Republicans and their memories

March 30, 2007

Rudy Giuliani’s Bernie Kerik problem may prove to be a little more complicated than previously thought: the former NYC mayor told a grand jury that his former chief investigator remembered having briefed him on Kerik’s organized crime connections before Giuliani named Kerik police commissioner.

Mr. Giuliani, testifying last year under oath before a Bronx grand jury investigating Mr. Kerik, said he had no memory of the briefing, but he did not dispute that it had taken place, according to a transcript of his testimony.

Mr. Giuliani’s testimony amounts to a significantly new version of what information was probably before him in the summer of 2000 as he was debating Mr. Kerik’s appointment as the city’s top law enforcement officer. Mr. Giuliani had previously said that he had never been told of Mr. Kerik’s entanglement with the company before promoting him to the police job or later supporting his failed bid to be the nation’s homeland security secretary.

This is kind of tough to spin. Either Giuliani knowingly blew off a briefing about Kerik’s ties to organized crime, or Giuliani’s chief investigator warned him about it and Giuliani make Kerik police commissioner anyway.

Giuliani’s defense is a faulty memory. He told the grand jury that he had been briefed on Kerik’s background, possibly more than once, but “must have simply forgotten” the concerns. At one point during the grand jury proceedings, a senior Bronx prosecutor, asked Giuliani, “As you sit here today, your testimony is, and correct me if I am wrong, that you don’t recall ever being told that a close friend of your correction commissioner had been indicted in a federal case?”

Mr. Giuliani responded: “I don’t recall that until 2004. I can’t tell you that it wasn’t, but I don’t — I don’t — I don’t remember.”

Now, this, coupled with Giuliani’s handling of 9/11, may prove to undermine his presidential aspirations. But taking a step back, have you noticed how often we’ve been hearing “I don’t remember” from high-profile Republicans the last few weeks?

* Yesterday, Kyle Sampson used the phrase “I don’t remember” a memorable 122 times during his Senate Judiciary Committee testimony yesterday.

* On Wednesday, General Services Administration chief Lurita Doan testified in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee about her potentially illegal activities — such as encouraging agency employees to help Republican candidates in elections and granting a no-bid contract to a personal friend — but told lawmakers she couldn’t remember anything (except that “there were cookies on the table” at one of her meetings).

* On Monday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told NBC News’ Pete Williams that he may have been involved in conversations about the performance of US Attorneys before the purge, but he doesn’t remember them.

* Two weeks ago, John McCain told reporters he didn’t remember whether he believed contraceptives can help stop the spread of HIV.

Karl Rove doesn’t remember talking to Matt Cooper about Valerie Plame. Scooter Libby doesn’t remember how he learned about Plame’s status at the CIA. Condoleezza Rice doesn’t remember Iran reaching out for diplomatic negotiations with the U.S. in 2003.

These poor folks can’t seem to remember much, can they? Aren’t there memory tricks and/or mnemonic techniques that could give them a hand?

Faulty memory isn’t so much an condition of one party or the other as much as it is a condition of the guilty.

  • This is kind of tough to spin.

    Well, the Freepers are spinning it as “New York Slimes does hit piece on the only Republican who can beat Hitlery!!!” (That’s a paraphrase, but not by much.)

  • Seems like “I can’t remember” and “I’m an alcoholic entering rehab” are the two excuses Rethugs like best when caught with their pants down. Rudy was a high profile prosecutor of the mob before he became mayor. Seems to me that he’d remember being told that his good friend had that connection. Of course, he didn’t remember to tell his second wife, Donna Hanover, that he wanted a divorce before he told the press. I don’t think a person with such a bad memory is fit to be president. And as a New Yorker with a good memory of Rudy’s tenure before 9/11, I’m sure he’s not fit for that office.

  • Memory loss is a defense mechanism employed by mediocrities to sustain their fragile, inflated egos.

  • Lurita Doan didn’t use a bad memory defense. She used “I’m a total moron” defense. When asked what several obvious Powerpoint slides meant that she had in front of her and that she had reviewed the day before, she said she had no idea what they meant.

