Opinion: The Kerik factor
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Well, the anticipated indictment was handed up, and Rudy Giuliani‘s onetime friend and business partner -- not to mention police commissioner when he was mayor of New York -- Bernard Kerik showed up in a New York courtroom today to plead innocent to 14 criminal charges, including tax evasion and corruption.
Such was their relationship that Giuliani backed Kerik’s appointment by President George W. Bush to run the federal Department of Homeland Security before Kerik withdrew after revelations cropped up about his hiring an illegal immigrant as a nanny -- which opened the floodgates to other issues.
Although indictments are just accusations, you can bet Giuliani will be doing a lot of defending in the next few weeks about his judgment regarding friends, business partners and potential top federal administrators.
But is this the kind of issue that will have legs? The Democrats certainly hope so, given that Giuliani is the Republican poll leader at this point. But unless there are some revelations showing that Giuliani knew about the incidents behind the allegations, it’s hard to see this having much of a long-term effect (though this isn’t the campaign’s first scandal flare-up).
The reality is that most of the top contenders have had links at some point to people with political and legal baggage. So who among Giuliani’s top Republican rivals is clean enough in his political friendships to throw the stones? Not John McCain. Not Mitt Romney. Not Fred Thompson.
And as much as the Democrats would like to flog this horse, some of them have had their own brushes with infamy. And by the time next November rolls around, it’s hard to see voters caring. Or remembering. In the meantime, The Times’ Joe Mathews has the day’s story here on this website and in Saturday’s print editions.
-- Scott Martelle
