The Week

M***y c*******s! You can’t say that now, but it’s so much better than H***y H******s.

Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad, but arrogant, careless, and horny will also do, as former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik found when he was tapped to be secretary of homeland security. Kerik bowed out when it turned out he had an illegal-immigrant nanny—not a good thing for the man taxed with enforcing America’s immigration laws. Then it turned out that he also had two mistresses and a lawyer who is a wiseguy defense attorney. What were Kerik’s qualifications anyway? He was a placeholder police commissioner for the end of Rudy Giuliani’s second term. He stood by the mayor on 9/11, but the leadership came from Giuliani. The Bush administration was wrong to have tapped Kerik as a favor to Giuliani, and Giuliani was wrong to have pushed him. Add it to the long list of Giuliani’s defects: weirdness, temper, bullying, liberalism. America and the GOP will turn to him in 2008 only if they desperately need a leader.

M***y c*******s! You can’t say that now, but it’s so much better than H***y H******s.

Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad, but arrogant, careless, and horny will also do, as former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik found when he was tapped to be secretary of homeland security. Kerik bowed out when it turned out he had an illegal-immigrant nanny—not a good thing for the man taxed with enforcing America’s immigration laws. Then it turned out that he also had two mistresses and a lawyer who is a wiseguy defense attorney. What were Kerik’s qualifications anyway? He was a placeholder police commissioner for the end of Rudy Giuliani’s second term. He stood by the mayor on 9/11, but the leadership came from Giuliani. The Bush administration was wrong to have tapped Kerik as a favor to Giuliani, and Giuliani was wrong to have pushed him. Add it to the long list of Giuliani’s defects: weirdness, temper, bullying, liberalism. America and the GOP will turn to him in 2008 only if they desperately need a leader.