Back to back days with news about Bernard Kerik! Excelsior!

Washington Post:

Federal prosecutors have told Bernard B. Kerik, whose nomination as homeland security secretary in 2004 ended in scandal, that he is likely to be charged with several felonies, including tax evasion and conspiracy to commit wiretapping.

Kerik’s indictment could set the stage for a courtroom battle that would draw attention to Kerik’s extensive business and political dealings with former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who personally recommended him to President Bush for the Cabinet. Giuliani, the front-runner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination according to most polls, later called the recommendation a mistake.

Kerik rose from being a warden and police detective to become Giuliani’s campaign security adviser, corrections chief, police commissioner and eventual partner in Giuliani-Kerik, a security arm of Giuliani Partners, which Giuliani established after leaving office in 2001. Kerik resigned his positions in Giuliani’s firm after he was nominated to the homeland security job.

The former mayor is not in any legal jeopardy, according to legal sources directly familiar with the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is ongoing. He and his consulting firm have cooperated in the FBI’s long-running investigation of Kerik.

Prosecutors are considering charging Kerik with “filing false information to the government,” tax code violations, and “conspiracy to commit illegal wiretapping” in connection to the 2006 New York attorney general race. Kerik has declined a plea agreement with the federal government that would have included jail time.

I’d forgotten that Kerik was not only Giuliani’s pick to be New York’s police commissioner and head the Department of Homeland Security, but his business partner as well. The fact that Giuliani and his consulting firm are cooperating with the FBI in this show the close proximity between Kerik’s malfeasance to Giuliani. Kerik’s activities make it harder for Giuliani to run a campaign around law and order issues — his number one officer had mob ties!

Republican strategist Nelson Warfield is quoted in the WaPo piece with an accurate summary of how Kerik hurts Giuliani, “Kerik has potential to undermine his image as a competent leader and someone best fit to fight terrorism…Either he had fundamentally bad information about Kerik, or he was reckless in not knowing enough about a man who was that close to him.”

As Kerik’s legal troubles continue to unfold, Giuliani is going to have to give a better explanation to the public of what he knew about Kerik and when he knew it.

Technorati Tags: Bernard Kerik, Rudy Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani | 6 Comments »

The following events take place between 8:24:01am and 8:24:59am.

In his final push before the end of the fundraising quarter, former Governor Mike Huckabee sent out an e-mail entitled “24″ in a shameless attempt to tap into the conservative popularity of FOX’s 24. The former governor even took the time to explain it to those fortunate enough never to have seen the show.

The hit show “24″ is about the action taking place in a 24 hour time frame. At the campaign, we’re in our own version of “24″ as we seek to show support in the first quarter reports of the reporting period in the Presidential race.

Huckabee informs supporters of the hard-knock life on the campaign trail for the Huckabee ‘08 staff to “put the focus on good stewardship of contributions.” Translation: People are not donating that much and we need your money!

From this moment until the end of Saturday, everyone on our team is focused on trying to help us reach a target goal in critical startup funds for the campaign. For starting less than 2 months ago with a zero balance (we could not transfer PAC funds for example), no staff, no headquarters, no printed materials, etc., to a vibrant and alive operation has been nothing short of amazing. People on our team are each having to do the work of 2 people so we get maximum output from minimum numbers of staffers. We have several people who have come to work without pay–we are providing “frat house” type living arrangements and assisting with food (paper bag lunches to be exact).

Our travel is done on the “spartan” style of using websites to get lowest cost coach seats on commercial flights, taking overnight red-eye flights to get cheap seats and travel and sleep at the same time so not to lose money or time, and staying in the lowest cost places (some are TOO LOW!) just to put the focus on good stewardship of contributions.

Oh the humanity! Also, did you catch that swipe at frat houses around the country? Apparently Huckabee is not gunning for the youth vote since Mitt Romney seems to have cornered that market.

I’ve had many moments the past 2 months when I wondered if it was worth it—once while eating for the first time in 6 days on a real plate with real tableware and not airport food on paper plates with plastic utensils I asked myself “why?”

The chicks, right? Chicks dig the power.

Then I thought about how much this country has done for me and how important it is that we do for it.

Or that.

Jack Bauer is not available to help us, but I’d rather have YOUR help than a fictional TV hero anyday!

At this point, it is quite surprising that the GOP candidates have not sought the 24-endorsement — yet. Can you imagine that commercial? “24 loves us, Jack Bauer approved!”

