In an editorial, the New York Daily News declares Bernard Kerik “the first person to go on to a life of crime after serving as NYPD commissioner.” Kerik, top cop under Mayor Rudy Giuliani and briefly a nominee for a key federal Homeland Security position, pleaded guilty in connection with financial crimes and faces at least two years in prison. The paper says, “In the end, big, bad Bernie Kerik, toughest cop in town, got through his guilty plea to federal crimes only with the bucking up of back rubs administered by his lawyer.”
The paper continues, “All Kerik’s swagger and all his bravado were gone as reality crashed over a guy who, in the apt words of his judge, possessed ‘a toxic combination of self-minded focus and arrogance.’ Going to prison has a way of undermining the ego when you have grown used to moving through life as a legend in your own mind, like an action figure astride a city, beloved of the glitterati, on a par with the president. And so you weep at the comedown of admitting to eight felony counts in the hope of shaving your sentence.”