Rudy's Bernie Problem

The Skinny: Will Giuliani's Ties To Former Top NYC Cop Hurt His Presidential Chances?

(CBS)  The Skinny is Joel Roberts' take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet.

---

Former New York mayor and current Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani acknowledged Friday that he made a mistake by touting his former police commissioner Bernard Kerik to be President Bush's homeland security chief.

"The Mayor has said repeatedly it was a mistake to recommend Mr. Kerik for DHS," Giuliani's consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, said in a statement to The Associated Press.

That followed a New York Times report that Giuliani was told about Kerik's relationship with a company with suspected ties to organized crime as long ago as 2000, when he was considering Kerik for the city's top police spot.

The Times said Giuliani testified last year to a grand jury investigating Kerik that he was apparently briefed about Kerik's questionable business relationships, but that he could not recall the briefing.

That amounts to a "significantly new version" of what Giuliani may have known about Kerik. Giuliani had previously said he knew nothing of Kerik's involvement with the company before he elevated him to police commissioner or endorsed his unsuccessful bid for the homeland security post.

According to a transcript of his testimony, the Times says Giuliani "indicated that he must have simply forgotten that he had been briefed on one or more occasions as part of the background investigation of Mr. Kerik before his appointment to the police post."

Kerik pleaded guilty last summer to improperly allowing the company to do $165,000 worth of free renovations on his apartment.

How will all this play on the campaign trail? Giuliani's consulting company said he was not concerned that Kerik would become a liability. But the Times reports Giuliani's own aides are expecting questions to arise about Giuliani's judgment in supporting Kerik for one of the nation's top national security positions.


The War Over The War

The war in Iraq – and the war over the war in Washington – along with the prosecutor firings flap continue to dominate the front pages Friday.

The Washington Post, New York Times and Los Angeles Times all have page-one stories on both the looming showdown between the president and Congress over Iraq, and yesterday's testimony by a former top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that Gonzales played a key role in the prosecutor dismissals – something the attorney general has denied.

The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, tops its "What's News" column with an item combining the latest violence in Iraq, which claimed over 100 lives Thursday, with the Senate's passage of a bill setting a deadline for a U.S. withdrawal.

USA Today features stories on the Senate vote and the prosecutor firings on pages 6A and 5A, respectively.


CSI: Wild Kingdom

After a brutal attack on a California hiker, authorities used DNA evidence to identify the culprit. What's unusual here? The attacker was a mountain lion.

The Los Angeles Times reports forensic specialists at the California Department of Fish and Game have formed "a kind of wildlife CSI team," using DNA to convict – or clear – animals suspected of attacking humans and livestock. They've also used DNA to track poachers, including those who've illegally harvested bear gallbladders and stolen sturgeon caviar from the Sacramento River.

In the case of the killer mountain lion, the DNA evidence may have saved both human and animal lives. While mountain lions rarely attack people, until the perpetrator was identified, officials "had to assume that a dangerous big cat was still at large."

In the meantime, all mountain lions in the area were in danger.

"If we don't get the right cat," said one state official, "then everyone out there will be packing guns and shooting cats and claiming self-protection."

A NOTE TO READERS: The Skinny is now available via e-mail. Click here and follow the directions to register to receive it in your inbox each weekday morning.

[rkmfcca]

I don't know what the problem is.....you know Rudy will never be the Republican nominee for President. His pro-abortion and pro-gay rights make him way to radical for the far right wingers that currently run the Republican Party. I wouldn't be surprised if they are the ones pushing the story.

[frb01]

If you look back at elections going back to 1968, the early front runner often does not get the nomination. In the case of Rudy, he still has to contend with McCain and Romney, and Fred Thompson if he enters the race. If Thompson enters the race later this year, his political resume and his acting resume will move him quickly to the front, this country elected another actor, 27 years ago.