(more…)

On the Web, Mike Huckabee | 4 Comments »

There’s more news out today about skeletons that are likely to haunt Rudy Giuliani during his presidential campaign, though Bernard Kerik is the one most likely to be literally connected to a skeleton. The New York Times is reporting that Giuliani “remembered having briefed him on some aspects of Bernard B. Kerik’s relationship with a company suspected of ties to organized crime before Mr. Kerik’s appointment as New York City police commissioner, according to court records.” Last summer Kerik plead guilty to receiving improper gifts from a mob-owned construction company. Giuliani was briefed on Kerik’s possible connections to the mob, but promoted him to police commissioner anyway.

Giuliani supported Kerik’s nomination to the cabinet level position as head of the Department of Homeland Security. Kerik withdrew his name after it was revealed that he had employed an undocumented worker as his nanny, though Kerik’s mob ties were looming as an issue that would have disqualified him.

Giuliani was briefed on Kerik’s mob ties while his mayoral administration was vetting him to be New York’s police commissioner. Ironically Giuliani’s consulting company, “provides background checks for companies as part of its services.” I’m not sure if this is more ironic than Giuliani Partners offering cyber security consulting while his campaign website was launched with major security holes with regards to protecting user information.

I really hope Giuliani Partners doesn’t also offer radio system and emergency response headquarters placement consulting services. I don’t think I could take that much painful irony.

In an unrelated story Giuliani has also said that his third wife, Judith Nathan, “would be permitted to attend cabinet meetings and advise him on federal policy.”

Technorati Tags: Bernard Kerik, Judith Nathan, Rudy Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani | 4 Comments »

The Associated Press has one of the most comprehensive looks at how the lasting outrage at Rudy Giuliani within the firefighter and 9/11 victims communities in New York is going to remain an issue for him during the presidential campaign. Giuliani is effectively running for president on his reputation as “America’s Mayor” following the 9/11 attacks. But by basing his campaign around his version, and to great degree the characterization provided by the non-New York media, on his actions in and around 9/11, he is ensuring that those who remain dissatisfied with his performance will continue to voice their objections to his failures of leadership and subsequent deification as a hero.

The article has too many important segments to quote, but the AP’s discussion of Giuliani’s three prime failures is worth noting. Apologies for the long quotation.

Giuliani, the leader in polls of Republican voters for his party’s nomination, has been faulted on two major issues:

_ His administration’s failure to provide the World Trade Center’s first responders with adequate radios, a long-standing complaint from relatives of the firefighters killed when the twin towers collapsed. The Sept. 11 Commission noted the firefighters at the World Trade Center were using the same ineffective radios employed by the first responders to the 1993 terrorist attack on the trade center.

Regenhard, at a 2004 commission hearing in Manhattan, screamed at Giuliani, “My son was murdered because of your incompetence!” The hearing was a perfect example of the 9/11 duality: Commission members universally praised Giuliani at the same event.

_ A November 2001 decision to step up removal of the massive rubble pile at ground zero. The firefighters were angered when the then-mayor reduced their numbers among the group searching for remains of their lost “brothers,” focusing instead on what they derided as a “scoop and dump” approach. Giuliani agreed to increase the number of firefighters at ground zero just days after ordering the cutback.

More than 5 1/2 years later, body parts are still turning up in the trade center site.

“We want America to know what this guy meant to New York City firefighters,” said Peter Gorman, head of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association. “In our experiences with this man, he disrespected us in the most horrific way.”
…
Giuliani was also criticized for locating the city’s emergency center in 7 World Trade Center, a building that contained thousands of gallons of diesel fuel when it collapsed after the terrorist attack.

Technorati Tags: 11, 11 widows, firefighters, Rudy Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani | 5 Comments »

John McCain’s new online petition calls the supplemental funding bill, which includes a deadline for redeploying American troops from Iraq, “surrender.” The petition includes a description of what McCain thinks is problematic legislation:

The supplemental appropriations bill that passed the Senate on March 27, calling for a date certain withdrawal from Iraq, is nothing more than a guaranteed date of surrender.

Um, John, the supplemental appropriations bill that passed in the Senate was voted on and approved today, March 29th. You voted against it. Today.

On Tuesday, March 27, the Senate voted down an amendment that would have stripped the supplemental appropriations bill of language relating to the redeployment of troops from Iraq. McCain voted for that amendment. On Tuesday.

John McCain doesn’t know when he’s voting for what. His petition asks supporters to be wrong with him. It’s embarrassing.

Here’s a screen capture of McCain’s erroneous petition:

Technorati Tags: Iraq, John McCain

John McCain | No Comments »

Billionaire former presidential candidate Steve Forbes has endorsed Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani followed the Forbes endorsement up by voicing support for Forbes’ signature issue: the flat tax. One awkward wrinkle, though, is that Giuliani had previously bashed the flat tax.

