Free Republic

Among the top tier Republican candidates, Rush says that only Fred has been a consistent conservative. You have been given your marching orders. Now you know who to vote for. RUSH: …the genuine moderate as opposed to conservative aspects of three of the top-tier, four of the top-tier candidates were on full-fledged display last night. There was one candidate who did not display any moderateness or liberalism or have any of his past forays into those areas displayed, and that candidate was Fred Thompson. … …we have a campaign now where most of the candidates are not genuine conservatives. They...

In 1973, a 29-year-old federal prosecutor named Rudy Giuliani indicted a Brooklyn congressman, unknowingly creating a political opening for an ambitious 23-year-old named Chuck Schumer. It is the first and least known link between two powerful New York politicians whose paths have crossed and careers intersected in often surprising ways over the past four decades. But it certainly wasn't the last. Just two weeks ago, Sen. Schumer (D-N.Y.) found himself defying his own party to confirm U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, a retired Manhattan judge and close friend of the former mayor. Schumer and Giuliani may seem an odd pairing,...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former New York police commissioner and Rudy Giuliani protege Bernard Kerik was indicted on federal tax fraud and corruption charges related to his personal finance and business dealings, the U.S. attorney said on Friday. The 14-count indictment, which could pose an embarrassment to front-runner Giuliani as he campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination, stem in part from Kerik's receiving $255,000 worth of renovations to his apartment from a construction firm suspected of ties organized crime that was attempting to win city contracts. Kerik pleaded guilty last year to state charges over the home remodeling, but the...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Rudy Giuliani assured a conservative legal group Friday that if elected president he would appoint federal judges who adhere to their principles. He also praised a judge who declared the capital city's gun ban unconstitutional and ridiculed efforts to eliminate the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. In a speech marking the 25th anniversary of the Federalist Society, Giuliani spelled out a conservative legal agenda in which he cited Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts as models for the judges he would appoint to the federal...

Judith Regan, the book publisher who was fired by the News Corporation last year, asserts in a lawsuit filed today that a senior executive at the media conglomerate encouraged her to mislead federal investigators about her relationship with Bernard B. Kerik during his bid to become homeland security secretary in late 2004. The lawsuit asserts that the News Corporation executive wanted to protect the presidential aspirations of former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Kerik’s mentor, who had appointed him New York City police commissioner and had recommended him for the federal post.

Bernard Kerik's indictment on federal corruption charges last week left unanswered a nagging question from longtime Kerik-watchers: What, exactly, became of hundreds of thousands of dollars from a city-created foundation, of which Kerik - Rudy Giuliani's friend, protege and appointee - was listed as president in the days when he ran the city jails? The answer could be explosive. Or it could be innocuous. The point is that we still do not know. In 2004, a former deputy commissioner, Fred Patrick, was sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to defrauding the foundation of more than $137,000 - purportedly for...

WASHINGTON — Mayor Giuliani's hold on the front-runner's perch in the Republican presidential nomination is eroding, with two new polls showing that Mitt Romney is opening up a widening lead in New Hampshire, site of the first primary. While Mr. Giuliani has maintained his lead in national polls and in several state surveys, the former Massachusetts governor is now comfortably ahead in both Iowa and New Hampshire, two hotly contested early-voting states that have traditionally played a crucial role in determining the Republican nominee. Mr. Romney opened up a 12-point lead over Mr. Giuliani in New Hampshire, 32% to 20%,...

Just two days ago, Gail Collins christened her column about the Pat Robertson endorsement "Pat Loves Rudy." As I observed then, "a conservative columnist writing the equivalent might well be condemned for making an unsubtle appeal to homophobia. But Collins will surely get a pass in PC quarters, since it's a well-established fact that liberals are incapable of prejudice." Then comes today's Collins column, and I'll be darned if she hasn't done it again. The NY Times columnist has entitled her piece about the Kerik indictment and related matters "Rudy and Bernie: B.F.F.’s" ["Best Friends Forever," for those no longer...

We are all fallen, imperfect beings. The news of the federal indictment of Bernie Kerik is a sad moment, a cautionary tale, and an object lesson. Sad, because Kerik rose from the child of a prostitute to “America’s cop”–and this nation loves such tales of success. Cautionary, because it speaks to the fallibility of anointed heroes and the temptations of power. An object lesson, because it highlights the flaws and vulnerabilities of GOP front-runner Rudy Giuliani’s on the issues of corruption and immigration enforcement. Here’s what I wrote back in December 2004 when Kerik was forced to withdraw from consideration...

Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign is increasingly concerned that the controversy swirling around former New York Police Department Commissioner Bernard Kerik could negatively impact his White House aspirations. Kerik pleaded guilty in 2006 to state conflict-of-interest charges for accepting $165,000 in gifts from an allegedly mob-linked construction firm. He currently faces a possible indictment from the U.S. attorney’s office for tax crimes and other offenses stemming from renovations to his Bronx apartment from the firm Interstate Industrial Corp., while he was corrections commissioner under then New York City Mayor Giuliani. Giuliani’s law partner Marc Mukasey has now been told to monitor...

