Honestly, if you really want to sum up the Bush years, you could do it with Bernie Kerik. Kerik was police commissioner of New York City on the day of 911 and therefore a National Hero automatically.
No other thought process is necessary. That's a tough looking guy, self made man. I like him. Send him to Iraq to do something, some thing positive. Give him a title. Rudi likes him, and Rudi was there too.
So Kerik gets a title in Iraq. They call him the "Interim Minister of Interior of Iraq" and he goes over there.
What does he do? Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Imperial Life in the Emerald City gives us some answers. First, he was received as a rock star:
Bernard Kerik had more star power than Bremer and everyone else in the CPA combined. Soldiers stopped him in the halls of the Republican Palace to ask for his autograph or, if they had a camera, a picture. Reporters were more interested in interviewing him than they were the viceroy.
Because he was there and so played up by the Bushies. They were sending the best to Iraq. No vetting necessary. He was there.
He lacked policing experience in post conflict situations, but the White House viewed that as an asset.
Of course. Because he was there.
Robert Gifford, a State Department expert in international law enforcement, was one of the first CPA staffers to meet Kerik when he arrived in Baghdad. Gifford was the senior adviser to the Itaqi Interior Ministry, which oversaw the police. Kerik was to take over Gifford's job.
"I understand you are going to be the man, and we are here to support you," Gifford told Kerik.
"I'm here to bring more media attention to the good work on police because the situation is probably not as bad as people think it is," Kerik replied.
This is a guy who's just walked in, Gifford thought to himself.
"I'm not here to get into your shit," Kerik told Gifford. He said he didn't plan to stay more than six months. He was a partner in Giuliani's consulting firm, and he told Gifford he made $10,000 a pop from speaking engagements. "I can't afford to be here," he said. But Giuliani and his wife had told him he couldn't say no to the president.
What a patriot! So, what did this patriot do while he was in Iraq?
When it came to his own safety he hired a team of South African body guards.
Really? No US Marines? No PFCs at least? South Africans?
Kerik held only two staff meetings while in Iraq.
Wow. He was in charge?
Instead of dwelling on the big picture, Kerik focused on one Iraqi, Ahmed Kadhim Imbrahim. Imbrahim was Iraqi version of Kerik.
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Within a few weeks, Kerik named Ibrahim, who had claimed the rank of general, to be chief of investigations and deputy interior minister.
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With Kerik's assent, Ibrahim assembled a hundred-man paramilitary unit to pursue criminal syndicates that had formed since the war. People working for Kerik had no idea where Ibrahim found his men. Burke, who stayed in Iraq to help with police training after the Justice Department assessment mission ended, suspected that they were part of a military unti or security organization that had been banned by Bremer. But nobody probed. The unit was armed with US issued M16 rifles and walkie talkies.
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Kerik often joined Ibrahim on nighttime raids, departing from the Green Zone at midnight and returning at dawn, in time for Kerik to attend Bremer's senior staff meeting, where he would crack a few jokes, describe the night's adventures and read off the latest crime statistics prepared by an aid.
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There were persistent allegations about Ibrahim's Rangers. The military discovered that Ibrahim had been holding on to dozens of rocket propelled grenades and mortars seized in raids, and a counterfeiting machine that sime said was kept in operation. His unit was also accused of torturing nine jailed prostitutes with electrical shocks form a hand-cranked Russian military field telephone.
(bolding added)
Lovely crowd to assort with. One would think Kerik might have been offended by the torturing of prostitutes, or there could be some serious Freudian ghosts there. But someone must have picked up on what was gong on, right?
Several members of the CPA's Interior Ministry team wanted to blow the whistle on Kerik, but they concluded that any complaints would be brushed off. "Bremer's staff thought he was the silver bullet," a member of the Justice Department assessment mission said. "Nobody wanted to question the man who was police chief during 911."
Oh shit, I had forgotten. He was there.
You couldn't hit a barn wall with the logic employed by anyone sending this man over there in the first place, much less sitting idly by as he tore off on midnight raids with his Iraqi equivalent and his "Rangers" stealing god knows what.
But that just made Bernard Kerik a candidate to take Tom Ridge's post as head of the Department of Homeland Security.
That's right. Let's stick Bernie effing midnight raider into the DHS post. He held two staffing meetings during his entire stay in Iraq? Perfect guy for the job. We'll give him color coded dice so he can just roll out his decisions. Turkey day? Double reds baby! I could see them all standing around betting on it.
Besides, anyone who ever looked like this is trust worthy!
But that wasn't to be. He had an illegal immigrant as a nanny. Wow. How about that. With all the crazies getting their hate freak on, no one ever talks about Bernie sinking his career because he chose the low salary over a red blooded US citizen.
But then other things happened to Bernie. Like a corruption charge, which he had been out on a 500K bond for. But while out, he did some things you don't do if you are into law and order.
The judge, Stephen C. Robinson of Federal District Court in White Plains, appeared furious as he made it clear that he believed that Mr. Kerik had leaked sealed information from his case in an attempt to generate public sympathy and perhaps to influence potential jurors.
Judge Robinson said he feared that Mr. Kerik had "a toxic combination of self-minded focus and arrogance." The judge said he also feared that Mr. Kerik felt that "the rulings of this court are an inconvenience to be ignored or forgotten, or an obstacle to be circumvented."
And to think this guy was one illegal nanny from heading the Department of Homeland Security.
But he was there. And that's all anyone needed to know. And he has amazing arrogance.
But by midafternoon Wednesday, Mr. Kerik seemed pretty much like all the other inmates in the Westchester County jail in Valhalla, N.Y.: A mug shot had been taken of him, he wore an orange jump suit, and he had an inmate number — 210717.
Now, while the GOP and the freak show assemble they have developed screeches louder and louder, keep in mind they shriek because they have nothing else. They seriously would have allowed this guy in the door. These people don't think about what's good for the country, they think about what makes a good story, a good sell, a good sounding resume. They wrung 911 for all it was worth.
And they were ready to hand the Department of Homeland Security over to Kerik. Simply because he was there. Hell, Giuliani tried to get elected for President with it.
But substance is not what they provide. And Kerik is one of the best of countless examples that ought to anthologized very soon.