Justin Webb's America

A blow to Giuliani?

• Justin Webb
• 9 Nov 07, 04:10 PM GMT

I wonder what kind of Homeland Security Secretary the former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik would have made? As Wellington said of his own troops, "I don't know whether they frighten the enemy, but by God they frighten me.''

Anyway it was not to be: politically the issue now is not whether the Kerik court case will damage his mentor Rudy Giuliani (a little but not enough to make a difference, is the answer) no, the issue is what the whole Kerik debacle does to relations between President George W Bush and Giuliani, if indeed the former New York mayor wins the Republican nomination.

I have it on good authority that the president has already made it clear that he regarded the recommendation from Rudy that Kerik was the right man for the Homeland Security job as a major blunder, a blunder that calls into question Mr Giuliani's suitability as a presidential candidate.

So if, for the sake of argument, John McCain calls on the White House for help in his hour of need during the primaries, I wonder if it might be forthcoming in the form of sources letting it be known that the current administration feels the former New York mayor is flawed? Would it matter? Would anyone take any notice? Would it even assist Giuliani for a rift to open up?

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