Bush Picks Bernard Kerik for Homeland Security Job
STEVE HOLLAND / Reuters 2dec04
| Profile: Bernard Kerik
Bernard Kerik Born: Paterson, N.J., 1956 EARLY YEARS
After serving time in the U.S. Army and as a guard for Saudi Arabian
royalty, joined NYPD in 1985. |
WASHINGTON — President Bush has picked as his homeland security secretary former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who helped the city respond to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and later went to Iraq, Republican officials said on Thursday.
Two Republican officials said Bush had chosen Kerik to replace Tom Ridge as head of U.S. homeland security, and that an announcement could come as early as Friday as Bush continues a broad overhaul of his second-term Cabinet.
Kerik, 49, was at the side of then-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani during the crisis over the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He was a principal member of the mayor's Cabinet overseeing the rescue, recovery and investigation of the World Trade Center attack.
New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer issued a statement of support for Kerik, whose position must be confirmed by the Senate.
"Coming from New York, Bernie Kerik knows the great needs and challenges this country faces in homeland security. He has a strong law enforcement background and I believe will do an excellent job in fighting for the resources and focus that homeland security needs and deserves in our post-9/11 world," Schumer said.
Kerik has been a strong Bush supporter and Bush's re-election campaign turned to him to react to charges about homeland security thrown at the president by his Democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry.
"Kerik spent a lot of time on the campaign trail with Bush and was a real political asset," said Scott Reed, a Republican strategist.
Kerik most recently served as Iraq's interim Minister of Interior and as senior policy adviser for then-U.S. envoy Paul Bremer. In 2001, the Army veteran published a memoir, "The Lost Son: A Life in Pursuit of Justice."
Ridge, who was the first homeland security secretary, announced on Tuesday he was stepping down.
(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan)
source: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=6983478 2dec04
Kerik critics speak out
DAN JANISON / Newsday 2dec04
Critics of Bernard Kerik -- and there still are a number in city law enforcement circles -- said privately Thursday that any valid U.S. Senate confirmation process would have to turn an especially skeptical eye on his legacy here as top jail official until 2000.
One non-fan, a Correction Department veteran, sarcastically asked if former three-star chief Anthony Serra, who rose up the ranks during Kerik's tenure but is now under indictment for misusing public resources, would become commerce secretary.
"He replaced the merit system with his own favoritism system," said another. Kerik has been lauded for the plunge in both inmate violence and staff overtime during his tenure. But subsequent investigations have turned up several situations that happened under the combined watch of Kerik and his hand-picked successor, William Fraser, that rank-and-file naysayers consider stains on his legacy.
For example, Serra's role as a chief became a kind of agency within an agency, according to federal prosecutors, in which he could manipulate the payroll to use dozens of underlings on Republican campaigns and to fix up his house. His trial has been continually postponed and now is scheduled for January in the Bronx.
Comptroller's audits indicated that throughout the tenure of Fraser and Kerik, there was little accountability for the purchase of goods from jail equipment to concession items.
Similarly, an off-budget foundation that Kerik nominally headed was the subject of a federal probe in which one ex-aide pleaded guilty and is serving prison time.
source: http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/crime/nyc-corr1203,0,1569378.story?coll=nyc-homepage-headlines 2dec04
Ex-NYPD Official To Succeed Ridge
Nominee Was Commissioner on 9/11
MIKE ALLEN & JOHN MINTZ / Washington Post 3dec04
President Bush settled yesterday on Bernard B. Kerik, the New York police commissioner during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, to take over the Department of Homeland Security from its first leader, Tom Ridge, administration officials said.
White House officials described Kerik, who campaigned aggressively for Bush's reelection, as a proven crisis manager who can straighten out the lines of authority in the infant department and work to prevent a catastrophic attack or cope with its aftermath. Other Republicans said Kerik would provide a telegenic presence, and one presidential adviser pointed out that Kerik "brings 9/11 symbolism into the Cabinet."
