More evidence emerges that the "nanny" nomination withdrawal story was concocted to cover up the fact this guy was a total washout from day 1. This is also indicating to me that Bush cared more about media star power than competance, and rushed to get what he wanted with out looking before he leaped, the hallmark of his management style that we get to see the results of daily in Iraq. Apparently Mr. Kerik was the subject of some pretty serious charge, and it is amazing the Bush staff would not be aware of them:


Inside the Kerik mess

BY DAN JANISON AND GRAHAM RAYMAN
STAFF WRITERS
newsday.com


In the 48 hours before his withdrawal as nominee for the nation's top security post, Bernard Kerik and his lawyer scrambled to keep damaging assertions about his past out of the public spotlight.

A week after President George W. Bush announced the former city police commissioner as his choice for Homeland Security secretary, an array of charges and questions about Kerik's past were coming to a boil, threatening his crafted image as an American legend and portending a rougher Senate confirmation process than first predicted.

On Thursday, the day before he took his name from contention, Kerik, 49, was forced to testify in a civil lawsuit about an alleged affair with a subordinate.

The case, which involves Kerik's use of authority when he was city correction commissioner between 1998 and 2000, was brought against the city by a former deputy warden. Plaintiff Eric DeRavin III contends Kerik kept him from getting promoted because he had reprimanded the woman, Correction Officer Jeanette Pinero.

About halfway through Pinero's deposition on Tuesday, attorneys for the city began to raise the issue of sealing the depositions, particularly the parts that concerned Kerik and Pinero's relationship, lawyers in the case said.

On Wednesday, the lawyers requested and received a special hearing before Federal Magistrate Kevin Nathaniel Fox, where they requested that both Kerik's and Pinero's transcripts be sealed.

DeRavin's attorney, Gregory Lisi, argued against the sealing, calling it a First Amendment issue.

The judge ordered the parties not to discuss the contents of either deposition until he ruled.

DeRavin said that while other depositions in the case have been taken in small, cramped quarters at the city Law Department, Kerik's was held in a spacious conference room furnished with leather chairs. Kerik arrived with his personal attorney, Joseph Tacopina.

On Friday, Kerik was fending off other charges. Tacopina was in contact with at least one TV news organization in a bid to keep it from airing an interview with another ex-jail supervisor, sources said. The interview contained other allegations against Kerik, some of which have already been in print, the sources said.

After Kerik's withdrawal, Tacopina complained to MSNBC about a "disturbing" level of "personal attacks" that he deemed inaccurate and unfair.

Despite his embattlements, however, there were few, if any, clues that Kerik was about to pull the plug on his biggest career venture.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) said the White House seemed to have been caught off guard.

He said that as late as 7 p.m. Friday, just 90 minutes before Kerik telephoned President George W. Bush and withdrew, the White House faxed King talking points defending the nomination for his use during a TV appearance.

King said he talked with the president and White House political strategist Karl Rove on Monday about Kerik during a White House Christmas party. He said both spoke enthusiastically about the nomination and showed no concern about its fate.

Later that same night, King said, he ran into Kerik at a Washington restaurant. King said Kerik indicated he was aware that questions would be raised about his background but showed no hesitancy about answering them.

In the end, however, Kerik, a proud protege of former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, withdrew his nomination with the disclosure that he failed to pay taxes on a housekeeper and nanny who may have been undocumented.

"I owe the president an enormous amount of gratitude for this consideration," Kerik said yesterday from his home in Franklin Lakes, N.J. "I owe him a great apology that this may have caused him and his administration a big distraction."

Staff writers Ken Fireman and Leonard Levitt contributed to this story.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.