Monday, December 13, 2004
Crooked as a dog's hind leg
It turns out that Bernie Kerik, Bush's pick for Director of Homeland Security, has a couple dozen skeletons in the closet. Josh Marshall sums these up pretty well and asks how the White House could have been so sloppy and impulsive (that seems to be their pattern--WMD, anyone?). Here are Kerik's stunning qualifications:
a) Kerik received numerous unreported cash gifts from Lawrence Ray, an executive at a Jersey construction company (Ray was later indicted along with Edward Garafola, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano's brother-in-law, and Daniel Persico, nephew of Colombo Family Godfather Carmine "The Snake" Persico and others on unrelated federal charges tied to what the Daily News called a "$40 million, mob-run, pump-and-dump stock swindle.")
b) that Riker's Island prison became a hotbed of political corruption and cronyism on his watch
c) that he is accused by nine employees of the hospital he worked at providing security in Saudi Arabia of using his policing powers to pursue the personal agenda of his immediate boss
d) that a warrant for his arrest (albeit in a civil case) was issued in New Jersey as recently as six years ago
e) that as recently as last week he was forced to testify in a civil suit in a case covering the period in which he was New York City correction commissioner, in which the plaintiff, "former deputy warden Eric DeRavin III contends Kerik kept him from getting promoted because he had reprimanded the woman [Kerik was allegedly having an affair with], Correction Officer Jeanette Pinero"
f) his rapid and unexplained departure from Baghdad.
How do you spell INCOMPETENCE? BUSH
The New York Times > New York Region > The Nominee's Past: Beyond the Disclosure About Kerik's Nanny, More Questions Were Lurking
a) Kerik received numerous unreported cash gifts from Lawrence Ray, an executive at a Jersey construction company (Ray was later indicted along with Edward Garafola, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano's brother-in-law, and Daniel Persico, nephew of Colombo Family Godfather Carmine "The Snake" Persico and others on unrelated federal charges tied to what the Daily News called a "$40 million, mob-run, pump-and-dump stock swindle.")
b) that Riker's Island prison became a hotbed of political corruption and cronyism on his watch
c) that he is accused by nine employees of the hospital he worked at providing security in Saudi Arabia of using his policing powers to pursue the personal agenda of his immediate boss
d) that a warrant for his arrest (albeit in a civil case) was issued in New Jersey as recently as six years ago
e) that as recently as last week he was forced to testify in a civil suit in a case covering the period in which he was New York City correction commissioner, in which the plaintiff, "former deputy warden Eric DeRavin III contends Kerik kept him from getting promoted because he had reprimanded the woman [Kerik was allegedly having an affair with], Correction Officer Jeanette Pinero"
f) his rapid and unexplained departure from Baghdad.
How do you spell INCOMPETENCE? BUSH
The New York Times > New York Region > The Nominee's Past: Beyond the Disclosure About Kerik's Nanny, More Questions Were Lurking
