Posted on 12/11/2004 1:40:41 PM PST by wagglebee
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 - President Bush readily accepted Bernard B. Kerik's decision to withdraw his nomination as homeland security secretary after the White House quickly concluded on Friday evening that it would be impossible for him to win confirmation for a post that supervises enforcement of the nation's immigration laws if he had had immigration problems in his own household, White House officials said on Saturday.
Only hours earlier on Friday, Mr. Kerik informed the administration that, contrary to assurances he had given the White House counsel's office before the president nominated him on Dec. 3, a nanny he had employed appeared to have been in the country illegally and that he had failed to pay taxes on her behalf. He told President Bush in a brief phone call about 8:30 p.m. Friday of his decision to withdraw, said a White House official.
White House officials were clearly annoyed at Mr. Kerik for not determining the nanny's immigration status prior to this week, but said they had no evidence he had sought to mislead them. "It was Kerik's screw up, it was that simple," the official said. "But it's a mistake you can't tolerate with someone who has oversight for immigration."
The nanny Mr. Kerik had employed, who has not yet been identified, left the country about two weeks ago, just prior to the announcement of his nomination, a former New York City official said on Saturday, adding that her departure had been planned for at least two months.
At a news conference today, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor and now a business associate of Mr. Kerik's, called the discovery "an embarrassment to me and to Bernie and to those of us that supported him because we should have disclosed this, we should have found out earlier." But he said he thought that the issue of the status of any domestic help was "the second or third question" that White House officials asked Mr. Kerik in the preliminary vetting they do of all potential nominees, "and he said he didn't believe he had a problem here."
Mr. Kerik's withdrawal was the first major blunder in the administration's process of assembling its second-term cabinet, but not a new experience for Mr. Bush's team. Four years ago, when Mr. Bush nominated Linda Chavez as labor secretary, it was discovered after the initial vetting process that she had given shelter to, and employed, an illegal immigrant. At the time, Mr. Bush's aides were outraged and promised to change their methods for reviewing potential nominees, but on Saturday several officials said that because Mr. Bush wanted to make his decisions speedily their initial review had been quick.
Mr. Kerik's housekeeper situation was only the latest question to be revealed about the nominee. A series of critical news reports about questionable actions had begun to surface about Mr. Kerik, threatening to turn his Senate confirmation into a lengthy embarrassment for the administration. The reports looked at Mr. Kerik's use of city personnel while in office, potential conflicts between his business life and the role of the homeland security department, and events growing out of his personal financial difficulties several years ago.
One Democratic Senate staff member, who had been following the nomination process closely and asked not to be identified because of the political sensitivity of the matter, said he was convinced that the nanny question was not the sole reason that Mr. Kerik had dropped out. "Multiple media organizations were pursuing multiple stories," that would be potentially damaging to Mr. Kerik, he said. Because many of these questions had not yet been answered by the administration, the staff member said, "fundamentally, he was a bad pick."
The staff member added: "The process worked here."
Another Senate staff member, who works for a Democrat on the Government Affairs Committee, which oversees the homeland security secretary nomination process, said that from the start, there was a sense that the White House had not properly examined Mr. Kerik's background.
"They rushed this nomination and did not look as closely as they should have," he said.
Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican and the chairwoman of the Government Affairs Committee, said that among the possible candidates to succeed Mr. Kerik, at least in her mind, would be Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, or Asa Hutchinson, the assistant secretary at homeland security. Other names mentioned on Saturday included Frances Fragos Townsend, the domestic security adviser; Joe Allbaugh, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who now runs his own Washington-based consulting firm; and Michael O. Leavitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Those options had apparently also been considered before Mr. Kerik was nominated.
"I am confident that President Bush will move swiftly to find a replacement for Bernie Kerik," Senator Collins said in a statement on Saturday.
On Saturday morning, Mr. Kerik emerged from his two-story yellow house in Franklin Lakes, N.J., and spoke to reporters in his driveway, flanked by two security guards. He said he believed he could have made it through the confirmation process, but decided the process would be a burden to the administration.
"It would have been messy, ugly and an embarrassment to President Bush, so I withdrew my name," he said. He added, "I think when you're in a position like this, the press, the media and all your enemies try to find things that a person has done wrong. But I don't think that there would have been problem with the nomination."
He refused to disclose the name or nationality of the nanny, and would not say how long she had worked for him or provide any other details about her.
"Out of respect for her privacy, I'm not going to go into details except to say that she is a good woman," Mr. Kerik said.
A former city official who asked not to be identified said Mr. Kerik had acknowledged that he had said "no" when the White House originally asked if he had a nanny problem. According to the former official, Mr. Kerik now says that he did not pay enough attention to the details of the nanny's hiring and that he did not realize until the last few days that she had been in the country illegally.