In 1996, when Mr. Forbes first ran for president, Mr. Giuliani, then the mayor of New York City, disparaged a flat tax in general and Mr. Forbes’s plan in particular. The Forbes plan called for a single tax rate above a certain income, instead of several rates based on income. Mr. Giuliani said that a central part of the proposal, eliminating deductions, would hurt taxpayers in urban areas and reduce tax revenues for populous cities and states.

“You’re giving them more authority, more autonomy, and you’re giving them less resources to deal with the problems,” he said then in an interview with CBS, calling the proposal “a mistake.”

He used stronger language on CNN a few days later, saying the Forbes plan “would really be a disaster.”

Obviously flip-flops by Republican front-runners are so common, they hardly merit pointing out. If anyone has a GPS tracking where Giuliani, Romney and McCain actually stand, let me know.

The Forbes endorsement probably hurts Sam Brownback more than anyone else. The flat tax is part of Brownback’s campaign platform and he has hired a former Forbes staffers. Forbes endorsement would have been a huge score for Brownback; it’s not clear whether or not Forbes ever considered giving it to him.

The flat tax remains an issue with an important constituency in Iowa. Forbes will be a very useful surrogate for Giuliani there and in other early primary states. He will help further legitimize Giuliani’s position on taxation for conservative voters.

What’s not clear is whether Giuliani’s support of the flat tax yesterday when receiving Forbes’ endorsement will translate into adding the flat tax to his campaign platform. “[Giuliani] said several times yesterday that the federal tax code should be vastly simpler.” Does wanting a simpler tax code and having Steve Forbes at your side make it more likely that you’ll become a flat taxer? Sure, but is Giuliani prepared for yet another YouTube video showing him bashing something he now supports (or supporting something he now bashes)?

Technorati Tags: flat tax, Rudy Giuliani, Sam Brownback, Steve Forbes

Endorsements, Rudy Giuliani, Sam Brownback | No Comments »

In news that is likely causing Giuliani, Romney and Gingrich to jump for joy, The Hill is reporting that John McCain almost left the Republican Party to join the Democratic Party shortly before Jim Jeffords left the GOP and became and independent. A senior McCain staffer approached a Democratic congressman and initiated talks about the conditions — pertaining primarily to seniority — necessary for McCain to bolt the GOP.

In interviews with The Hill this month, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and ex-Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) said there were nearly two months of talks with the maverick lawmaker following an approach by John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist.

Democrats had contacted Jeffords and then-Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) in the early months of 2001 about switching parties, but in McCain’s case, they said, it was McCain’s top strategist who came to them.

At the end of their March 31, 2001 lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Bethesda, Md., Downey said Weaver asked why Democrats hadn’t asked McCain to switch parties.

Downey, a well-connected lobbyist, said he was stunned.

“You’re really wondering?” Downey said he told Weaver. “What do you mean you’re wondering?”

“Well, if the right people asked him,” Weaver said, according to Downey, adding that he responded, “The calls will be made. Who do you want?” Weaver this week said he did have lunch with Downey that spring, pointing out that he and Downey “are very good friends.”

Weaver, of course, denies this characterization of events, “though Weaver acknowledged this week that the senator did talk to Democrats about leaving the GOP.”

The Hill’s Bob Cusack documents the efforts Democrats made over the months following the Weaver/Downey lunch to create the right groundwork to get McCain to switch sides, including figuring out which Democrats needed to ask him (John Edwards was one candidate. Daschle, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy and Rep. Downey remained involved in working on McCain’s switch. Downey says that McCain’s switch appeared to be “almost a certain deal.” In the end McCain passed on the switch and now is running for the Republican nomination for president.

Jonathan Singer gets the moral of the story right:

So with this new revelation, I continue to firmly stand by my previously expressed sentiment that “McCain has proven himself to not be a man of integrity or genuineness but instead just another calculating politician willing to sell out his beliefs in the hopes of winning an election” — though would perhaps reformulate the second half of the statement about selling out beliefs because it is not entirely clear to me that the John McCain holds any convictions whatsoever.

McCain’s willingness to shift his positioning to whatever benefits him most is evident. That’s been clear since the moment he decided to sell himself out to George W. Bush, which is probably around the time that he turned down a move to the Democratic Party. In so doing he became on of Bush’s most ardent supporters (with occasional forays into feigned independence). He even hired some of the Bush cronies who smeared him in 2000, costing him the South Carolina primary.

