An Offer He Can't Refuse

This Rudy Giuliani-Bernie Kerik Mario Puzo novel disguised as an article, ably covered by my friends at The Right's Field, is really quite incredible. The biggest revelation was that we learned how Giuliani was briefed about mob ties before hiring team. Rudy probably saw it as an asset - it meant fierce loyalty and only a passing relationship to the law.

“Rudy can fall for people big time, and sometimes qualifications are secondary to loyalty,” said Fran Reiter, a former Giuliani deputy mayor who now supports Hillary Clinton. “If he gets it in his head he trusts you, he is extremely loyal.” [...]

In Mr. Kerik’s case, by the time Mr. Giuliani recommended him for the federal job, his administration knew that Mr. Kerik had acted on behalf of Interstate Industrial (a mob front -ed.). It also knew that he had drawn criticism for a range of other incidents, from sending detectives to search for his lover’s cellphone to using officers to research his autobiography.

Kerik, who has even stiffed the law firm trying to keep him out of jail to the tune of $200,000, is about to go to jail, and while Rudy's Republican rivals haven't made it an issue, that is not likely to last through next November, should he get to that stage. There's so much in this story, that you really have to read it for yourself, but a good taste is this first hint of the way in which Giuliani values loyalty above all, sounding much like a certain cronyist in the White House at the moment:

When Mr. Giuliani ran for mayor in 1993, Mr. Kerik organized his security detail of off-duty officers, reserving the weekend shift for himself.

When Mr. Giuliani became mayor, he gave Mr. Kerik a job in the Correction Department. A year later, the mayor asked him to drop by Gracie Mansion.

The two men sat upstairs and shared a bottle of red wine, a gift to the mayor from Nelson Mandela. Mr. Giuliani said he planned to appoint Mr. Kerik as first deputy correction commissioner.

Mr. Kerik, who wrote of this in his autobiography, “The Lost Son,” was taken aback; he was a year removed from being a police detective.

“Mayor, I appreciate your confidence in me, I really do,” he said. “But I ran a jail. One jail. Rikers is like 10 jails.”

Just do it, the mayor replied.

Mr. Kerik followed Mr. Giuliani downstairs to a dimly lighted room. There waited Mr. Giuliani’s boyhood chum Peter J. Powers, who was first deputy mayor, and other aides. One by one, they pulled Mr. Kerik close and kissed his cheek.

“I wonder if he noticed how much becoming part of his team resembled becoming part of a mafia family,” Mr. Kerik wrote. “I was being made.”

It's going to make a great movie. The real-life version, however, is chilling.

I should note that we should expect Rudy to 100% lie about this entire experience, and when confronted with the truth, claim that expecting him to be honest is "quibbling."