Giuliani Pal Gets Jail-iani.

Bernard Kerik, a man so unwholesome that his name was taken off a jail, is finally in one. Free to walk, talk and taint jury pools since 11/07, when he was indicted on federal, corruption, conspiracy and tax fraud charges (further tax fraud charges followed in 12/08) it's the last activity that put him on ice. With his jury selection scheduled for this monday (10/26/09), Kerik tried to generate public sympathy and influence potential jurors by leaking confidential information about his upcoming trial to The Washington Times. In revoking his bail, Judge Stephen C. Robinson of Federal District court in White Plains, New York said, according to an article by Benjamin Weiser and Stacey Stowe in today's (10/22/09) New York Times, that Mr. Kerik acted as if he was above the law and "thinks he is different" from other people. That the man now known as prisoner 210717 at Westchester County Jail (which accepts certain federal prisoners) has "a toxic combination of self-minded focus and arrogance" and feels "that rulings of this court are an inconvenience to be ignored or forgotten, or an obstacle to be circumvented."

Mr. Kerik himself is only a small stain on the fabric of society. The man who left it there, Rudolph Giuliani, is a little, but only a little, more consequential. When Giuliani was mayor of New York City, he made Bernard Kerik his Commissioner of Corrections and then his Police Commissioner. Two years after leaving office, Kerik was nominated to head The Department of Homeland Security, largely due to the strong, personal recommendation of Giuliani. Kerik would soon take his name out of consideration for the post. Rudolph Giuliani, however, would make unsuccessful attempts to run for Senator from New York and President.

What makes all of this more than tabloid fodder or a small, sleazy footnote to history are the rumors that Rudolph Giuliani wants to run for Governor of New York. Granting him a full measure of the delusions common to politicians and the laughably low standards for being Emperor of the Empire State, this would be a hard campaign to take seriously. Wherever he goes and whatever he does from now on, Rudolph Giuliani will carry the albatross (apologies to the bird world) of Bernard Kerik around his neck - with all the faulty judgement, bordering on negligence, and disrespect for citizens, bordering on contempt, that that implies. The man Giuliani trusted to protect our country from terrorism is now, not only incarcerated, but separated from the prison population and a danger only to himself. Any further political ambitions on the part of "America's Mayor" would, likewise, only be a danger to himself.