In this White House, the issue of Homeland Security is supposedly their signature one. "Bush will keep us safer" was the broken record we heard virtually every day during the recent campaign. All of which would make you think that the Bush folks would spend a little time carefully investigating their nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security rather than just selecting someone with virtually no national or international track record, and apparently not bothering to check references a little bit. I mean, what if Bernard Kerik had been a terrorist or something? Or even serially corrupt, as news reports are now seem to be indicating. Certainly you wouldn't expect him to tell you that during the interview process.
But apparently that's what this Administration did, since it's now
complaining that the snafu with Kerik arose as the result of his failure to reveal all his secrets to White House lawyers. On the surface, this is pretty astounding. Wouldn't an administration that really values Homeland Security be a little more careful in selecting the top official on its signature issue? But when you think about it, this is par for the course for the Bushies -- whose MO is a rush to action before all the facts are in. President Bush wanted action now on a Homeland Security chief, and he wanted secrecy and speed, not careful reflection. Several years ago, this same sort of rush to action got America bogged down in Iraq where we sped into a war based on speculation about weapons of mass destruction, and Bush's folks demanded to move forward despite no plan to win the peace, and despite the fact that our army was not as well-supplied as everyone (including Donald Rumsfeld and the troops) "wishes" it would have been.
Be thankful that this time all the administration's hastiness got us was Bernard Kerik. And remind me again why George Bush makes us safer?