Bada-Bing Fallout: Your Indicted Supporters Are Worse Than My Indicted Supporters

The indictment of a close personal adviser to Rudy Giuliani has got the other Republican candidates finally taking notice. John McCain started things off by questioning Kerik’s performance in Iraq (read Imperial Life In The Emerald City for the full story on Kerik’s fiasco running the Iraqi police):

Bernard Kerik did an irresponsible job training police in Iraq, presidential contender John McCain said Friday, adding to criticism of Kerik as Rudy Giuliani’s former police commissioner surrendered to face charges in New York.

McCain cited Kerik’s relationship with his Republican presidential foe as a reason to doubt Giuliani’s judgment.

“I don’t know Mr. Kerik. I do know that I went to Baghdad shortly after the initial victory and met in Baghdad with (Ambassador Paul) Bremer and (Lt. Gen. Ricardo) Sanchez. And Kerik was there. Kerik was supposed to be there to help train the police force. He stayed two months and one day left, just up and left,” McCain told reporters traveling on his campaign bus.

“That’s why I never would’ve supported him to be the head of homeland security because of his irresponsible act when he was over in Baghdad to try and help train the police. One of the reasons why we had so much trouble with the initial training of the police was because he came, didn’t do anything and then went out to the airport and left.”

Rudy hit back by discussing McCain’s ethical lapses, in a backhanded way, referring to the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s.

Giuliani surrogate Randy Maestro, who served as Rudy’s deputy mayor and chief of staff, has responded by airing some of McCain’s own dirty laundry.

“It’s no more fair to judge Rudy Giuliani on the basis of one issue than it is to judge John McCain on the Keating scandal,” Maestro said in a phone interview with Jonathan Martin. The message to McCain: Back off.

This is the dirty primary that we’ve all been expecting. What’s funny is, if the campaign is going to come down to a battle of who has the most criminally negligent advisors, they’d have to back up the primaries by 6 months just to fit them all in. I mean, Romney piling on is absurd:

“Governor Romney believes the American people want and deserve change in Washington,” wrote campaign spokesman Kevin Madden, listing some of Romney’s ethics proposals. “They want strong ethics and accountability in government.”

Didn’t he have a staff members impersonating police officers not too long ago?

Get your popcorn, this could get fun.