{"id":10362,"date":"2007-03-30T11:10:32","date_gmt":"2007-03-30T15:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/10362.html"},"modified":"2007-03-30T11:10:32","modified_gmt":"2007-03-30T15:10:32","slug":"republicans-and-their-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/republicans-and-their-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans and their memories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rudy Giuliani’s Bernie Kerik problem<\/a> 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<\/a> on Kerik’s organized crime connections before<\/i> Giuliani named Kerik police commissioner.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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?”<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

Now, this, coupled with Giuliani’s handling of 9\/11<\/a>, 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?
\n
\n* Yesterday, Kyle Sampson used the phrase “I don’t remember” a memorable 122 times<\/a> during his Senate Judiciary Committee testimony yesterday.<\/p>\n

* 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<\/a> (except that “there were cookies on the table” at one of her meetings). <\/p>\n

* 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* Two weeks ago, John McCain told reporters he didn’t remember<\/a> whether he believed contraceptives can help stop the spread of HIV.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> Iran reaching out for diplomatic negotiations with the U.S. in 2003.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}