Tornado Alley (PROG)

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Rudy tells W he's sorry for brouhaha

BY JAMES GORDON MEEK and KENNETH R. BAZINET
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Originally published on December 13, 2004

WASHINGTON - Rudy Giuliani went to the White House last night and ate crow for dinner.

The former mayor, invited to a Christmas-season celebration, apologized again to President Bush for the messy fallout from Bernard Kerik's nomination for homeland security secretary.

"Rudy went there for dinner. He was invited weeks ago. While he was there, he apologized and the President was very gracious," Giuliani's spokeswoman, Sunny Mindel, told the Daily News.

Lawmakers urged Bush yesterday to make his next Homeland Security pick someone who passes the smell test that Kerik failed miserably.

White House chief counsel Alberto Gonzalez, the man tapped by President Bush to be the next Justice Department boss, headed the vetting process but never interviewed Kerik's book publisher-turned-gal pal Judith Regan, she told Newsweek.

Regan's friends told the mag that after the relationship soured, she was hounded by Kerik, the city's former top cop, who is married with children. His lawyer denies those allegations.

As the skeletons in Kerik's closet came rattling out, lawmakers urged the President to be more prudent this time around.

"I think [Undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security] Asa Hutchinson, who's done a terrific job, would be able to hit the ground running," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). "The other candidate that I have is Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.)."

It's unusual for lawmakers like Collins, who heads the panel that will approve the homeland security pick, to publicly advise a President on the choice. Sens. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) backed her picks yesterday.

© 2004 Daily News, L.P. (emphasis added)

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/261647p-224006c.html