For the better part of the last six years, Rudy Giuliani's status as "America's Mayor" based on his perceived performance on 9/11 has been sacrosanct in the media. Although there have been significant questions about Giuliani's policies and how he actually handled the lead up to and aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, they have not been given much, if any, airtime in the broadcast media or column inches in the print media. That is until now. In an article in Friday's issue of The New York Time, William K. Rashbaum takes a look at one aspect of the myth of Rudy Giuliani and effectively shreds it to pieces.
Rudolph W. Giuliani told a grand jury that his former chief investigator remembered having briefed him on some aspects of Bernard B. Kerik's relationship with a company suspected of ties to organized crime before Mr. Kerik's appointment as New York City police commissioner, according to court records.Mr. Giuliani, testifying last year under oath before a Bronx grand jury investigating Mr. Kerik, said he had no memory of the briefing, but he did not dispute that it had taken place, according to a transcript of his testimony.
Mr. Giuliani's testimony amounts to a significantly new version of what information was probably before him in the summer of 2000 as he was debating Mr. Kerik's appointment as the city's top law enforcement officer. Mr. Giuliani had previously said that he had never been told of Mr. Kerik's entanglement with the company before promoting him to the police job or later supporting his failed bid to be the nation's homeland security secretary.
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Mr. Kerik pleaded guilty last summer to improperly allowing the company, Interstate Industrial Corporation, or its subsidiaries, to do $165,000 worth of free renovations on his Bronx apartment in late 1999 and 2000. The company has denied paying for the work, and has disputed any association with organized crime. But the two brothers who run it have been indicted in the Bronx on charges they lied under oath about their dealings with Mr. Kerik.
The revelation that Rudy Giuliani appointed as New York City chief of police and recommended President Bush appoint as Homeland Security Secretary a man with alleged mob ties -- ties that he knew about -- directly undercuts one of Giuliani's greatest strengths as a candidate for the presidency. Simply put, no one with strong homeland security credentials would even consider backing someone with alleged connections with organized crime.
But for as interesting as this story is -- and indeed it does paint an interesting picture -- the more important aspect of the story is that it seems to signal that the media are finally willing to take a critical look at Rudy Giuliani's record as mayor, which hasn't occurred in a great number of years. While the glowing treatment that Giuliani has received since the 9/11 attacks might not be over, just an evenhanded look at the serious questions about his handling of issues related to domestic security, to mention just one area, could spell real trouble Giuliani's candidacy for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, who is already beginning to face heat for his previous positions and actions that ran contrary to the views of the right wing of the Republican Party (these two videos, in particular, are problematic for Giuliani). And though this story, in and of itself, will not come even close to sinking Giuliani's candidacy, if it does indeed foreshadow the type of coverage that he will receive in the coming weeks and months, it's not out of the question that his presidential bid will go the way of his 2000 senatorial campaign -- a lot of initial hubbub but a quick ending long before voters actually go to the polls.
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