« More AJC non-coverage | Main | Middle of the Road »

November 16, 2005

Looking Back on a Bad Year

Many people forget that the first major hurdle Bush faced in his second term was the nomination of a mobster to be homeland security chief. Bernard Kerik withdrew his nomination because of a "nanny problem" but an article in today's NYT hints that he may have a few more skeletons in his closet yet.

If being a social liberal doesn't doom Rudy's chances in a Republican primary, surely this type of stuff will. Here you have a guy who recommends to Bush that he pick an associate of his for a very important cabinet position, a guy whose friends refer to him as "top shelf" and who basically turns out to have pretty evident mob ties. I'm guessing the deeper you dig (if the media decides to ever dig) on Giuliani, the more things like this that stink will emerge.

We forget that before September 11th, America's Mayor was more aptly known as America's least popular mayor. He showed some great leadership during that period, which allowed a lot of people to overlook his attempted power grab -- remember he thought term limits should be waved so he could continue on as mayor -- but great leadership at one moment of time does not necessarily make a great leader or someone the country should entrust to put us back on the right track.

I think both Giuliani and McCain should keep in mind that there is nothing the media likes more than to knock someone down who has a long way to fall. Giuliani was getting his fair share pre 9/11, and McCain never progressed far enough in the primaries to get beyond the glowing profiles and into some critical looks. But regardless of all that, reading that piece on Kerik reminded me that Bush was having pretty bad luck getting his way well before Katrina hit.

Posted by Chris at November 16, 2005 11:21 AM

Comments

Not necessarily to Rudy's defense, but remember that before he was America's least popular mayor he was a mob-busting US Attorney. To that end, he would probably come out clean on any mob ties related to Kerik. Also, Kerik's potential ties to the mob were first covered a while ago by the Times, including last December.

Posted by: MEM [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 16, 2005 01:23 PM

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)


Remember me?