Kerik's Position Was Untenable, Bush Aide Says

New York Times ^ | 12/12/04 | ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LIPTON

[CTpatriot]

Hmmm... I guess that would make President Bush a "power elite". He absolutely adores illegal aliens, and wants more and more to enter our country. In fact, he wants nothing to do with enforcing the preexisting immigration laws, for that would make it tougher for them to arrive and never leave. Ah yes, "homeland security", brought to you by the White House.

Clinton sold our country out with espionage and stolen military secrets. Mr. Bush is systematically selling us out economically, allowing our country to be overun by illegal aliens, and letting it bleed to death.

[oceanview]

do you think people who hire landscapers are inquiring as to their immigration status? are all those people criminals, if their landscapers are illegal aliens?

[oceanview]

many american households where both mother and father work full time jobs, have a babysitter that they pay to watch their children.

[ex-snook]

"For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone would turn their kids over to a stranger who cannot even speak English. "

I'll taka a shot. Their careers are more important than their kids?

[clyde260]

Well said! Bravo!

[skip_intro]

do you think people who hire landscapers are inquiring as to their immigration status? are all those people criminals, if their landscapers are illegal aliens?

I don't know. Does the landscaper live in your house?

[skip_intro]

I think that it's safe to say that the President of the US is a power elite. It kind of goes with the job.

[Capt. Tom]

You would have thought the Bushies would have learned their lesson. This numb scull nomination is something I would expect from the dumb Republicans but not from the Bushies.

Source FAIR
Linda Chavez, syndicated columnist and former Chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission under President Reagan, withdrew her nomination for Secretary of Labor in the Bush administration after a media firestorm erupted over her harboring an illegal alien during the early 1990s.

Chavez’s saga was similar to that of Clinton nominee for attorney general in 1993, Zoë Baird. Baird had employed an illegal alien nanny and housekeeper without paying taxes.

Chavez claimed that her situation was different, in that she was sheltering a battered woman who had fled her abusive husband in Guatemala.

After initially maintaining that she had not known that her “houseguest,” Marta Mercado, was illegal, Chavez admitted in her withdrawal news conference that “I think I always knew that she was here illegally.” Chavez continued to assert, however, that Mercado was not an employee. But INS officials told the media that even if Mercado were not an employee, her presence in Chavez’s house constituted the crime of “concealing, harboring, or shielding from detection” an illegal alien.

Chavez’s nomination was ultimately derailed because she tried to conceal her relationship with Mercado. Bush transition team officials were initially surprised by the story, which Chavez had concealed during the “vetting,” or screening process used for Cabinet nominees. A Wall Street Journal story on the day she withdrew probably sealed her nomination’s fate; the story revealed that Chavez’s conversation with a neighbor of hers was under investigation by the FBI. Chavez had called the neighbor, to whom she hired Mercado out, hoping to “refresh” her recollection of Mercado’s non-employment.

The controversy, which lasted only a few days, was highlighted by the irony of Chavez’s previous criticisms of Zoe Baird. In 1993, during the Zoë Baird controversy, Chavez said on national television that “I think most of the American people were upset during the Zoë Baird nomination that she had hired an illegal alien. That was what upset them - more than the fact that she did not pay Social Security taxes.” Chavez’s comments came the same year that Mercado was living in her home, doing domestic work.

[txrangerette]

Sorry for the paragraphing problem in my original post.

I for one do not yet know if Mr. Kerik lied. How is it that everyone on this thread seems to know it?

I heard things that leave me open-minded to the facts, whatever they turn out to be. I heard she had phony but convincing documents of her status. I heard his wife hired her when he was in Iraq training the police force. If any of that is true, then I don't conclude that he lied, but that at a minimum he and his vetters failed to do a decent job in nailing down any possible problem.

If it is proven to me that he lied, I will accept it but not until. The man risked his life in Iraq trying to help America and the Iraqi people. He did not have to to that. For that alone, he should not be treated like pond scum, in my opinion.

[oceanview]

what difference does it make. and even I I asked that person, and they produced a fake SS card or a fake green card - what am I supposed to do, polygraph them?

[skip_intro]

No, but you're supposed to pay their SS taxes.

[Moose4]

Yup. Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood were the first two Klowntoon AG appointees. Janet "the Arsonist" Reno was choice #3.

}:-)4

[oceanview]

fair enough, Kerik should certainly have paid those taxes if he owed them. but he could have done that, without being disqualified. Kerik is not short of cash.

[heye2monn]

Excellent answer. Either mom (or dad) should stay home and focus on the kids. If not, why have the (lonely) kids in the first place?

[heye2monn]

Yes. Sad but true.

[oceanview]

what really scares me about this thing, a bigger issue then the Kerik pull out, is now blood is in the water. The administration is seen as having less of a stomach for a fight like this. Now, I honestly think we might lose Rumsfeld over this armored Humvee thing. and when it comes time for SCOTUS nominees, the Dems and the media will know that the slighest issue will disqualify any candidate.

[anniegetyourgun]

"They rushed this nomination and did not look as closely as they should have," he said. "

And oddly enough, you never heard any D's saying this when Clinton nominated those who had to back out.

[Dat Mon]

"Who could have imagined that he would be that stupid and character flawed?"

You could infer from this that:

a) Rudy is already on the short list for 2008

b) Rudy personally vouched for Kerik...thus shortcircuiting the normal upfront screening.

c) Kerik is street smart tough, a bit of a hustler, and in way over his head politically.

[skip_intro]

Kerik should certainly have paid those taxes if he owed them

And that's my point. Of course he should have, just like Linda Chavez should have. The Zoe Baird fiasco under Clinton made it clear to everyone that if these people work directly for you, you have to pay their taxes. But that makes hiring them more expensive, so they don't do it.

As far as landscapers go, if I hire a landscaping company, or eat at a restaurant, it's the company that's required to check immigration status and pay all required taxes on it's employees.

Unlike the people in DC, I'm not rich enough to have my own collection of personal servants.

[the invisib1e hand]

...whatever. It's over.

Next!