1. mikethemadbiologist
  2. Giuliani Is Creepy

Giuliani Is Creepy

By mikethemadbiologist on November 3, 2007.

In a NY Times article about Bernard Kerik, I came across this passage (italics mine):

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."

Those are Kerik's words, not mine. Mind you, the kissing doesn't seem like a spontaneous celebration, but a previously performed ritual.

Truly creepy.

Tags
A Message to You, Rudy

More like this

Incarceration and the Cult of Hovind
Remember the old joke that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged? By way of Ed Brayton, I came across this post by Kent Hovind about his time in jail. Both the post and some of the responses are fascinating (in a 'car wreck' sort of way) because they illuminate the authoritarian mind so…
Our Country Is Run By a Keyser Soze Wannabe
This is not George Bush (image from here) The Peter Pan syndrome is in full effect at the White House. After meeting with George Bush, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the meeting (italics mine): In an interview, Pelosi also said she was puzzled by what she considered the president'…
Heckuva Job Johnny! How a Bush Regulator Failed to Prosecute.
The NY Times has a good article about how few prosecutions have even been attempted in the aftermath of Big Shitpile (the housing crisis and the following good times). One of the key players was Countrywide, led by CEO Chris Mozilo, which initiated so many bad loans (that were then, through…
Lip Synching Is in the "National Interest"?
This is creepy (italics mine): Pigtailed and smiling, Lin Miaoke, age 9, stood in a red dress and white shoes during Friday's Olympic opening ceremonies and performed "Ode to the Motherland" in what would become one of the evening's most indelible images: a lone child, fireworks blazing overhead,…

Conservatives seem to value loyalty over competence and credentials. See also Frank Rich's Greatest Story Ever Sold explanation of who filled the regional and departmental bureaucrat position in the initial US provisional government in Iraq. Loyal Republicans, fundamentalist Christians and Bush Administration supporters trumped subject matter expertise.