These are actions of a man who will put political victory of personal consistency. He has no pride, for if he did he would not bring the goons who created push-polls that said he had an illegitimate black baby onto his staff. We know more about John McCain today than we did yesterday, but not a whole lot. Another detail has been added that adds color to an increasingly muddled and poorly drawn picture.

Technorati Tags: John McCain

John McCain | 1 Comment »

Introducing the Rudy Giuliani Doll at the Cartoon Emporium.

Dress him up in the “Never Forget” 9/11 t-shirt, business suit, Hawaiian shirt and shorts, or a ball gown from his collection of cross-dressing appearances.

Rudy Giuliani | 2 Comments »

Harsh:

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson appeared to throw cold water on a possible presidential bid by former Sen. Fred Thompson while praising former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is also weighing a presidential run, in a phone interview Tuesday.
Related News

“Everyone knows he’s conservative and has come out strongly for the things that the pro-family movement stands for,” Dobson said of Thompson. “[But] I don’t think he’s a Christian; at least that’s my impression,” Dobson added, saying that such an impression would make it difficult for Thompson to connect with the Republican Party’s conservative Christian base and win the GOP nomination.

Thompson’s staff fact-checked Dobson, saying that “he was baptized into the Church of Christ.” To which a Focus on the Family staffer told US News that Christian only “refer[s] to people who are evangelical Christians” for Mr. Dobson.

Dobson is going on the attack. His phone call to US News was unsolicited — he proactively accused Fred Thompson of not being a Christian. The beneficiary of Dobson’s attack seems to be Newt Gingrich.

While making it clear he was not endorsing any Republican presidential candidate, Dobson, who is considered the most politically powerful evangelical figure in the country, also said that Gingrich was the “brightest guy out there” and “the most articulate politician on the scene today.”

Gingrich admitted to having an extramarital affair during the Clinton impeachment on Dobson’s radio show. That move was rewarded by another conservative leader, Jerry Falwell, with a speaking gig at Falwell’s Liberty University. Dobson is also a member of the Arlington Group, a collection of conservative leaders who are vetting some of the Republican contenders for endorsement. Gingrich is one of the candidates who has been interviewed and is in contention for their bulk endorsement.

Gingrich has Dobson playing the role of attack-dog surrogate already, which is surely a sign that Dobson’s endorsement could follow Gingrich’s entrance into the race. Gingrich says he’s waiting until after September 30, 2007 to make a decision. Right now I doubt he’ll wait that long. Fred Thompson could be a threat to take old school conservative voters and I think Gingrich wants to be in this race more than he wants to play Republican savior this fall.

Technorati Tags: Fred Thompson, James Dobson, Newt Gingrich

Fred Thompson, Newt Gingrich | 3 Comments »

Yesterday John McCain’s MySpace page was hacked and an image was replaced with a text box that read “Dear Supporters, Today I announce that I have reversed my position and come out in full support of gay marriage…particularly marriage between passionate females.” Sam Levenback has a screen capture.

It didn’t take too long for people to figure out exactly what had happened. Tech Crunch:

Someone on Presidential hopeful John McCain’s staff is going to be in trouble today. They used a well known template to create his Myspace page. The template was designed by NewsVine Founder and CEO Mike Davidson (original template is here). Davidson gave the template code away to anyone who wanted to use it, but asked that he be given credit when it was used, and told users to host their own image files.

McCain’s staff used his template, but didn’t give Davidson credit. Worse, he says, they use images that are on his server, meaning he has to pay for the bandwidth used from page views on McCain’s site.

Davidson decided to play a small prank on the campaign this morning as retribution. Since he’s in control of some of the images on the site, he replaced one that shows contact information with a statement [quoted above]

The McCain campaign clearly dropped the ball twice and thus opened themselves up to a response. First, they didn’t credit Davidson for creating the template; second, they used images on Davidson’s server. McCain was effectively stealing bandwidth from Davidson and Davidson decided to respond.

This MySpace mistake can now be added to the growing list of the McCain campaign’s internet snafus. In the email department we have the blogger-hype message that quotes and cites two sources sixteen separate times and the email list-wide poll to determine the McCain campaign priorities. McCain’s mini-announcement on Letterman included an even smaller video inside a massive donations page, which was both graphically unpalatable and blatant in its prioritization of money over communication. Lastly McCain’s own website is hideously designed in Imperial stormtrooper chic and his personal social networking platform is “total disaster.”

This campaign needs to get its internet shop in shape. It’s embarrassing.

Technorati Tags: John McCain, MySpace

On the Web, John McCain | 2 Comments »