Will we ever get to the bottom of this barrel?

If we do, that's where we'll find our new Fatherland Security director.

Though Kerik presided over the hiring of thousands of recruits for the reconstituted Iraqi police force, most were hired without background checks, and many turned out to be hardened criminals. As a result, some 30,000 of them, or roughly 25 percent of the entire force, are now reportedly being let go, with the U.S. footing the bill for $60 million in severance payments.

There's also Kerik's never-fully explained role in the 1990s as head of a New York City Corrections Department foundation that was secretly funded with roughly $1 million of tobacco company rebates from departmental purchases of cigarettes using city funds. Kerik's hand-picked treasurer for the foundation, Frederick Patrick, is now serving a one-year prison sentence after admitting in court that he pilfered nearly $140,000 of the foundation's money to pay for collect-call phone sex from inmates.

NY Post article

And from Kevin Drum via LaBelle...

When Mr. Kerik was appointed to a top job in the New York City Department of Correction in the mid-1990's, one official told the department's commissioner: 'Congratulations. You've just hired Rambo.'

Bernie Kerik gives good schtick. He's got a thick-necked, Sopranos kind of charm and a terrific tough guy biography — after his prostitute mom was killed, he dropped out of high school, became a military policeman, then a jail warden, and then a New York City cop, a charismatic, long-haired narc, whose rise through the ranks began after he was assigned to a detail as Rudy Giuliani's personal bodyguard.

So, fascinating guy. But is he really ready for his new gig, as Director of Homeland Security, leading a tender, evolving and urgently important government agency?

[...]

He once worked as a security chief for the Saudi royal family's hospital system. He was one of the Bush campaign's most aggressive and irresponsible attack dogs, telling the press that if John Kerry were President, the U.S. would see another 9/11. And his nomination reeks of an attempt by the administration to permanently associate the GOP's connection with 9/11. But even for conservatives, it seems hard to understand what professional qualifications this man has for leading the nation's homeland defense. The President didn't mention Kerik's experience much yesterday in the short speech presenting him, choosing instead to focus on his "leadership" qualities. But the record doesn't give much evidence of leadership: he's prematurely quit the two biggest jobs he's ever been handed, just when they got difficult.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Better start a Bernie Kerik post archive:
here
here
here