Giuliani ‘not concerned’ about Kerik case
Posted: Friday, October 12, 2007 2:33 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ’s Matthew E. BergerGiuliani speaking on Kerik's forthcoming indictment at a press conference in Charleston, S.C., receiving the endorsement from former Wisconsin governor and 2008 presidential candidate Tommy Thompson:
"Without commenting on that case, I’ve already said I should have checked his background more carefully. I didn’t. I’ve learned a lesson from it. I’m going to check more carefully in the future.
"But I think you have to look at the thousands of choices I’ve made of people, and you have to look at the results that I got. I must have been making the decisions about people mostly correctly, because I was able to reduce crime by 66 percent.”
About the details that might come out:
“I’m not concerned about it,” Giuliani said. “Look, you make thousands of decisions. When you have a long record like I do, your record is going to have successes and failures. I think that’s healthy because a president has successes and failures.
***UPDATE***More Giuliani on Kerik:
"The reality is, if we take a look at Bernard Kerik's service as police commissioner, he was an excellent police commissioner. Crime went down unexpectadly under Bernard Kerik.
"Then on the other side of it, there were these problems. I take the responsibility. We should have known about them. We should have dealt with them. We didn't. It was my mistake. I made it. I am sorry for it. I've learned from it. But in the balance of things, you take a look at the success that I had, it must be that I am generally picking the right people. Because I am sure not doing this by myself."
