorities Friday to be arraigned on criminal charges." Who can count how many of Giuliani's closest associates have been indicted and arraigned. If not for the fact that somehow George Bush wound up in the White House, it would be unimaginable that someone of the low moral character of Rudy Giuliani would be taken seriously as a presidential candidate for 2 seconds. Just contemplating how he would staff his administration would scare off anyone with a 3 digit IQ.

The investigation of Kerik, 52, arose from allegations that while a city official he accepted $165,000 in renovations to his Bronx apartment paid for by a mob-connected construction company that sought his help in winning city contracts.

Kerik pleaded guilty last year to a misdemeanor charge in state court admitting that the renovations constituted an illegal gift from the construction firm. The plea spared him jail time and preserved his career as a security consultant, but his troubles resurfaced when federal authorities convened their own grand jury to investigate allegations that he failed to report as income tens of thousands of dollars in services from his friends and supporters.

Before the apartment scandal broke, Giuliani had endorsed his old friend and former police commissioner's nomination in 2004 to head Homeland Security. But only days after President Bush introduced Kerik as his nominee, Kerik announced he was withdrawing his name because of tax issues involving his former nanny.

A federal indictment of Kerik could complicate matters for Giuliani as the first presidential primaries draw near.

The ex-mayor frequently says that he made a mistake in recommending Kerik to be Homeland Security chief, but that might not be enough to avoid the political damage of a drawn-out criminal case involving his one-time protege.

Driving home last night I heard Giuliani claiming it didn't matter if Kerik bent a few rules because crime was down 60% in NY while he was police commissioner. That's as big a lie as all the other lies that comes pouring out of Giuliani's face. Crime in NY was down 8%, not bad-- but not close to 60%. And as far as a few rules being broken... Giuliani's administration was riddled with Mafia connections and Kerik was the go-between. A lot of rules were broken-- very serious ones-- and people are starting to call Giuliani on his penchant for compulsive lying. I suspect that Giuliani had a conniption when the star columnist in his hometown paper stated bluntly last week that "Mr. Giuliani has a habit of saying things, on issues that range from health care to national security, that are demonstrably untrue. And the American people have a right to know that."

CNN ran an interesting clip a couple days ago:




UPDATE: GIULIANI TUMBLES

With Giuliani already refusing to vow not to pardon Kerik and other cronies of his who wind up in prison for criminal activities, America's first potential Mafia-President is starting to fade. Although national polls-- which lag-- still show him ahead, the brand new Rasmussen Poll of New Hampshire voters out today shows Romney leaving him in the dust. Romney is also beating Giuliani in Iowa, a state where the "character issue" predominates in Republican caucuses.

Among likely GOP voters in New Hampshire it lines up like this:
Romney 32%
Giuliani 17%
McCain 16%
Huckabee 10%
Thompson 7%
Paul 4%
Tancredo 3%
Hunter 2%

AMERICA COULD FACE A WORSE DISASTER THAN ANOTHER 9/11-- A RUDY GIULIANI CABINET

Paul Krugman's column in today's NY Times was especially stunning. He dealt with the inability of the mass media to just come out and report that a major, "serious" candidate can't tell the truth. Krugman's specific problem was with Rudy Giuliani's self-serving lies about prostate cancer and health care.

“My chance of surviving prostate cancer — and thank God I was cured of it-- in the United States? Eighty-two percent,” says Rudy Giuliani in a new radio ad attacking Democratic plans for universal health care. “My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England? Only 44 percent, under socialized medicine.”
 
It would be a stunning comparison if it were true. But it isn’t. And thereby hangs a tale-- one of scare tactics, of the character of a man who would be president and, I’m sorry to say, about what’s wrong with political news coverage.
 
Let’s start with the facts: Mr. Giuliani’s claim is wrong on multiple levels-- bogus numbers wrapped in an invalid comparison embedded in a smear.

My dad died from prostate cancer; I did a lot of research into this, probably far more than Giuliani-- and I was just looking for the truth, not for a way to justify a campaign slogan. What I found is quite similar to what Krugman found-- and quite similar to what anyone looking for the unvarnished truth will find: the survival rates of men diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer in the U.S. and Britain don't vary; they are identical. And they are identical even though treatment in the U.S. can be as much as 4 or 5 times as costly.

