As if Bernie Kerik’s 14-count indictment wasn’t devastating enough to Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign, John McCain piled on today with an angle that hasn’t gotten much attention.
Bernard Kerik did an irresponsible job training police in Iraq, presidential contender John McCain said Friday, adding to criticism of Kerik as Rudy Giuliani’s former police commissioner surrendered to face charges in New York.
McCain cited Kerik’s relationship with his Republican presidential foe as a reason to doubt Giuliani’s judgment…. McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona, pointed to Kerik’s performance in Iraq, along with complaints about how Giuliani treated first-responders after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, as reasons why the former mayor’s presidential campaign should deserve greater scrutiny from voters.
“I don’t know Mr. Kerik. I do know that I went to Baghdad shortly after the initial victory and met in Baghdad with (Ambassador Paul) Bremer and (Lt. Gen. Ricardo) Sanchez. And Kerik was there. Kerik was supposed to be there to help train the police force. He stayed two months and one day left, just up and left,” McCain told reporters traveling on his campaign bus.
“That’s why I never would’ve supported him to be the head of homeland security because of his irresponsible act when he was over in Baghdad to try and help train the police. One of the reasons why we had so much trouble with the initial training of the police was because he came, didn’t do anything and then went out to the airport and left.”
Now, I’m a little unclear on what role, if any, Giuliani had in sending Kerik to Iraq. Maybe Giuliani recommended Kerik for the gig, the same way he recommended Kerik for the Department of Homeland Security, maybe not. But either way, there’s no way Kerik would have been sent to Iraq with responsibilities he was unprepared for were it not for Giuliani constantly promoting him without cause.
In other words, McCain is making a rather provocative argument: part of the fiasco in Iraq is Giuliani’s fault. And as it turns out, that’s actually plausible.
Of course, the Giuliani campaign isn’t going to just let that go.
Randy Mastro, a former New York deputy mayor, said it was unfair to base an opinion of Giuliani on one incident, citing his record as mayor on crime, jobs and cutting taxes.
“It’s no fair to judge Rudy Giuliani on the basis of this one issue (any more) than it is to judge John McCain in the basis of the Keating scandal,” said Mastro, who worked in Giuliani’s administration.
That’s a bit of a cheap shot, though McCain is vulnerable on his role in the securities fraud scandal of the 1980s (which led the Senate Ethics Committee to cite McCain’s “poor judgment”).
But I guess that’s all Giuliani has left. The former mayor embraced a corrupt felon, made him chief of police, and urged the White House to put him in charge of the nation’s domestic security. The campaign can’t defend that, so it has a choice: a) drop out of the race; or b) grasp for straws while bashing critics.
At least for now, it’s encouraging to see McCain use the Kerik scandal against Giuliani; I have no idea why the other Republican presidential hopefuls aren’t doing the same. The controversy is a campaign-ender — if Thompson, Romney, Huckabee, & Co. want to make the race more competitive, they’ll seize this opportunity to expose Giuliani as a fraud.