Kerik will appear with Bush at the White House today, a senior administration official said. Some Bush officials said they were concerned about his lack of Washington experience, because commanding respect within the Cabinet and with Congress remains a challenge for the agency.
Bush also surprised Republicans yesterday by naming Nebraska Gov. Michael O. Johanns, 54, a dairy farmer's son who was the party's leading candidate in an upcoming U.S. Senate race, as secretary of agriculture. If confirmed, he will succeed Ann M. Veneman, an original member of Bush's Cabinet who said two years ago that she is fighting breast cancer.
In a third change as Bush reshapes his government for a second term, U.N. Ambassador John C. Danforth, 68, a former U.S. senator from Missouri, submitted his resignation after five months on the job.
Bush chose Kerik, 49, after the commissioner's former boss, former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, "made an impassioned personal plea to the president to give Kerik the job," one administration official said.
White House officials said several people recommended Kerik and he was chosen on merit, not because of Giuliani.
The Homeland Security Department that Kerik inherits from Ridge faces challenges on nearly every one of its high-priority fronts. The department, a collection of 22 preexisting agencies and offices, is under criticism for what some say is a failure to address many security gaps, such as protecting U.S. ports and chemical plants, securing the United States' borders with Mexico and Canada, and helping the country's first responders to prepare for attacks.
A number of panels of experts have concluded that the department is severely underfinanced and understaffed in many of its key functions. In particular, Homeland Security has almost no high-level staff members who are assigned to develop strategies about key policy problems.
At the New York City Police Department, Kerik is credited with improving relations with the city's minority communities after years of friction. He also was in charge during a period of declining crime rates in the city, although some experts say that was less a result of Kerik's policies than of demographic factors.
Kerik resigned as New York police commissioner two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, citing a desire to spend time with his family. After the invasion of Iraq, he took the job of directing the training of Iraqi law enforcement officials, an effort that has met with mixed success. Many Iraqi police trainees have fled at the first sign of danger, but Kerik's defenders say he can hardly be blamed for that.
A high-ranking executive in private industry who is familiar with Kerik's tenure as police commissioner and as head trainer of Iraqi police recruits expressed shock at his selection, and said Kerik is not an accomplished manager. "Management just simply isn't his strong suit," the executive said.
A number of New York elected officials praised the selection. "Coming from New York, Bernie Kerik knows the great needs and challenges this country faces in homeland security," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.
Bush said during an October campaign appearance with Kerik in New Jersey that the former commissioner "knows something about security -- he's lived security all his life."
Kerik started with the NYPD as a beat cop in Times Square and was one of Giuliani's bodyguards during the 1993 campaign. Kerik wrote a best-selling autobiography, "The Lost Son: A Life in the Pursuit of Justice," covering the mystery of his mother, who abandoned her young son.
Administration officials had said that Kerik was on Bush's short list to replace Ridge, but the president's choice for agriculture secretary was a surprise. Johanns as the Republican front-runner to take on Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), a freshman who is up for reelection in 2006 and is considered vulnerable by the GOP.
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) had energetically promoted Johanns for Senate. Nebraska's lieutenant governor, Dave Heineman (R), is to serve the remaining two years of Johanns's term.
Appearing with his nominee in the White House Roosevelt Room, Bush said that in the second term he plans to continue policies that are "pro-growth, pro-jobs and pro-farmer" and keep working to open foreign markets to U.S. agricultural products.
Johanns said in brief remarks that his agricultural background has done much "to define who I am as a person." He said one of his campaign messages was that "after growing up on a dairy farm . . . everything in life seemed easy after that."
Johanns was not the first candidate sounded out by Bush aides. White House senior adviser Karl Rove called Nelson, the Democratic senator, on Nov. 12 and asked what his reaction would be to being considered for agriculture secretary, according to sources in both parties.
