from Nick Confessore at TAPPED:
Let's clear up a few things. First, Kerik has never had a high-level post in Washington before, and so will be at the mercy of all the more Washington-savvy subordinates who are, at this moment, fighting to retain their institutional prerogatives and stymie major reform within the recently-created Department of Homeland Security. That's a problem considering that DHS remains a cobbled-together assemblage of legacy agencies with little coordination or clear direction.
Second, nobody can seriously credit Kerik for a significant portion of New York's decline in crime. He was police commissioner for just over a year, August 2000 until a few months after 9-11, and from what I know not an especially good one. The Washington Post even quotes a former colleague saying that Kerik is in fact a bad manager. Further evidence of this comes from point number three: His last big job was to spend six months training the Iraqi police force. He came back here after three months for reasons left obscure to the public, but easy to discern nonetheless: The training of Iraq's police has been a disaster.
HOMELAND SECURITY, R.I.P.?
Questions for Kerik - Is he qualified to run the Department of Homeland Security?
3 December 2004, Fred Kaplan, Slate
Stop me Before I Quit Again!
3 December 2004, Benjamin Wallace-Wells, Political Animal
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