LoungeMachine
12-22-2004, 10:25 PM
Kerik Quits Giuliani Firm to Work on `Clearing' Name (Update1)
Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who withdrew as President George W. Bush's nominee for U.S. secretary of homeland security 11 days ago, resigned from former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's consulting firms.
Kerik, addressing reporters today in Manhattan, said he quit ``in the best interests of my family, my colleagues'' and the clients of Giuliani Partners LLC and its Giuliani-Kerik security- consulting affiliate. ``I plan to take some time off to focus on my family and the things that have to be focused on at this point, and to clear my good name,'' he said.
Giuliani, in a separate news conference outside his offices at Times Square, said he hadn't asked Kerik to resign. Giuliani, who has spoken of possibly returning to politics and has been touted by admirers as a 2008 presidential candidate, said last week he apologized to the White House for his role in pushing Kerik for the Homeland Security job.
Kerik, 49, took himself out of consideration for the Cabinet post Dec. 11 after saying he discovered he failed to pay taxes on a housekeeper and nanny whose immigration status wasn't certain. In subsequent days, reports in the New York Daily News, New York Times and elsewhere raised questions about his conduct while a New York City official, including ties to contractors who did business with the city.
Still `Friend'
``He continues to be a friend,'' Giuliani, 60, said of Kerik. ``I believe he'll be able to successfully address the issues that are raised and then I think he'll re-emerge a better man.'' The former mayor said facing those issues is ``going to take his full-time attention.''
Sunny Mindel, a spokeswoman for Giuliani Partners, said in a written statement that Giuliani-Kerik LLC is being renamed Giuliani Security & Safety.
The city Department of Investigation has begun a probe into Kerik's failure to file a 44-page background questionnaire upon his appointment in 2000 as New York police commissioner after serving as commissioner of the Department of Corrections, which runs the city's jails.
Other allegations included reports in the New York Daily News that kept a secret apartment overlooking the site of the destroyed World Trade Center where he conducted extramarital affairs, and had social ties to a contractor linked in a city investigation to organized crime. The contractor, never charged as a criminal, denied such connections. Kerik's attorney, Joseph Tacopina, wouldn't comment on the apartment, the newspaper said.
`Really Challenged'
Last week, Giuliani was quoted in a Daily News interview saying that he told Kerik he'd made ``significant mistakes.'' He added, ``This is an aspect of Bernie's personality that needs to be changed. In this area -- being careful -- he is challenged. Really challenged.''
As Giuliani's third police commissioner, Kerik took over a department that brought crime rates down under the two-term Republican mayor. He was at Giuliani's side when the mayor rallied the city in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. After Giuliani left office on Jan. 1, 2002, and started the consulting business, Kerik was one of several former officials he hired.
``After what Bernie went through and what he accomplished, how he helped me get through the most difficult days that I ever went through, it would be hard for me to be angry,'' Giuliani said today.
HE PLANS TO SPEND TIME FOCUSING ON HIS FAMILY???????
IS THIS THE SAME GUY WHO FUCKED AROUND ON HIS WIFE WITH 2 WOMEN AT THE SAME TIME??????
IS THIS THE SAME PIECE OF WORK VETTED BY THE ADMINISTRATION WHO RAN ON A PLATFROM OF "MORAL VALUES"?????
ISNT THIS THE SAME LAME EXCUSE USED BY TENET BEFORE THE 9/11 REPORT WAS MADE PUBLIC???
Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who withdrew as President George W. Bush's nominee for U.S. secretary of homeland security 11 days ago, resigned from former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's consulting firms.
Kerik, addressing reporters today in Manhattan, said he quit ``in the best interests of my family, my colleagues'' and the clients of Giuliani Partners LLC and its Giuliani-Kerik security- consulting affiliate. ``I plan to take some time off to focus on my family and the things that have to be focused on at this point, and to clear my good name,'' he said.
Giuliani, in a separate news conference outside his offices at Times Square, said he hadn't asked Kerik to resign. Giuliani, who has spoken of possibly returning to politics and has been touted by admirers as a 2008 presidential candidate, said last week he apologized to the White House for his role in pushing Kerik for the Homeland Security job.
Kerik, 49, took himself out of consideration for the Cabinet post Dec. 11 after saying he discovered he failed to pay taxes on a housekeeper and nanny whose immigration status wasn't certain. In subsequent days, reports in the New York Daily News, New York Times and elsewhere raised questions about his conduct while a New York City official, including ties to contractors who did business with the city.
Still `Friend'
``He continues to be a friend,'' Giuliani, 60, said of Kerik. ``I believe he'll be able to successfully address the issues that are raised and then I think he'll re-emerge a better man.'' The former mayor said facing those issues is ``going to take his full-time attention.''
Sunny Mindel, a spokeswoman for Giuliani Partners, said in a written statement that Giuliani-Kerik LLC is being renamed Giuliani Security & Safety.
The city Department of Investigation has begun a probe into Kerik's failure to file a 44-page background questionnaire upon his appointment in 2000 as New York police commissioner after serving as commissioner of the Department of Corrections, which runs the city's jails.
Other allegations included reports in the New York Daily News that kept a secret apartment overlooking the site of the destroyed World Trade Center where he conducted extramarital affairs, and had social ties to a contractor linked in a city investigation to organized crime. The contractor, never charged as a criminal, denied such connections. Kerik's attorney, Joseph Tacopina, wouldn't comment on the apartment, the newspaper said.
`Really Challenged'
Last week, Giuliani was quoted in a Daily News interview saying that he told Kerik he'd made ``significant mistakes.'' He added, ``This is an aspect of Bernie's personality that needs to be changed. In this area -- being careful -- he is challenged. Really challenged.''
As Giuliani's third police commissioner, Kerik took over a department that brought crime rates down under the two-term Republican mayor. He was at Giuliani's side when the mayor rallied the city in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. After Giuliani left office on Jan. 1, 2002, and started the consulting business, Kerik was one of several former officials he hired.
``After what Bernie went through and what he accomplished, how he helped me get through the most difficult days that I ever went through, it would be hard for me to be angry,'' Giuliani said today.
HE PLANS TO SPEND TIME FOCUSING ON HIS FAMILY???????
IS THIS THE SAME GUY WHO FUCKED AROUND ON HIS WIFE WITH 2 WOMEN AT THE SAME TIME??????
IS THIS THE SAME PIECE OF WORK VETTED BY THE ADMINISTRATION WHO RAN ON A PLATFROM OF "MORAL VALUES"?????
ISNT THIS THE SAME LAME EXCUSE USED BY TENET BEFORE THE 9/11 REPORT WAS MADE PUBLIC???