KERIK'S REAL REASON FOR DITCHING, NOW RUDY'S FLINCHING

Well, I said in this post that I had a feeling that this nanny stuff was just trumped up to hide something darker in his closet and I was right--however, I have a feeling there's more out there yet to be "discovered" that is worse than even what has come out. Anyway, here's the scoop--according to an article from NYDailyNews.Com, Kerik had two affairs at the same time. Here's a clip:

Former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik conducted two extramarital affairs simultaneously, using a secret Battery Park City apartment for the passionate liaisons, the Daily News has learned.

The first relationship, spanning nearly a decade, was with city Correction Officer Jeanette Pinero; the second, and more startling, was with famed publishing titan Judith Regan.

His affair with Regan, the stunningly attractive head of her own book publishing company, lasted for almost a year.

While I'd normally say this is none of anyone's business, if you're making seriously messed up choices based on what your dick wants to do that cause your family to feel anything but secure, I don't want your morals running the Homeland Security Department. If he was married to a woman without kids and she didn't care that he was cheating on her, then I'd care a little less--but two women at the same time in secret? You are a liar and a fool, "Bernie."

Or course, now Rudy's in a bit of a bind. The following clip is from an article at NYTimes.com and illustrates the tensions between Rudy and the White House:

"I feel very bad," Mr. Giuliani said in a telephone interview on Sunday afternoon, adding that he felt somewhat responsible for the nomination of Mr. Kerik, who withdrew his name on Friday because he had failed to pay taxes for a nanny who was in the country illegally.

"Even though there was never a conversation about it, I realize that one of the reasons they did it was because of my confidence in Bernie over the years," he said. "And I feel like maybe I should have involved myself more in it."

Mr. Giuliani added that he did not think the situation would hurt his relationship with President Bush or the White House. "It doesn't and shouldn't affect my feelings toward them, and I don't think it will affect their feelings toward me," he said. "We're friends."

The view at the White House is somewhat different. Although people close to the president say he likes and respects Mr. Giuliani, they say the president has long been leery of him as a man who could not be counted on for the loyalty demanded by Mr. Bush. And while the breakdown of Mr. Kerik's nomination is not lethal to Mr. Giuliani's relationship with the White House, the friends and officials say, it will hardly burnish his credentials with the president.

"It hurts him politically, so therefore by extension it's going to hurt him with the White House," said a Republican close to the administration who has worked for both Mr. Bush and Mr. Giuliani and who asked not to be identified because of the political sensitivity of the situation. "Nobody at the White House is saying to themselves, 'Damn that Rudy Giuliani.' It's more, 'Well, he got his licks.' "

In the interview, Mr. Giuliani indicated that he should have known about Mr. Kerik's legal problems because he had named him police commissioner and then had gone into business with him. The former mayor seemed to suggest as much in a phone call on Saturday morning to Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff.

"I said, 'Well, I wish I had figured it out earlier,' " Mr. Giuliani said. "That's what I was apologizing for, that we hadn't figured this out earlier. And Andy said something like, 'Well, Bernie just focused on it you know, this is a very difficult process.' They were very nice about it."

Uh-huh, well, that's nice--what about how embarrassing it would have been if the double-adultery story had gotten out before he quit?

Sheesh--these damn suit-wearing white men drive me nuts.