According to an article in today's New York Times, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was briefed in 2000 about Bernard Kerik's ties to organized crime, but chose to appoint Kerik police commissioner anyway (you might remember Kerik-- he almost became the Secretary of Homeland Security after being nominated by President Bush for the position-- on Giuliani's personal recommendation; Revelations about his sex life and multiple mistresses led to more revelations of his corruption and abuse of public funds, which in turn led to the publicization of his links to organized crime.)
Giuliani acknowledges that he was briefed but claims not to remember anything about the briefing. If that is true, then it means that 1) at the time he was either not paying attention (just what we need in a President-- in fact we already have that) or 2) he doesn't remember because to Rudy Giuliani, a trusted confidante being linked to organized crime is just a routine matter, and would not disqualify him from being police commissioner.
In fact, there is only one piece of good news for Giuliani: His closest rival in the GOP Presidential sweepstakes, John McCain, also has ties to the mafia, through his father in law.
I know it isn't a real high standard, but can we just ask that Republican Presidential candidates and their organizations not be linked to the mafia? Is that asking so much?
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