Nelson called Rove back Nov. 17 to say he was not interested in agriculture secretary. But he said was interested in two other Cabinet posts, according to a Republican familiar with the exchange. Nelson said that he led trade delegations as Nebraska governor and would be interested in being commerce secretary and that he has an abiding interest in energy issues and would also accept the job of energy secretary, according to the Republican.
The selection of Johanns led to speculation in Nebraska and Washington that the nomination might be designed as an incentive for Nelson to switch to the GOP. Nelson's office said he has had no such conversations with the White House, and Republicans pointed out that he has more leverage with the White House as a Democrat who can be persuaded to cross the aisle on certain votes.
Johanns took office as Nebraska governor in January 1999 and was reelected in 2002, becoming the first GOP governor to win a second term in the state since 1956. He began his political career as a Democrat but switched parties in 1988. He was elected Lincoln mayor three years later and was reelected in 1995.
Johanns has come under criticism from civil liberties groups for official actions that they said promoted conservative Christian beliefs. In May 1999 he signed a proclamation declaring a March for Jesus Day, and he later endorsed a Back to the Bible Day in honor of a fundamentalist Christian group in Nebraska.
Both nominees must be confirmed by the Senate.
Meanwhile, Bush is planning to launch a public push to overhaul Social Security and the U.S. tax code at economic forum Dec. 15-16, the White House announced. At the forum, which will include Vice President Cheney, Cabinet members and business officials, Bush is planning also to tout caps on lawsuits, restraints on federal spending, and ways to improve health care and education.
Staff writers William Branigin and Jim VandeHei contributed to this report.
Page A01
source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29236-2004Dec2.html 2dec04
Bush will choose Kerik to head Homeland Security:
Former New York police boss to replace Ridge
CNN 2dec04
WASHINGTON — President Bush will nominate former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik to take over as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, two administration officials said Thursday.
Kerik led the New York City Police Department through the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and their aftermath. He is currently a senior vice president of Giuliani Partners, the consulting firm founded by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who appointed him as commissioner of the NYPD in 2000. (Profile)
In 2003, Kerik went to Iraq at Bush's request to help train the new Iraqi police force, and he campaigned for Bush's re-election, making at speech at the Republican National Convention in August. (CNN Access: Working hard | Retraining)
An administration official told CNN that on at least two occasions, Giuliani made a personal pitch to the White House that Kerik be named to succeed outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who announced his resignation Tuesday.
Ridge said he will remain in the post until February 1 unless a successor is confirmed sooner.
"There will always be more to do, but today, America is significantly stronger and safer than ever before," he said in his resignation letter. (Ridge's letter)
President Bush hailed Ridge's efforts as the nation's first-ever secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, overseeing its 180,000 personnel.
The former two-term governor of Pennsylvania said that, after 22 years in public service, he plans to get more involved in personal and family matters.
Ridge accepted the job of homeland security adviser to Bush just days after the September 11 attacks, and stepped into the job of secretary in January 2003 as 22 government agencies were blended into the Department of Homeland Security. The department was charged with developing and coordinating a national strategy to protect against terrorist threats in the United States.
Perhaps his highest-profile move was to oversee the creation of the color-coded threat-warning system. During his time as adviser and secretary, the national threat level was raised from yellow (elevated) to orange (high) and back six times. It is currently at yellow.
Ridge has won praise for tackling what was widely regarded as an exceedingly difficult job. But many outside observers say the department is falling short of delivering what it should and could.
Some outside analysts also felt that Ridge lost a number of important battles and said they were hoping his replacement would be able to get more money and therefore more clout for the department.
"Tom Ridge is a decent man and a fine public servant but unfortunately was not given the leeway or resources to tighten up homeland security in the way it should be done," said Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat. "We hope that whoever the administration chooses to succeed him will be given the tools needed to really do the job."
Sen. John Cornyn — a member of the immigration, border security and citizenship subcommittee — praised Ridge's performance.
