Okay, I admit it, I'm enjoying this. You get your fun where you can in these dark times. Bernie Kerik was a humorless, territorial, tyrannical thug when he was Police Commissioner here; seems what we didn't know, though, was how CHEESY he was. A downtown apartment so he could carry on affairs? And I love to see Nannygate bringing down a man -- the other three nominees destroyed by this have been women -- though in this case the real problem may be not that the nanny had no papers but that he was having an affair with her, too. And not paying taxes. And misusing his power, and refusing to speak to the FDNY (who were refusing to speak to the NYPD, it must be acknowledged). The man is the same bum he always was. He and Rudy got along so well because Rudy's also a tyrant. Rudy's tyrannical style came across as paternal during 9/11 and he got a pass, but this pushing Kerik's name to W without having any real clue what the hell he was talking about because the guy's his bung-hole buddy is pure Rudy.

The irony is, I was intrigued with the nomination. For one thing, Kerik might have been able to bring Homeland Security dollars to NYC, which we desperately need, instead of them going to small towns in the midwest because W doesn't like us. And for another, I liked the thought of a cop, and especially a cop who thinks like a criminal, running that agency. Instead of the ass-covering bureaucrat we're no doubt going to get.