This is not the way it was supposed to be for Rudy Giuliani, who was supposed to turn a presidential campaign into just another one of his big-ticket speaking engagements, his Republican audience hanging on every word like he was standing there at Ground Zero all over again. He was going to win the nomination with one answer, no matter what the question was, whether it was about abortion or Iraq or the price of gasoline: "September 11." It does not turn out to be that simple, even when Giuliani reluctantly strays from his theme of having saved New York...

We've got some real challenges facing us. FR was established to fight against government corruption, overstepping, and abuse and to fight for a return to the limited constitutional government as envisioned and set forth by our founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and other founding documents. One of the biggest cases of government corruption, overstepping and abuse that I know of is its disgraceful headlong slide into a socialist hell. Our founders never intended for abortion to be the law of the land. And they never intended the Supreme Court to be a legislative body. They...

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — Plenty of people — politicians included — have skeletons in their closets. In the case of presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, that closet is a walk-in. The former Republican mayor of New York City won widespread praise for his handling of the Sept. 11 attacks, and it is largely that collective memory that accounts for his current popularity in polls and makes him the early front-runner for his party's nomination. Yet as most New Yorkers could tell you, there are plenty of episodes in Giuliani's past that could come back to haunt him — scenes that...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Never say New Yorkers don't have sense of humor -- especially when they can stick it to the other side. A powerful New York Democrat, a mischievous gleam in his eye, is offering an early endorsement in the 2008 presidential race, where the field includes many hometown hopefuls like former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Gov. George Pataki and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. "I'm supporting Giuliani for the Republican," Rep. Charles Rangel said Monday, pausing briefly before delivering the punchline. "Kerik, as well," he added, referring to Giuliani's disgraced former police commissioner Bernard Kerik. Kerik pleaded guilty earlier...

Scandal-scarred former top cop Bernard Kerik turned down a deal with federal prosecutors that offered him less than two years in jail in return for a guilty plea to tax fraud Kerik - NYPD commissioner under Rudy Giuliani, who recommended him for Homeland Security secretary in 2004 - rejected the deal..... The case involves gifts Kerik received while in office, his Homeland Security application, a mortgage application and tax returns. Kerik pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor charges of taking money from contractors with alleged mob ties when he was the city's corrections chief. His nomination by President Bush to...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's Republican candidate for attorney general, who last year gave up a failing bid against U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, is under federal investigation for considering secretly recording her husband to learn if he was having an affair, officials said on Wednesday. Jeanine Pirro, a former district attorney whose efforts at higher public office have been plagued by personal scandal and public gaffes, revealed the probe at a news conference and insisted she broke no laws by discussing the idea with a security consultant. "Prying into the personal lives of married couples is not the business...

ATLANTIC CITY A mob-linked construction company - accused of lying about dealings with ex-NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik - must stop doing work for Atlantic City casinos....the Casino Control Commission suspended the licenses of Interstate Industrial Corp.......owners pleaded not guilty to charges of lying to a grand jury.....denying they secretly paid for the bulk of an extensive makeover of Kerik's apartment when he was in charge of city jails.

Bernard Kerik Linked to Mob-Owned Company * N.J. investigators Allege Payoffs in Exchange for Favors Nov 16, 2005 8:39 am US/Eastern ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) New Jersey investigators want a construction company banned from doing business with Atlantic City casinos because its owners allegedly lied about their dealings with Bernard Kerik, the former New York police commissioner and one-time nominee for Homeland Security secretary. The investigators also said yesterday that they have information about ties between the construction company's owners, Frank and Peter DiTommaso, and the Gambino and DeCavalcante crime families. The state Division of Gaming Enforcement asked the Casino...

New Jersey casino investigators have reopened their case against the owners of a Clifton construction company that last year beat allegations of ties to organized crime and won a license to do business in Atlantic City. As part of the probe, the state Division of Gaming Enforcement wants to question former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, according to a subpoena issued to him. The agency subpoenaed Kerik last month and asked him to produce documents pertaining to 13 issues, from communication between him and the brothers who own Interstate Industrial and a sister company, Interstate Drywall, to records...

An internal NYPD investigation has been launched into possible abuse of department-issued credit cards while Bernard Kerik was police commissioner, the Daily News has learned. Investigators are poring through Police Headquarters computer data for evidence. Over the Christmas holiday weekend, detectives from the Internal Affairs Bureau seized all the computers from the NYPD office that issues credit cards, Social Security cards, driver's licenses and employment IDs under aliases to undercover cops, law enforcement sources said. The sources say the investigators are studying how the credit cards were used and what they bought from August 2000 to Dec. 31, 2001, while...