"Tom Ridge has provided strong and resolute leadership in the fight against terror during his service as America's first secretary of homeland security," the Texas Republican said.
And California Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Ridge "has made real progress under difficult circumstances."
Ridge served as Pennsylvania governor from 1995 to 2001. He was known for his aggressive technology strategy that helped fuel the state's advances in economic development, education, health and the environment.
Kerik served three years as an Army MP before becoming warden of the Passaic County jail. He worked in the NYPD from 1986 to 1994 and, before becoming police commissioner, headed the city's Department of Correction.
The Bush administration has been busy in the weeks since the election, which have also seen the resignations of Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Commerce Secretary Don Evans, Education Secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.
So far, Bush has named five replacements. He nominated White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to succeed Ashcroft, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to take over at the State Department, domestic policy adviser Margaret Spellings to replace Paige and Carlos Gutierrez to be the next commerce secretary.
On Thursday, Bush nominated Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns as his new secretary of agriculture. (Full story)
All of the Cabinet nominees must be confirmed by the Senate.
source: http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/02/homeland.security/ 2dec04
Bernard Kerik Expected to Get Homeland Post
TheStreet.com 2dec04
Bernard Kerik, once a beat cop in New York's Times Square, will take over as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, according to news reports Thursday.
Kerik, 49, a New Jersey native who was the New York City police commissioner under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on Sept. 11, 2001, worked last year in Iraq at the White House's behest, helping organize Iraqi police forces. He now is a partner in Giuliani's consulting firm.
He will replace Tom Ridge, who submitted his resignation earlier this week as the first secretary of the department, which was elevated to Cabinet-level status in January 2003.
source: http://www.thestreet.com/_googlen/markets/marketfeatures/10197210.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA 2dec04
Bush's Security Pick: NYPD's Kerik
CBS News 2dec04
WASHINGTON — President Bush has chosen former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who helped oversee the city's response to the Sept. 11 attacks, to run the Department of Homeland Security, a senior administration official said Thursday.
CBS Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts reports that Kerik is a longtime ally of Mr. Bush - a man who Republicans in Congress say is the sort of strong law enforcement image the Homeland Security department needs.
Kerik supervised the NYPD's response to the 2001 terror attacks, often at the side of then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani. In 2003, he took on a temporary assignment in Iraq to help rebuild the country's police force.
"He knows something about security," Mr. Bush said in October. "He's lived security all his life, and I want to thank him for his dedication and his service to the people of this country..."
Earlier Thursday, Mr. Bush selected Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns, a Republican attorney who grew up on an Iowa dairy farm, as secretary of Agriculture to oversee the nation's farm and food programs.
And, in a third development, U.N. Ambassador John Danforth submitted his resignation, an official said. Danforth had taken the post last June. Danforth had been mentioned as a successor to Secretary of State Colin Powell, but Bush picked Condoleezza Rice. Danforth plans to retire.
Danforth stepped down from the visible U.N. post for personal reasons, said Rick Grenell, the spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.
Grenell tells CBS News.com's David Paul Kuhn that Danforth resigned on Nov. 22 in a letter to the president and that a replacement has not been named.
"There is no other reason than his wife, she means the world to him and she had a fall about a year ago, and since that fall — you can she still has a limp from that fall -- she has learned that anybody can be U.S. ambassador to the U.N. but there's only one person who can be Sally Danforth's husband," Grenell said. "He says in his letter of resignation to the president that he will be available from St. Louis to do whatever the president wants."
The flurry of announcements came as Bush reshaped his team for his second term in office.
Kerik's path to the top anti-terror position, replacing Tom Ridge, has been anything but conventional.
A jail warden with a third-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and a background in anti-terrorism who worked for years in the Middle East for Saudi royalty, he took a substantial pay cut to become a beat cop in Times Square in 1986. A fearless narcotics detective, he went undercover to buy drugs in Harlem, seized millions of dollars of cocaine from the drug lords of the Cali cartel, and was awarded the police department's Medal of Valor for saving the life of a fellow officer.
