Being President of the United States means making judgement calls. It means making tough decisions about the lives of millions of people and billions of people around the world. Presidents are remembered by their ability to make tough decisions - FDR’s presidency was defined by one tough decision after another, resurrecting a battered nation and going to war for the survival of democracy. Richard Nixon chose to engage in bribery and dirty tricks and it resulted in a constitutional crisis. Especially following George W. Bush and his failed presidency, the issue of who can and cannot make tough decisions for the right reasons is the central issue of the 2008 election. By that measure the conduct of Rudy Giuliani with Bernard Kerik, a man to whom Giuliani entrusted the lives of millions of Americans, clearly disqualifies Giuliani for the presidency.
As with every nominee, Kerik was given detailed financial disclosure and personal history questionnaires to fill out, all intended to unearth anything that might prove embarrassing in a confirmation hearing. Giuliani’s firm assisted in filling out the forms, according to a source familiar with the situation, and the papers are now an issue in the federal criminal investigation. Kerik, his attorney and Giuliani Partners spokeswoman Sunny Mindel declined to comment.
…
The counsel’s vetting depends heavily on honest responses from a nominee, officials said. Yet in Kerik’s case, a quick FBI search and research by the White House turned up a host of problems in the couple of weeks before the nomination was announced.
…
After his guilty plea in 2001, Ray said, he told the FBI that Kerik had agreed to help Interstate Industrial and its owners, the DiTomasso family, try to win city business despite their alleged ties with organized crime. At the time, Kerik solicited and received gifts from company sources, including $165,000 in renovations for his apartment.
The selection of Kerik confirms the pattern of misleadership we’ve come to expect and suffer through via the Bush administration. But it also tells you volumes about what it takes to be part of the Giuliani inner circle and how quickly he’ll sell out the citizenry for one of his cronies. And it tells you that there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Rudy Giulani should be the next president.
Bernard Kerik is an absolute HERO! He is a champion in the War against Islamo-Fascism. I’d actually rather see Bernie running for President. His so-called “problems” are nothing more than Liberal trash thrown at him in an attempt to embarrass his friend Rudy.
I’m supporting Rudy. But frankly, I’d rather see Bernie Kerik for President!!
And Bush is a wimp for pulling his nomination a few years back. Absolutely stupid move George. You lost a lot of supporters by caving into the Liberal slime as you did on that one.
Eric at http://www.mainstreamlibertarian.com
The hypocrisy of the left (and especially that of Oliver) rears its ugly head again. Giuliani cannot be President because of Kerik, but I don’t see anybody saying Hillary Clinton should be disqualified because of her role in getting Web Hubbell named the number two person at the Justice Department. Clearly, a person who helps to get appointed a guy that bilks clients and partners and spends time in prison for fraud isn’t qualified to be President.
Right, Oliver?
If Sen. Clinton knew Hubbell was dirty before she helped out, yes she deserves the consequences of it. But there’s no evidence of that. Giuliani knew all about Kerik’s shady dealings and may have in fact helped him cover them up. That certainly disqualifies him for the presidency.
Giuliani knew all about Kerik’s shady dealings and may have in fact helped him cover them up. That certainly disqualifies him for the presidency.
There’s absolutely no evidence to show that is the case (besides, you argue earlier that Giuliani was disqualified for merely nominated Kerik, whether he knew about his alleged illegal activities or not) and once again you hold true to your viewpoint that there is one set of standards for conservatives and Republicans and another for Democrats and liberals.
For the former, a mere allegation is enough for you to draw and quarter somebody but for the latter, they have to be bending over a body with a smoking gun in their hand for you to say, “Gee, they might have done something wrong.”
Because we had an entire multimillion dollar investigation of the Clintons that led to nothing, while Giuliani clearly has an entire truckload of skeletons in his closet while Republican candidates also tend to err on the side of corruption. I’m just using Occam’s Razor here.
like kryptonite to stupid eh?
feeling perhaps a tad weak or nauseous?
Another issue with Kerik is one that has come to symbolize the Bush Presidency, namely, the cooperation of the media in the silencing of scandals.
In other words, we all knew he didn’t resign because of an illegal nanny.
Which one is worse?
A guy who had an illegal Nanny?
Or, a guy who spent 4 years in a Radical Muslim Madrassa in Indonesia as a child, only recently converted from Islam to Christianity for “political purposes,” votes soft on Terrorism, and whose middle name is HUSSEIN?
I ask you, which one is a bigger scandal?
“I ask you, which one is a bigger scandal? ”
How about the one that isn’t a figment of the imagination of wingnuts?
Or, a guy who spent 4 years in a Radical Muslim Madrassa in Indonesia as a child, ….
All Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit
whoops.
No Obama fan here, but really, tell me how much you remember of your first four years of school and how those years impacted your ideologies…you are a right-wing distortionist…get real…Obama spent the next years growing up in Hawaii…probably another reason you don’t like him…stopplaying the right-wing toady fool, will ya?
Giuliani cannot be President becaue he is not technically, morally, or personally qualified to be President. His biggest claim to fame is his City was bombed and he told people to buck up…so what does that qualify him for? Cheerleader? You probably think Fred Thompson is a great candidate because he looks Presidential. McCain is probably the most qualified Republican but he traded his moral character for Bush’s coattails in a bad bargain for support from someone who has no support to give…nope, no good Republican candidates so far…