Tom Foley, Meet Bernard Kerik.

Republican candidate for governor Tom Foley waves away the inaccurate statements he made in the 2006 vetting process for his nomination to become the United States ambassador to Ireland.  It never occurred to him he was being held in jail on a felony as he waited for his New York City lawyer to arrive in Southampton. There are many reasons Foley may not have wanted investigators poking around the police and court records surrounding his two arrests.  Witnesses would have been contacted.  The legwork would have extended the process, the substance of what investigators might have ended Foley’s nomination hopes.

We do know that authorities take these investigations very seriously, and they should.  The arrest question is always of particular interest.  Just ask former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik.  He is in jail for, among other things, making false statements to federal officials during his background check to become the head of the Department of Homeland Security.

Kerik entered into a plea agreement last year that included admitting to violating “Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001, in connection with making false statements to the Federal Government during the application and background review process relating to the defendant’s application for positions with the Federal Government involving national security.”  The offenses, in case Foley has any doubts, are felonies.