Krugman went on to show how Giuliani was either deceitful or ignorant with his "facts," which he then tried to twist into a case against "socialized medicine," which he is inappropriately labeling the health care reforms of Hillary, Obama and Edwards, even though none of them-- alas-- are remotely like the U.K. system. (Krugman doesn't mention that Giuliani's own Bush-like bogus proposals would leave out millions of Americans-- himself included-- who have any kind of pre-conditions.) Anyway, from there Krugman asks why the media doesn't just expose lying politicians when they lie.

Memo to editors: If a candidate says something completely false, it’s not “in dispute.” It’s not the case that “Democrats say” they’re not advocating British-style socialized medicine; they aren’t.
 
The fact is that the prostate affair is part of a pattern: Mr. Giuliani has a habit of saying things, on issues that range from health care to national security, that are demonstrably untrue. And the American people have a right to know that.

Interestingly, tomorrow's Times roughs Giuliani up a little more forthrightly. One of Giuliani's most glaring problems has to do with the people he choses to surround himself with. He picks an awful lot of losers-- from Thomas Ravenel, a South Carolina coke dealer, to Davis Diaper Vitter, hypocritical closet queens like David Dreier, Jerry Lewis, the single most corrupt man in Congress, Alan Placa, the pederast priest, to Bernie Kerik, the most high profile personnel disaster so far. And he's who the Times focuses on tomorrow-- and completely in terms of Giuliani's handling on the problem that won't go away.

If the rise of Bernard B. Kerik under the mentorship of Rudolph W. Giuliani was meteoric, the speed of his fall was breathtaking.

In December 2004, President Bush nominated Mr. Kerik, a former New York police commissioner, to head the federal Department of Homeland Security. Seven days later, Mr. Kerik withdrew as a nominee.

A cascade of questions followed about his judgment as a public official, not least that he had inappropriately lobbied city officials on behalf of Interstate Industrial, a construction firm suspected of links to organized crime. Mr. Giuliani defended Mr. Kerik, a friend and business partner, whom he had recommended to the Bush administration. But he also tried to shield himself from accusations that he had ignored Mr. Kerik’s failings.

Then Giuliani lied about the whole mess, claiming, falsely that he didn't know about Kerik's Mafia connections. His own Investigations Commissioner, Ed Kuriansky, testified that Giuliani had been briefed before he appointed Kerik. And the majority of Giuliani's own cabinet opposed Kerik's obviously inappropriate appointment as police commissioner. Giuliani has tried to obfuscate as best he could about what he knew and when he knew it but when he tried foisting Kerik off on Bush, there is no argument that he knew exactly how involved Kerik was in myriad criminal activities. He "now acknowledges that he should have re-examined his friend before recommending him to the White House and that his recommendation had indeed been a mistake."

Even Kerik remarked, in his autobiography, that joining up with Giuliani was like "becoming part of a mafia family... I was being made.” Kerik had no problem with that and he immediately embarked on a career of crime, much of it on behalf of Giuliani's Republican Party-- and the Mafia. "Yesterday, Mr. Kerik’s lawyer met with federal prosecutors in New York in an effort to stave off indictment." Team Giuliani is worried sick that America's Mayor will somehow wind up to be proven to have been made of the same stuff as America's Sheriff.

In the book Giuliani had ghost-written for his political future run, Leadership one statement stands out like a sore thumb: “I believe that the skill I have developed better than any other was surrounding myself with great people.” If that's his best skill, and he ever gets into the White House, America could soon be wishing we had Bush and Cheney back!

ANOTHER GIULIANI ASSOCIATE IN TROUBLE. WHAT WOULD THIS GUY'S ADMINISTRATION LOOK LIKE?

If you don't recognize Rudy's posse, click to enlarge

OK, everybody knows about Giuliani's sponsorship of and partnership with crime figure Bernie Kerik, about the cocaine bust-- and hasty resignation-- of his former South Carolina campaign chair Tom Ravenel, about his California co-chairs, the soon-to-be-indicted Jerry Lewis and hypocritical closet queen David Dreier, and about Giuliani's in house child predator priest, Alan Placa. But Giuliani can't seem to ever appoint anyone to anything who doesn't turn out to be a dud-- or worse. His latest embarrassment is a member of his Miami-Dade County Leadership Team, Hialeah City Council member Jose "Pepe" Caragol (R-FL). Caragol, a reactionary Cuban-born GOP hack, is a typical Giuliani supporter, i.e.- a pig.

