My Life and Times

December 18, 2004
Kerik Fallout Hovers Over Giuliani, but Only in New YorkBy JENNIFER STEINHAUER
or the last year, New Yorkers have watched in amazement as Rudolph W. Giuliani morphed into the shining star of a national Republican Party that is far more conservative than he is. The closer he moved to the Bush administration, the farther he seemed to move past the personal and political history that city voters remembered well.
Last week, when his business partner, Bernard B. Kerik, withdrew his nomination as secretary of homeland security and Mr. Giuliani had to apologize to the White House, New Yorkers were again reminded of the headstrong mayor they got to know during the 1990's, long before he became an American symbol. Many in the city spent a week of Christmas parties and subway rides chattering about the first chink in Mr. Giuliani's post-Sept. 11 armor and speculating about how much his advocacy of Mr. Kerik would damage his future in American politics.
But around the country, where Mr. Giuliani's reputation continues to glow, many Republicans seem unconcerned that Mr. Kerik's woes may complicate Mr. Giuliani's political future. Some simply see the problem as Mr. Kerik's alone, and are far less interested in the subject than New Yorkers are.
"He was close to Kerik, sure, but what does that mean?" asked Spencer Jenkins, the executive director of the Utah Republican Party. "Does that mean he was responsible for everything that Kerik did or thought? I don't see any negative here." A Quinnipiac University national poll of 1,529 registered voters, released on Thursday, said that 45 percent of those surveyed still wanted him to run for president, as did 68 percent of Republicans.
The one group that was angriest at Mr. Giuliani for his advocacy of Mr. Kerik were conservatives, a potent force within the party already disquieted by his liberal social views. Among these voters, so vital to President Bush's re-election, the Kerik incident spotlighted the hurdles Mr. Giuliani would face should he ever decide to run for national office.
Many in the party's right wing, already nursing concerns about Mr. Giuliani's judgment, insist that his appeal is akin to that of a rock star - sexy but no future - and see this as the final straw.
"The question becomes, how does he fit with the plurality of the rest of Republicans, and the answer is, not very well," said David A. Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union. "And the Kerik thing does not help. It really goes to the flip side of what people like about Rudy, which is that he is not seen as someone who is very careful about much of anything. It raises the question of what kind of people and what kind of checking would he do if he were in the position of making those kind of decisions."
In an interview yesterday, Mr. Giuliani conceded that he had no idea of how Mr. Kerik's spectacular implosion would reflect on him. "I think it is too early to tell," Mr. Giuliani said. "If I do re-enter politics in some kind of direct way, that is really when you would find out." He added: "You could speculate either way."
Mr. Giuliani's history of entrusting and empowering people close to him even when others smelled trouble, and then standing by them under fire, was a hallmark of his eight-year tenure.
In 1998, Mr. Giuliani appointed Russell Harding, the son of the then-politically influential head of the Liberal Party, as president of the Housing Development Corporation, and defended his decision even though Mr. Harding was a college dropout with no experience in either housing or finance.
Mr. Harding pleaded guilty this year to making false statements to investigators about a vehicle bought with $38,000 of city funds and used for personal purposes.
Mr. Giuliani appointed JoAnna Aniello, the mother of Anthony V. Carbonetti, his chief of staff, as deputy general manager of the city housing authority, even though a division under her authority came under scrutiny in the 1990's after a spate of flash fires in the stairwells of public housing buildings. Mr. Giuliani then appointed her to a lucrative city board position during his last two weeks in office, a deal Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg unraveled after his inauguration.
Memories of the mayor's missteps were revived among his many Democratic critics this week in a burst of holiday merriment, making his travails with the White House the talk of the city's party circuit.
"The narrative of Rudy Giuliani now is the 9/11 hero," said Mark Green, the former public advocate and longtime foe of the former mayor. "This is the first time in three years that the press has had a story that credibly questioned the Giuliani team's integrity."
Does he enjoy the party chatter?
"It's a good question," Mr. Green said. "And I am not going to answer it."
Since Mr. Giuliani has been out of office, he has been stunningly successful at attracting clients to his security consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, and gaining prominence in the national party, largely by talking authoritatively about national security issues and dodging conversations about social issues.
By all accounts, his company's client base is firm for now. In interviews with press officers for nine of his clients, all said they would happily continue doing business with Giuliani Partners.
"The work they have done for us is quite impressive," said Larry Gottlieb, a spokesman for Entergy. But one principal of a company that works with Mr. Giuliani said he hoped that Mr. Kerik's role would be marginalized in the partnership.
Yesterday Mr. Giuliani said that he had no plans to remove Mr. Kerik, and that his clients had assured him they still thought his services were valuable.
"The Bernie Kerik situation is a situation that really related to a group of questions that he has to answer, but do not affect our business," Mr. Giuliani said. If clients have concerns about Mr. Kerik, he added, "that is something I would talk to them about confidentially and then assess."
Two outside experts, however, said the incident could scare off new clients. "The potential damage in something like this is in your ability to attract new business," said James Fisher, director of the Emerson Center for Business at St. Louis University. "The fact that the consulting business focuses on issues of leadership values and integrity, I think this is a significant crisis for a firm like that."
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