    She could have a decent defense for the Jennings Powerpoint. She could have said that because that she assumed that it was just another dog-and-pony briefing and she tuned out as soon as it started and was thinking about other things like meetings she was about to attend and emails that she needed to send. If she had realized that Jennings was give such a partisan presentation, she would have stopped it immediately.

  • Vote for me, I can’t remember jack shit!

    In their questioning of Mr. Giuliani last April, Bronx prosecutors sought repeatedly to determine how much the mayor remembered being told about Mr. Kerik’s problems, and what, if anything, he had done about the information.

    Throughout his questioning, Mr. Giuliani said he remembered close to nothing about what he had been told about the broader background investigation of Mr. Kerik or what he had done after hearing it. He testified that he remembered being told something about Mr. Kerik’s experience as a security consultant in Saudi Arabia, but little else.

    He testified, as well, that he could not remember if he had ever discussed the issues with Mr. Kerik directly.

    At one point, a senior Bronx prosecutor, Stephen R. Bookin, asked Mr. Giuliani, “As you sit here today, your testimony is, and correct me if I am wrong, that you don’t recall ever being told that a close friend of your correction commissioner had been indicted in a federal case?”

    Mr. Giuliani responded: “I don’t recall that until 2004. I can’t tell you that it wasn’t, but I don’t — I don’t — I don’t remember.”

    So the Mayor of 9/11 can’t remember being told by his former chief investigator that his buddy was probably in bed with the mob? And we’re supposed to believe this?

    It’s the Reagan defense, minus the Alzheimer’s. Then there’s this:

    “Mr. Giuliani was not concerned that issues surrounding Mr. Kerik would become a liability to his presidential campaign.”

    Uh huh. I guess the mayor of 9/11 has so many other issues, putting a mobster in charge of the NYPD, and trying to put him in charge of the largest agency in the US government won’t be a serious addition to the already substantial pile of other issues plaguing him.

    Funny how Republican memories seem to work right up until the moment they fall under Democratic oversight.

  • How can you tell a Republican is lying? Look and see if their lips are moving.

    Once again, folks, I refer you to Glenn Greenwald’s magnificent piece yesterday on the true nature of the “conservative movement.” Thse people are NOT conservatives. They are radical revolutionaries, and just like Lenin and the Bolsheviks, they will say or do anything – there is nothing out of bounds! – to promote the cause of destroying this country.

  • Bear in mind that the “I don’t remember” construction is a damage-control device; it allows the person saying it, having been caught in an embarrassing situation, to pretend not to have intentionally committed a bad act. If they “don’t remember” doing the thing, they can’t be held responsible for their motives in doing it. It’s rarely convincing, but it allows for the creation of a verbal line of defense against more serious charges.

    However, like any damage control strategy, it only works at the margins. The bad acts have been caught out, and have caused their damage. Sampson lost his job and was forced to admit that his immediate superior lied. Doan is probably liable to prosecution under the Hatch act. Guiliani and McCain take political damage at a very bad time. None of these things are fixed just because of the claim of faulty memory.

    Moreover, as more and more Republicans try this defense, the less and less it will function as anything other than a marker for corruption. SNL could have a “forgetter” character similar to the old “liar” character, with the “forgetter” claiming to forget actions taken seconds before. With time, claims of forgetfulness will come to be a damaging cliche with no credibility.

  • Clearly the ReThuglican Kool-Aid (TM) wipes the memory as well as the conscience.

    Either that or they’re all trying to set up some sort of “You can’t fire/punish me, I’m disabled!” defense.

    Next on Fux Snooze: Why does the DemoncRat party continue to persecute people protected by the ADA?

    I propose a simple memory test. Take two cups, one red, one blue. Fill them with water. While the ReFug is watching, put a fatal dose of poison in the red cup. Bring them back a month later and see if they’ll drink out of the red cup. If their memory is that bad, they’ll do it. Of course the experimenter would stop them before it was too late…

    Heh.

  • I see a marketing opportuinity here for the good folks who make the Blackberry handheld device. A free Blackberry to any Republican who signs up for a year of wireless service. Service will include:
    *Calendar to document meetings
    *Contact list to document your friends, donors and business associates
    *Voice recorder to tape conversations or note details you don’t want to forget
    *MP3 player
    *Automatically include Karl rove in your “Five”

  • I think this Administration should construct a temple to the Greek naiad Lethe (LEE-thee). She was the personification of “forgetfulness”. She was also the personification of “concealment”. Clever fellows those Greeks.

