"Top Cock" Kerik's Mug Shot, Jailing Unleash Media Schadenfreude

Also, Eyewitness News anchor Bill Ritter referred to Kerik as New York's former "top cock" on air last night. Dry mouth, or Freudian slip? Everyone thinks it's funny ("just as accurate as if he'd managed to say 'top cop'"). Ritter has apologized for his "quick mistake"...

As long experience has shown, the media love to pile on the big boys when they're down. Maybe there's a little more to it in this case. Kerik's lawyer said last summer that the feds were using the press to slam Kerik. Reporters may have interpreted that to mean they were serving as patsies, and it may have rankled -- especially after the press had been so instrumental in building Kerik's reputation in happier days.

Today Kerik finds little sympathy on the blogs. "This is the man George W. Bush and Rudy Giuliani wanted to put in control of Homeland Security for the entire nation," says lefty blogger Oliver Willis. But even at cop and cop fan board Thee Rant, Kerik gets little support. "Bernie ran out of 'get out of jail free' cards," says one commenter. Also, "I saw thru this guy from Day One," "He's an A#1 loser with a capital L," etc.

"He has really been abandoned," says Michael Wolff. "Not only by Judith Regan and Rudy Giuliani but by the media." He notes that Kerik "was foisted on the Bush White House by Giuliani" and wonders that while Kerik is behind bars "Giuliani walks free... I do not mean to suggest that Giuliani should be in jail (though I would put him there if I could), or that Bernie Kerik shouldn't be. I'm just saying that Giuliani should not be free of Bernie Kerik and that he should not be governor."

And that's about as good as Kerik gets in his downfall. Looks like the cockroaches have finally gotten to him.