i know i said i was done with him, but this just get's more and more bizarre. now it's beginning to look like bernard kerik never had an illegal nanny. josh marshall has been speculating about this for days, but it increasingly looks like the bush administration made the nanny problem up to find an acceptable excuse for kerik to withdrawal before any of his more serious scandals had a chance to emerge.
even if it turns out the nanny did exist, it brings up an interesting point which i mentioned in my original kerik post. having an illegal nanny seems to occupy this unique position in american politics right now. it is both serious enough to definitively sink a nomination, and yet it is also a minor enough infraction that the administration doesn't suffer much embarrassment for nominating someone with a nanny problem. the whole reason people suspect the bush administration may have made up the nanny in kerik's case is based on the notion that having a nominee "nannied" is preferable than having the nominee fall victim to almost anything else.
is there any other kind of scandal that holds such a unique place in our hearts as the nanny problem?