[j-whitman]

Dresses are Rudy's problem, not ties --- Oh, I see now. Ties to the mob,,, Yes that's a problem also.. Not to mention the total lack of moral honesty & experiances.

[nyckate]

What a load of you know what - when Rudy was getting Kerik in as NYPD he had jhis guy (who's also his cousin) contravert the usual, normal and required personnel investigation -- that's cause Rudy already knew Kerik was a thug with mob ties and knew he couldn't pass the investigation.

[huskerarmy]

"What do I think? I think this is the "beginning" of the attacks all Americans are going to see by our corrupt liberal MSM wolfpack on Rudy."
Anyone who's been around a while knows that Perceptions is no where to be found when CBS puts up a story that casts Dems in a bad light but is front and center when GOPers are the ones in question. His views on the media are monolithic and paranoid. Only FOX has his good graces. Be that as it may, it's high time the left start swift boating things like this the way the right has so successfully for for so long...

[huskerarmy]

"Rudy could run the mob himself and he would still be a better choice than Hillary."
The definition of a tool.

[fizzal-2009]

When the federal gov,t give,s billions to foreign country,s, why are they not arrested for not paying tax,s on the money they recieved when they apply for citizenship?

[janeyruuth]

So....Sally Regenhard has secret information about Rudy being a 9/11 terrorist and she's not telling us the details?

[terrapin78]

Rudy needs to stop dressing in drag.

I can't believe that he would be the Republicon nominee because of his cross dressing tendencies.

Maybe he would show up for his inauguration in drag.

[Syndicate]

I hate Hillary so much Rudy can pretty much do anything he wants. Rudy could run the mob himself and he would still be a better choice than Hillary.

[iceman_1960]

"I think this is the "beginning" of the attacks all Americans are going to see by our corrupt liberal MSM wolfpack on Rudy. The Wolfpack has identified Rudy as the front runner and will now run "OLD" stories like this one ........to smear Rudy. No Doubt About It!" - perception5

You thought only Republicans could pull the "Swift Boat" attack ?

[sero5]

If California wants to stop mountiain lion attacks, they need stop development encroaching into the lions' natural habitat.

[perception5]

What do I think? I think this is the "beginning" of the attacks all Americans are going to see by our corrupt liberal MSM wolfpack on Rudy. The Wolfpack has identified Rudy as the front runner and will now run "OLD" stories like this one ........to smear Rudy. No Doubt About It!
Americans saw how our corrupt wolfpack promoted their boy Obama for the past 7 months....now watch the same wolfpack smear and attack all of the GOP candidates for president........very sad indeed.
This story comes from the NYTimes which is the most corrupt Wolf in our corrupt liberal MSM wolfpack....

[iceman_1960]

Rudy Giuliani is strong right now, but he has the Hillary Clinton problem in reverse.

Hillary is disliked by many who don't know her well. If they get to see and hear her a lot, that may change for many of them.

Rudy is liked by many who don't know all the details about him. And if (God forbid) his rivals begin to point things out, his campaign may go the way of his hairline.

That said, if it were simply a choice between Giuliani and Dubya (yeah, I know Bush can't run again, but IF...) I would get up before dawn on election day to vote early and often for Giuliani.

IF that were the only choice.

[iceman_1960]

NEW YORK (AP) -- Rudy Giuliani's White House aspirations are inescapably tied to September 11, 2001 -- for better and for worse.

While the former mayor of the nation's largest city was widely lionized for his post-9/11 leadership -- "Churchillian" was one adjective, "America's mayor" was Oprah Winfrey's assessment -- city firefighters and their families are renewing their attacks on him for his performance before and after the terrorist attack.

"If Rudolph Giuliani was running on anything but 9/11, I would not speak out," said Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was among the 343 FDNY members killed in the terrorist attack. "If he ran on cleaning up Times Square, getting rid of squeegee men, lowering crime -- that's indisputable.

"But when he runs on 9/11, I want the American people to know he was part of the problem."