The Hindu : International : Nominee for Homeland Security post opts out

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 12, 2004

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International

Nominee for Homeland Security post opts out

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, DEC. 11. The U.S. President, George W Bush, is back to the drawing board looking for someone to head his high profile Homeland Security Department after his first choice Bernard Kerik has withdrawn his name, in a development that has shocked and surprised many.

`Nanny issue'

It is a setback of sorts to this Republican administration as it gets ready for the second term.

Mr. Kerik has backed off in the face of an embarrassing `nanny' issue, or questions about the immigration status of a housekeeper-nanny that he employed, a problem that is not new and something that at least three candidates for senior slots in the Clinton administration suffered. In the present context Mr. Kerik would have been in charge of the Immigration agency.

"I am convinced that for personal reasons moving forward would not be in the best interests of your administration, the Department of Homeland Security or the American people," Mr. Kerik wrote in a letter to the President stressing that he could not allow personal matters "distract from the focus and progress of the Department of Homeland Security and its critical endeavours."

Mr. Kerik was getting his papers ready for Senate confirmation hearings but officials have said that his background check by the Federal Bureau of Investigation had not been completed. Republicans and Democrats had praise for Mr. Kerik, the former police commissioner of New York and known for his toughness, when Mr. Bush announced his pick for the Homeland Security Department.

Rumbling over choice

But there has been some rumblings over Mr. Kerik's choice and one that would have figured in Senate hearings — of how he earned more than $ 6 millions by exercising stock options he had got from Taser International which has a lucrative deal with the Homeland Security Department.

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