Caragol is up for re-election and some voters are offended by his campaign slogan:

Si te gusta el sexo oral, vote por Caragol por consejal

It doesn't rhyme in English but the translation is: "If you like oral sex, vote Caragol for council.'' The front-runner for the presidential nomination of the putative "Family Values" party hasn't asked Caragol to step down yet. He's probably been too busy trying to figure out how to spin that "Family Values" claim with his defense of the Bush veto of the States Children's Health Insurance Program.

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH REPUBLICAN IS THE WORST? WELL... GIULIANI SIGNED UP MOST OF THE SWIFTBOAT FINANCIERS

Although Bush is a physical coward and a draft dodger and Patraeus is an actual fighting general, there are some things the two have in common: they're both dangerous anti-democratic, authoritarian partisan hacks and they each forsee a U.S. occupation of Iraq that stretches into the foreseeable future. Whether we're talking about permanent bases or unending war, Bush and his pet general have plans that go way beyond Bush's term in office. And that of course, brings us to the question of who, exactly among the 11 dwarves is the most Bush-like.

The headline in the new Rolling Stone is quite catchy: Giuliani: Worse Than Bush. Hard to imagine worse than Bush, but Matt Taibbi makes a damn good case. He points out, for example, that even with John McCain still-- albeit barely-- in the race, by far the biggest whore running for the GOP nomination is Rudy Giuliani.

In his years as mayor-- and his subsequent career as a lobbyist-- Rudy jumped into bed with anyone who could afford a rubber. Saudi Arabia, Rupert Murdoch, tobacco interests, pharmaceutical companies, private prisons, Bechtel, ChevronTexaco-- Giuliani took money from them all. You could change Rudy's mind literally in the time it took to write a check. A former prosecutor, Giuliani used to call drug dealers "murderers." But as a lobbyist he agreed to represent Seisint, a security firm run by former cocaine smuggler Hank Asher. "I have a great admiration for what he's doing," Rudy gushed after taking $2 million of Asher's money.

Clearly, the always astute Mr. Taibbi feels Giuliani is the best suited of all 11 of the creepy little old white men running for Bush's mantle to wear it. A Bush-Republican to the core, Giuliani sees absolutely nothing wrong with asking "financially interested parties to help shape important government policies."

Taibbi paints a very ugly picture: "virtually neckless, all shoulders and forehead and overbite, with a hunched-over, Draculoid posture that recalls, oddly enough, George W. Bush, the vestigial stoop of a once-chubby kid who grew up hiding tittie pictures from nuns. " But Taibbi thinks Rudy's character is far uglier than his appearance. And his record is even uglier than that. What has Giuliani done that was so bad? Taibbi has a long list-- "like make $16 million a year, and lobby for Hugo Chávez and Rupert Murdoch, and promote wars without ever having served in the military, and hire a lawyer to call his second wife a 'stuck pig,' and organize absurd, grandstanding pogroms against minor foreign artists, and generally drift through life being a shameless opportunist with an outsize ego who doesn't even bother to conceal the fact that he's had a hard-on for the presidency since he was in diapers. In the media age, we can't have a hero humble enough to actually be one; what is needed is a tireless scoundrel, a cad willing to pose all day long for photos, who'll accept $100,000 to talk about heroism for an hour, who has the balls to take a $2.7 million advance to write a book about himself called Leadership. That's Rudy Giuliani. Our hero. And a perfect choice to uphold the legacy of George W. Bush."

And there's Mafia-connected Bernie Kerik, one of Giuliani's closest business associates and confidants. And, of course, there's 9/11, because, afterall, without 9/11 Rudy, like Bush, was just some pol with his career circling the toilet.

For starters, Rudy tried to use the tragedy to shred election rules, pushing to postpone the inauguration of his successor so he could hog the limelight for a few more months. Then, with the dust from the World Trade Center barely settled, he went on the road as the Man With the Bullhorn, pocketing as much as $200,000 for a single speaking engagement. In 2002 he reported $8 million in speaking income; this past year it was more than $11 million. He's traveled in style, at one stop last year requesting a $47,000 flight on a private jet, five hotel rooms and a private suite with a balcony view and a king-size bed.

