Bernard Kerik

Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner and onetime Bush cabinet nominee, pleaded guilty in June 2006 to a pair of misdemeanors for improperly accepting $165,000 in gifts while working as Gotham's jails boss. Kerik, who glued himself to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's left shoulder following the September 11 attacks, avoided jail in a plea bargain with Bronx prosecutors. He posed for a mug shot and was fingerprinted "just like every other perp," reported one city investigator. In December 2004, at Giuliani's urging, President George W. Bush nominated Kerik to head the Department of Homeland Security. But the pick quickly turned into a debacle when Kerik announced that he was withdrawing his name from consideration due, he claimed, to questions about the immigration status of a nanny he formerly employed.