He eventually was tapped to lead the city's corrections department, and was appointed commissioner in 2000.
It was in that position that he became known to the rest of the country, supervising the NYPD's response to the 2001 terror attacks, often at the side of then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani. In 2003, he took on a temporary assignment in Iraq to help rebuild the country's police force.
After the 9/11 attack, Kerik helped rally a department that lost 23 members. Most recently, he has been a consultant for Giuliani Partners, working to rebuild Baghdad's police force.
Mirimax films latched on to the drama of Kerik's real life by acquiring the exclusive film rights to Kerik's life story, based on his best-selling autobiography "The Lost Son: A Life in Pursuit of Justice." Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein announced the untitled project Thursday. The film will reportedly follow Kerik's life from his experiences in the sagging row houses of Paterson, New Jersey to the cocaine fields of Colombia, to the razor wire of Rikers Island and the streets of New York City.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced his resignation Tuesday, declaring that the country was safer but warning that terrorists might strike again.
Danforth, 68, a Republican former Missouri senator, has been tapped by presidents of both parties as a troubleshooter. He led a Clinton-era investigation of the Waco Branch Davidian affair, and Bush named him special envoy for peace in Sudan. A former three-term Republican senator from Missouri, Danforth is also an ordained Episcopal priest. He replaced John Negroponte in July. Negroponte left the post to be the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq.
source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/02/politics/printable658874.shtml 2dec04
Kerik: Bush Picks Former NYPD Commissioner To Head Homeland Security
GREG LEVINE / Forbes 2dec04
NEW YORK - Doers and doings in business, entertainment and technology:
President George W. Bush picked former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik to head the Department of Homeland Security, a senior administration official said Thursday. Bush also announced his pick for Secretary of Agriculture, Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns. Son of a dairy farmer, he has traveled far and wide to boost U.S. farm industry abroad. Succeeding seminal Homeland Security head Tom Ridge, Kerik's curriculum vitae has differed from the standard paths to power. In the 1970s, he served as a military policeman in South Korea. His first dabblings in counterterrorism were as a private security worker in Saudi Arabia. He joined the New York Police Department in 1986--an auspicious time, natives will tell you, to learn the streets of Gotham--and walked a beat in the seedy kaleidoscope of pre-Walt Disney Co. (nyse: DIS - news - people ) Times Square. He was appointed police commissioner in 2000, and thus set the stage for the awesome task of overseeing the NYPD as it responded to the 2001 terror attacks. In 2003, he assumed a temporary assignment in Iraq, helping to restructure that nation's police force. Kerik is a director at electro-weapon maker Taser International (nasdaq: TASR - news - people ).
source: http://www.forbes.com/2004/12/02/1202autofacescan05.html 2dec04
Bush Taps Johanns for Cabinet Post
Nebraska Governor to Get Agriculture Job;
Choice Is Near for Homeland Security
CHRISTOPHER COOPER in Washington and SCOTT KILMAN / Wall Street Journal 3dec04
President Bush nominated Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns as his new agriculture secretary and will pick former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik as his new homeland-security chief, officials said.
Meanwhile, in another high-level departure from the Bush administration, Washington's ambassador to the United Nations, John Danforth, submitted his resignation after only a few months on the job. Mr. Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri, cited personal reasons for his departure.
An administration official said an announcement on the homeland-security post may come as early as today. The nominee will succeed Tom Ridge, the first head of the Department of Homeland Security, a sprawling, 180,000-employee agency formed from 22 government departments after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Mr. Kerik, 49 years old, helped oversee emergency operations after the strike on the World Trade Center. He also has experience in the Middle East, first serving as a security guard in Saudi Arabia and most recently helping train Iraqi security forces. He joined the New York Police Department in 1986, first walking a beat and then rising to commissioner in 2000.
