Saturday, December 11, 2004

Housekeeper is Red Herring

The condition of all human ethics can be summed up in two sentences: We ought to. But we don't.
Kurt Tucholsky (1890 - 1935), German philosopher

What a red herring the housekeeper issue is concerning nominated Secretary of Homeland Security Bernard Kerik. The former New York City police commissioner and crony of former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, withdrew his nomination Friday evening. Because of the past incidents, nanny issues are among the first that administration officials explore, and among the ones they probe most aggressively, according to the Washington Post.

The Misanthrope believes the excuse of the housekeeper is an attempt to bury or minimize allegations regarding his ethics that could possibly hurt Giuliani’s lucrative consulting business. Although, Federal immigration laws do make it a felony to knowingly conceal or harbor an illegal immigrant. The housekeeper taxes and immigration issues were used primarily by Republicans to stop President Bill Clinton nominees for attorney general nominees Judge Kimba M. Wood and Zoe Baird. The tactic has since been used against Bush to force the withdrawal of his cabinet nominee Linda Chavez as labor secretary.

According to the New York Times:
From the moment Mr. Kerik's nomination was announced by President Bush, news organizations have been digging into Mr. Kerik's background, from his time as a security chief at a hospital in Saudi Arabia in the early 1980's to his work during the last three years in the private sector for companies doing business with the Department of Homeland Security. The stream of stories - which raised questions about how he used his position of authority or whether his work in the private sector might present a conflict of interest when he returned to the government - had begun to produce questions about the status of his nomination.

The Misanthrope believes names of potential new nominees will be floated/leaked shortly, possibly in time for the Sunday political shows, to take media off Kerik’s trail.

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