Mr. Giuliani, who had spoken on Mr. Kerik's behalf to the White House, said he felt partly responsible for what had happened.
"I wish for everybody's sake, including mine, that this had been focused on earlier," said Mr. Giuliani, who brought Mr. Kerik to prominence as his commissioner of both corrections and police. "Then you would never have gotten to this position. I take my share of responsibility for that."
Mr. Giuliani said he never gave the White House any broad assurances that Mr. Kerik's background was entirely clean, saying that the president's staff was going through its normal process of evaluating a cabinet nominee.
"I never had a conversation in which I vouched for him or was asked about this issue or any other issue," Mr. Giuliani said. "Obviously, everyone would have preferred if this was discovered earlier," he said
Both Mr. Giuliani and the White House official said the administration had reviewed any potential nanny problems as part of a full vetting process of Mr. Kerik prior to the confirmation hearings.
"We went through a full vetting process that includes everything that could be of issue," the official said. "I believe it was only when he started going through the specific compliance process that the problem became a little more acute and that's when he brought it to us."
Asked if the White House felt it had been misled by Mr. Kerik, the official said, "I wouldn't characterize it in that way."
The official bristled when asked whether the White House regretted listening to Mr. Giuliani.
"There's a misperception out there," the official said. "Giuliani was obviously a strong supporter of Bernie Kerik, but we don't make decisions based on recommendations or the faith of other people's word. We do our own independent vetting and selection process."
Many people, the official added, had made recommendations on behalf of Mr. Kerik. "But the president had his own independent relationship with Kerik that had formed over the last several years and he made his own decision," the official said.
Mr. Giuliani said the White House had not expressed any anger to him or to Mr. Kerik.
Mr. Kerik, who said he had first uncovered the problem as he and his lawyers went through the paperwork required for Senate confirmation of his job on Friday, had been in contact earlier in the day with the White House counsel's office. He later called Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, and the phone call with Mr. Bush was arranged.
"We are disappointed because President Bush believes he was the right person for the challenges our country faces," the White House official said. "He also respects his decision. Unfortunately, these things happen during a confirmation process."
The withdrawal of Mr. Kerik was a disappointment not only for the former police commissioner and the former mayor, but also for elected officials from New York who thought Mr. Kerik would be attuned to the needs of the city.
"I am disappointed that Bernie Kerik will not be homeland security secretary," said Senator Charles E. Schumer, a Democrat from New York. "Few have better understood the needs of New York and of our nation when it comes to doing more to keep us safe from terrorism here at home. I hope the president will nominate someone who exhibits Bernie's deep commitment to keeping New York - and America - safer from terrorism."
In the three years since Mr. Kerik left city government, he has made millions of dollars in the private sector, much of it working for companies that do business with the Department of Homeland Security, and which are seeking to expand their sales. His single biggest source of income was Taser International, an Arizona-based manufacturer of stun guns that added Mr. Kerik to its board and gave him stock options that Mr. Kerik has since sold, earning $6.2 million in pre-tax profits.
Most of Taser's sales come from local and state police departments, but it has also been trying to sell its shock guns to Customs and Border Protection, a division of the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Kerik also has served on the board of CamelBak, a company based in Petaluma, Calif., that sells water supply backpacks to the United States military and law enforcement branches, including the border patrol.
Mr. Giuliani said he was convinced that these and other business ties to homeland security companies were not a factor in Mr. Kerik's decision to back out. Mr. Giuliani said that the effort to collect a past due debt on a condominium he owned in East Rutherford, N.J. - including, apparently, an arrest warrant that was issued for Mr. Kerik in 1998, based on the outstanding condominium fees - also did not play a role.
"That was a civil proceeding that was resolved. That fits into the category of something that you can easily explain," he said. The arrest warrant was first reported by Newsweek.
"Whenever this happens, there is always the idea that it must be something else, it must be something else," Mr. Giuliani said. "But that is when there is not a good reason. This is a good reason. Who would actually think he could go forward with this issue?"
He added that Mr. Kerik, who spent about half an hour on Saturday outside his house putting up Christmas decorations, including miniature Santas and wire reindeer of white lights, would do "great things" in the future.
"This is a sad day for him and his family," he said. "But we all have complex lives. Sometimes it trips you up."
White House officials said that in their initial review of nominees, they run down a list of questions involving potentially embarrassing problems: legal difficulties, the status of household workers, past divorces or relationships and tax problems, among other issues. "We try to go through public records," said one senior official. "But without guidance from the nominee, there is only so much you can do."