While the mayor himself flew out of New York on a magic carpet, thousands of cash-strapped cops, firemen and city workers involved with the cleanup at the World Trade Center were developing cancers and infections and mysterious respiratory ailments like the "WTC cough." This is the dirty little secret lurking underneath Rudy's 9/11 hero image-- the most egregious example of his willingness to shape public policy to suit his donors. While the cleanup effort at the Pentagon was turned over to federal agencies like OSHA, which quickly sealed off the site and required relief workers to wear hazmat suits, the World Trade Center cleanup was handed over to Giuliani. The city's Department of Design and Construction (DDC) promptly farmed out the waste-clearing effort to a smattering of politically connected companies, including Bechtel, Bovis and AMEC construction.

...Although respiratory-mask use was mandatory, the city allowed a macho culture to develop on the site: Even the mayor himself showed up without a mask. By October, it was estimated, masks were being worn on site as little as twenty-nine percent of the time. Rudy proclaimed that there were "no significant problems" with the air at the World Trade Center. But there was something wrong with the air: It was one of the most dangerous toxic-waste sites in human history, full of everything from benzene to asbestos and PCBs to dioxin (the active ingredient in Agent Orange). Since the cleanup ended, police and firefighters have reported a host of serious illnesses-- respiratory ailments like sarcoidosis; leukemia and lymphoma and other cancers; and immune-system problems.

"The likelihood is that more people will eventually die from the cleanup than from the original accident," says David Worby, an attorney representing thousands of cleanup workers in a class-action lawsuit against the city. "Giuliani wears 9/11 like a badge of honor, but he screwed up so badly."

When I first spoke to Worby, he was on his way home from the funeral of a cop. "One thing about Giuliani," he told me. "He's never been to a funeral of a cleanup worker."

Yesterday's American Lawyer published a story by Susan Beck that isn't quite as fesity as Taibbi's but is no less damning. Two years ago Giuliani became a partner in a Texas law firm, Bracewell & Patterson, very close to Bush and Rove... very close. The managing partner, Patrick Oxford, has been one of Bush's top fundraisers and a major behind-the-scenes force in Texas politics. He's now Giuliani's campaign chairman and "in the first three months of the year, Giuliani has received more money from Texas-- $2.2 million-- than any other Republican or Democratic candidate. The list of Texas donors includes former Bush supporter and billionaire T. Boone Pickens, Jr. (who has helped raise $500,000, according to the Wall Street Journal), Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks, and Richard Kinder, the chairman and chief executive officer of Bracewell client Kinder Morgan, Inc."

In fact, Taibbi points out that in his rush "to emulate the Bush-Rove model, Giuliani has recruited some thirty Bush 'Pioneers,' the key fund-raisers who served as the president's $100,000 bagmen. In addition, he hired the woman who spearheaded the Pioneer program to be his chief fund-raiser. 'Rudy definitely got some of Bush's heavier hitters, including all the Swift Boater types,' says Alex Cohen, a senior researcher at Public Citizen, who tracks the president's top donors."

According to Beck, Giuliani has had to step back from Bracewell recently, after some uncomfortable revelations. "Recent articles have scrutinized the firm's work for energy companies like Venezuela-owned Citgo Petroleum Corporation, forcing Giuiliani to explain his firm's connections to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. The firm has also had to defend its work for companies accused of fighting environmental regulation. In addition, Bracewell has had to concern itself with Federal Election Commission rules that would penalize Giuliani and the firm if his compensation is considered a campaign contribution."

I can't believe I got through a whole post on Giuliani without once mentioning how refreshing it would be to have a president into drag. I mean, Republicans complain that John Edwards spent a lot on a haircut? What do you think this hair and makeup cost Rudy?




UPDATE: WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT SEEING GIULIANI'S SLEAZY MACHINATIONS GET HIM HOIST ON HIS OWN PETARD?

Giuliani's high-powered New Jersey supporters having been busy as little beavers for their boy. Bob Novak reports that they've managed to change "New Jersey's longtime proportional representation rules for allocating national convention delegates to winner-take-all, seeking a coup to give the former New York City mayor the lion's share of the state's 52 votes." And who put this together for Rudy? Well, look no further than far right extremist loon David Von Savage, GOP Chair of Cape May County and a big Rudy booster, even though Giuliani refuses to sign the No New Taxes Pledge. Of course, which Bush splintering and smashing the Republican base to smithereens, what difference does it make who wins the toxic nomination?