  • I’d like to echo Tom’s recommendation @7 regarding yesterdays Greenwald piece on contemporary “conservatism.” Thanks to the heads-up, I caught it just now and it’s a spot-on, well-reasoned analysis of what we’ve witnessed these past few years among those on the right — particularly recommended for anyone new to this blog.

  • I seem to recall that “America’s Mayor” had a particularly unpleasant tenure at the helm of NYC…vengeful, petty, and with a police force that was widely perceived as hostile (sometimes fatal) to minority communities…Giuliani’s salvation was his well-received response to 9/11.

    I’m grateful the NYTimes is willing to take a pass on the MSM’s “Rudy-as-hero” narrative and take a spotlight to the skeletons in the Repub frontrunner’s “walk-in” closet.

  • Republicans “not remembering” goes back at least to the days of the Watergate hearings, and Haldeman’s multiple “I don’t recall”.

  • It all began w/ Reagan and North, in their famous “I can’t recall” speeches and testimony (but really, North probably should have just given “a statement”. He’d tell the truth, honest. No transcripts are needed people, no oath, no testimony. Oh, and by the way, NO accountability, but don’t let that part out.)

    And, isn’t it interesting that the promoters of Bushco spying on Americans often said, “If you have nothing to hide, then what are you worried about? You have nothing to fear unless you are guilty of something.”
    Hmmmm.
    Now, I assume these same people are vehemently promoting that same argument about putting WH officials under oath.

    Interestingly, in the case of spying on Americans, there is vast evidence that the powers were misused and that the majority of those targeted were not terror suspects, but POLITICAL targets who were guilty of nothing but exercising their rights as Americans.

    So, innocent Americans should have to give up their rights, but meanwhile WH feifdom officials who are STRONGLY IMPLICATED in law-breaking should be immune from subpoenas.

    And they are this close from taking over this great country. We stop them now, or never.

  • I’d like to quote Natlie in the movie Memento, but I’ll just start it:
    “You know what one of the reasons for short term memory loss is? Venereal disease….”
    I would add the rest, but you should hear it for yourself.

  • The DNC should exploit this marketing opportunity. The Republicans are the party of forgetfullness. If you vote for a Republican they will forget who there true constituents are, they will forget the promises they told you on the campaign trail, they will forget the Constitution they swear to uphold, the will forget what governance is all about and they will forget about you. But they will remember to put their party above all else and they will remember to do everything that anyone with a significant campaign donation or bribe requests from them. The Republicans are the party of brain damage. Why vote for them?

  • Very nice petarado. Since we’re dealing with childish adults it also brings to mind the playground taunt:

    Forget you, forgot you, I never thought about you!

    (Can’t quite remember the last line.)

  • I’ve heard tell that sleeping on a pillow filled with rosemary is beneficial for memory.

  • libra (#20), Rosemary Woods, the one whose memory went blank (18 minutes worth) conveniently or Richard Nixon? I can’t imagine sleeping on a pillow that had anything to do with her, let alone being filled with her.

  • Ed Stephan, @21

    No, no, the *herb*! As in: “rosemary is for remembrance” (Hamlet, IIRC; my own pillow is filled with goose down). Apparently, while lavender makes it easier to forget the cares of the day past and lets you sleep, rosemary stirs up the part of brain which lets you remember things.

    Rosemary Woods was “before my time”; I didn’t come to US until Jan ’73 and I didn’t pay any attention to US politics until early 80ties — until I got my citizenship, there was no point, since I couldn’t vote anyway

  • This is going to be a problem for Giuliani, and Kerik should be a problem here. However, I have to say that I don’t think that the revelations about what he said are the biggest issue in this story. To my mind, that’s that the story is sourced by a leak of grand jury testimony.

    I loathe the fact that we keep watching these transcripts getting leaked. They are supposed to remain confidential for very good reasons having to do with the fact that a witness at a grand jury has many fewer protections than does a witness at trial. That a politician I can’t stand has been damaged is nice, but that is outweighed by the harm of this sort of leak.

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