When a mayor’s police chief gets indicted on federal corruption charges, it’s obviously a pretty tough development for that mayor to spin. Of course, the new criminal charges against Bernie Kerik aren’t just another indictment, and Rudy Giuliani is not just another mayor.
Indeed, yesterday’s developments have the capacity to permanently undermine Giuliani’s presidential campaign.
A federal grand jury has voted to indict former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik on charges stemming from the acceptance of free rent and apartment renovations, tax evasion and lying on his application for the job as head of the Department of Homeland Security, two federal sources and a source involved in the defense told ABC News.
As news of the indictment spread, police in suburban White Plains, N.Y., prepared for an expected onslaught of media by setting up police barricades in front of the courthouse and a parking area for television trucks directly across from it, police officials said. And several of Kerik’s closest supporters planned to spend the evening with their friend before he turned himself into the government, sources said.
The indictment caps a wide-ranging federal probe into Kerik’s affairs that has spanned about a year. While it was not immediately clear what the specific charges were, the government’s case as it has been presented to the grand jury has multiple components that would be reflected in a multiple count indictment.
To a certain extent, this indictment alone debunks most of Giuliani’s claims as a credible presidential candidate. He’s “tough on crime”? No, he appointed a criminal to head the NYPD, and urged the White House to make him the Secretary of Homeland Security. He’s a “competent manager”? No, Giuliani was told about Kerik’s alleged criminal activity, but promoted him anyway. He has “good judgment”? Well, clearly not.
When Kerik’s indictment seemed inevitable earlier this week, Giuliani’s initial response was to defend Kerik and point to NYC’s crime rates during Kerik’s brief tenure at the NYPD. Yesterday, however, Giuliani backpedaled, distancing himself from his friend. “I made a mistake in not clearing him effectively enough,” he told reporters.
It’s hard to overstate how unpersuasive this is.
Giuliani’s basic defense is that everyone’s entitled to one screw-up. Kerik is his mulligan. Sure, he appointed a criminal to head the police department. And sure, he wanted the corrupt cop with mob ties to be responsible for the domestic security of 300 million Americans. But hey, nobody’s perfect.
This falls apart pretty quickly. First, Giuliani has a pattern of cozying up to suspected criminals, and giving them jobs. Accidentally promoting one felon is one thing, repeatedly associating with unsavory characters, including a suspected child molester, starts to reflect poorly on one’s judgment.
And second, as Josh Marshall explained very well, as screw-ups go, Kerik was an awfully big one.
Rudy claims that his qualification for the presidency stems from his management of 9/11 and his experience having “the safety and security of the people of New York on my shoulders.” I’ve noted more than a few times now that this is a rather grandiose conception of the mayoralty of any city. But the only sense in which it has any basis is that in New York (as in many cities) the Mayor is in charge of and ultimately accountable for police department. So who you choose to put in charge of the police department isn’t just one of hundred of thousands of decisions. It is both by simple logic and Rudy’s own reasoning probably the most important decision you can make.
And what did Giuliani do? Let’s set aside all of Kerik run-of-mill corruption and the fact that he used a Battery Park apartment donated as a rest area for cops and rescue workers working at Ground Zero as his own personal love shack to boff Judith Regan and sundry other ladies of glamour and renown. Set all that fun stuff aside and realize that Rudy not only appointed a crooked, mobbed-up cop to be in charge of the NYPD. There is now abundant evidence that Rudy knew of Kerik’s mob ties before appointing him.
Just boil it down and say it: when it came time to choose a police commissioner Rudy chose a crooked, mobbed up cop. And he was warned about it all in advance.
That isn’t just one decision among hundreds of thousands. It’s one of such recklessness, irresponsibility and even a hard-to-figure indifference to criminal conduct that, just on the terms upon which Rudy has asked voters to judge his candidacy, it should pretty much end his campaign in its tracks.
The NYT notes that Kerik’s trial will likely come “at the height of the political season.” If reality still has any meaning at all in a presidential campaign, this will be a huge weight around Giuliani’s neck.
Post Script: Giuliani was asked yesterday whether he would consider pardoning his old friend if elected President. Giuliani wouldn’t say either way, insisting it was a hypothetical question. I think the answer Giuliani was looking for was, “Of course not.”