With his law-enforcement experience, Mr. Kerik will likely be popular as chief of homeland security, as well as in Congress. "I don't want to take anything away from Tom Ridge, but Bernie's going to be more intense, more hands-on and more of a presence on Capitol Hill," said Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.). Both Mr. Kerik and Mr. Johanns are likely to face easy confirmation in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Mr. Johanns, a 54-year-old Republican lawyer in his second term as governor, would succeed Ann Veneman, one of seven cabinet members so far who have said they don't plan to stay for Mr. Bush's second term. An Iowa native, Mr. Johanns grew up on a dairy farm before setting up a law practice and running for public office as a county commissioner in Nebraska. "I am very, very proud of my ag background," Mr. Johanns told reporters. "I do feel that those years on that dairy farm did much to define who I am as a person."
As governor of a major farm state -- Nebraska is a big livestock producer and is third in the U.S. in corn production and sixth in soybeans -- Mr. Johanns is an ardent supporter of ethanol, a gasoline substitute made from corn produced largely in the Farm Belt with the support of heavy federal subsidies. He also presided over an $85 million property-tax rollback. In announcing his choice, Mr. Bush mentioned Mr. Johanns's focus on economic growth and alternative-fuels development as primary reasons for his selection.
Mr. Johanns would take over as agriculture secretary at a time when the Farm Belt's traditional ability to generate a trade surplus is evaporating, thanks in large part to the American consumer's growing appetite for foreign foods. One of Mr. Johanns's first tasks would be to reopen foreign markets to U.S. beef, a $3 billion market that was crushed by the 2003 mad-cow scare.
He also would spearhead the Bush administration's inevitable clash with Congress over how to rein in farm subsidies. The agriculture committees of the House and Senate long have controlled America's farm policy. Populated by rural legislators, the two committees largely ignored the Bush administration when they wrote the five-year farm bill in 2002. That bill potentially would have been the most costly on record for taxpayers, had a recovering farm economy not reduced the eligibility of some growers.
Congress probably will begin holding hearings next year on the shape of next farm bill. This time around, projected record federal budget deficits will put enormous pressure on the White House to cut spending on subsidy programs, which are expected to swell by billions of dollars in the wake of this year's price-depressing record harvests of crops such as corn and soybeans.
Additionally, pressure for change is growing from the World Trade Organization, where developing nations are making headway in their complaint that U.S. subsidy programs encourage domestic farmers to overproduce, thereby damping world-wide commodity prices. This year, for example, a WTO dispute panel sided with Brazil over its allegations that some subsidies collected by U.S. cotton farmers distort trade.
In his resignation letter, Mr. Danforth said he was stepping down to spend more time with "the girl of my dreams," Sally, his wife of 47 years. He said he hoped to return to private life by Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, but remained available to help Mr. Bush from his home of St. Louis, as he did when serving as a special envoy to Sudan before taking the U.N. post.
Mr. Danforth took the U.N. post on July 1, succeeding John Negroponte, who was picked as U.S. ambassador to Iraq when the interim government took office there. An official familiar with Mr. Danforth's thinking said he had taken the job despite reservations about it and had been considering his exit for weeks. Mr. Danforth, 68 years old, who besides his long career in politics is an ordained Episcopalian minister, found life in New York too harried for his taste, the official said.
His appointment also came at a time of heightened tension between the U.S. and the U.N., primarily over the prosecution of the Iraq war, which was launched without Security Council authorization. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said the war is illegal under international law, and some conservative U.S. lawmakers, already upset with alleged corruption in the U.N.'s Iraqi Oil-for-Food Program, have called for Mr. Annan's resignation. The Bush administration hasn't joined in those calls, but it is clearly angry over the world body's continuing refusal to commit significant resources to Iraq's rebuilding.
--Robert Block in Washington and Jess Bravin in New York contributed to this article.
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