Bush, sensibly, gave Kerik a pre-hire tryout in the summer of 2002 in a gig that his experience prepped him much better for, training Iraqi police. So how’d Kerik do? Pretty poorly. …
For liberals, there’s a lot of other stuff to raise eyebrows about Bernie Kerik. 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. …
I hope the press and Senate put his record to some rigorous, tough-minded scrutiny as the confirmation process unfolds.
—Benjamin Wallace-Wells