Update on Homeland Insecurity

Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner whom President Bush nominated to be homeland security czar before finding out that he was a crook with a badge, has pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges as the result of accepting tens of thousands of dollars of gifts and a loan while he was a city official in the late 1990's.

He entered the pleas and was sentenced to a total of $221,000 in fines.

Speaking in a quiet voice, Mr. Kerik admitted that he had accepted renovations to his Bronx apartment from a company he believed to be "clean."

Kerik, a former driver and bodyguard for Rudolph Giuliani while he was campaigning for mayor, was named police commissioner in 2000 and held that post on 9/11 when the World Trade Center was attacked.

Bush nominated him to be the head of the Homeland Security Department in December 2004, but he withdrew a week later, citing possible tax problems related to the family's nanny.

That was not the half of it.

It turned out that Kerik also was banging the nanny, was using a condomium apartment reserved for stressed out police officers for another tryst, consorted with organized crime figures and blew his assignment to rebuild Iraqi police forces after the 2003 invasion, leaving the job after only a few weeks and without explanation.

You might say that he was the president's kind of guy.