Mr. Kerik's nomination had not even been formally presented to the Senate; it had not planned to hold hearings on Mr. Kerik until late January or perhaps early February. So the formal vetting process, particular for the Senate, had only just begun.
Nah, she derailed a nomination that Pat Buchanan couldn't do in a column, and the NYT will have his wrath two fold, one she was hispanic, two she took what seemed like a good job.
Oh wait a minute, there is a third reason, The New York Times is doing the bidding of Pat Buchanan to bring down a Republican, no doubt that there will be a letter from Pat Buchanan, to Pinch Sulzberer, and the editors of the NYT, on the issue of nannies employed by Republicans, that issue is Pat Buchannan's and Tom Trancredo's perview exclusively and how dare the NYT tread on their turf.
I'm surmising that letter will also be CC'ed to Michelle Malkin.
Ollie North would be excellent...or any number of officers and gentlemen who have moved up the military/security ladder in an honorable way.
Who is doing candidate vetting at the WH, idiots? This reminds me of the Klintoon years and the many failings to vet his miserable candidates for office. Zooks!
So the jerk was worth at least 7 million and yet broke the law, twice, by hiring an illegal alien, paying her next to nothing while evading paying SS taxes on her!?
Just makes ya wanna love rich, RINO, country-club repub's, don't it?? /sarcasm
Nothing like selling out your country to save a few bucks, especially if your a flipin multi millionaire!
[I didn't need a nanny, but my children had a nanny.
She took care of the children so I could actually go to the supermarket alone. She watched the children on some occasions so I could leave the house for a meeting or a lunch date]
Sounds reasonable to me, so long as you raised the children (to speak English, for example).
I would have had no problem at all with the children being bi-linqual.
Senator Susan Collins, that august presidential counsellor, is telling the press who should replace Kerik as nominee and adds, "I am confident that President Bush will move swiftly to find a replacement for Bernie Kerik."
Hope somebody figures out to hold their horses and thoroughly vet the next nominee.
A nanny is deemed super necessary to take care of the kids while the wife is off doing important shopping, getting her hair arranged and playing cards with her friends. Gosh, I thought everyone knew how important matters like these have to be dealt with every day by important ladies ( I know some myself and they all have illegal nannies helping out at home for a fee). If it is a pol's wife, she needs nannies like a drunk needs a drink. Politicians are the worst offenders and that may account for their failure to fix illegal immigration--their wives will not allow them to deport the nannies, cooks, gardeners or drivers.
Communication is not and never has been the admin's strength. A shame.
I don't think I want a liar flipping my burger. I want my burger done right.
That goes without saying.
But I do feel a sense of justice in that Bush got burned on illegal immgration. I generally do not like to see Bush get burned, but if Kerik couldn't stay, this reason might help some good to come out of it.
Nope. You should be proud. Well done.
Is it possible that this whole thing was a setup for 2008? Kerik has baggage, everyone knew it. Get it out now, so that in 2008, everything is "old news".
Rudy wins in 2008, Kerik can then slip right in and deflect all of the noise about his confirmation for any post as ancient history, taken care of in 2004.
Either way, Kerik wins. Either he gets the confirmation for 2004 or he's cleared for 2008.
Just wondering aloud I suppose. If that's not the Case, Kerik really BLEW it. He should have been up front ahead of time so as not to torpedo some of W's capital.
I never really liked him in NY. He comes across as a thug and/or opportunist depending on who's painting him. Besides that, I don't think I've ever seen him smile and he got plenty of face time here in the NY media. As an impationate observer he just comes across as very angry.
he is a tough SOB - that's what he is. there are plenty of empty suits who can smile, and now we may well get one of them for the job.
it was probably just an honest mistake. he got the forms he needed to fill out for confirmation, then said to his wife "what about that nanny you hired while I was in iraq?". and it all came apart.
[We all spoke english.
I would have had no problem at all with the children being bi-linqual]
the problem is, in all too many cases, the nanny raises the children while the selfish parents are off somewhere. The nanny speaks Spanish or whatever and raises the children according to her culture and personality -- not that of the parents (well, without the values of GOOD parents).
Rudy's driver to HST Czar (almost) in 11 years.
That's an all-time brown nosing record.
He also now has a job working for Rudy and he got over $6 million dollars in stock options from Taser International. It tends to make me wonder what there is to the story that we will never find out.
Kerik was the right man for the job, but alas, this system screens out the best. Come on, what does hiring an illegal alien have to do with a person's character? What Kerik went through during his childhood and and his achievements in later years far outweighs this minor "character flaw". He is one of a kind and this is our loss.
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