Doesn't it make you feel safe and secure to learn that the president of the United States almost put homeland security in the hands of a guy with pals like this?

A butt-pinching incident in a Staten Island club ended early yesterday with the arrest of a city correction officer, a retired city detective and a former special assistant to ex-NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik....

The skirmish escalated when the accused butt-pincher, Correction Officer Kenneth Perez, ripped the chain and police shield from the neck of one of the two undercover cops, law-enforcement sources said....

Later, when the cop, Frank Caggia, tried to put handcuffs on Perez, former Kerik aide Edward Aswad Jr. screamed, "You don't know who you're f---ing with. Don't you f--k with us," according to police sources....

That's from the New York Post account of the incident. This is from the Daily News:

Kerik confidant Eddie Aswad was charged with disorderly conduct, but cops were more interested in what they found inside his wallet after cuffing him: Kerik's retired NYPD identification card and a duplicate NYPD badge.

"It was Kerik's ID card. It's what Kerik should have in his pocket, not Aswad," a police source said....

Aswad, a retired captain in the city Correction Department, had been a top aide for Kerik since 1987....

When Kerik became police commissioner, Aswad's services were loaned to the NYPD. Sources said he could have palmed as many as a dozen of Kerik's IDs - either as mementos, "or something to flash after a bar brawl so he doesn't get arrested," a police source said....

Oh, that's nice -- Kerik was almost Homeland Security secretary and there's a guy who may be walking around with a dozen copies of his ID? A guy who gets into drunken brawls in bars? And Kerik made no effort to retrieve them?

Feel safe yet?

A small additional tidbit about Aswad and Kerik, from the December 18 Newsday:

In 2002, while at a security firm prior to his joining Giuliani Partners, Kerik had city-subsidized help, from a correction captain then on the city payroll.

Capt. Eddie Aswad, an aide and driver to city jail commissioners since 1987, was paid $17,645 in overtime in the first quarter of 2002 while serving Kerik in the private sector.

Terrific.

But Kerik was still welcome at the inaugural, of course. Because I bet Bush still thinks he's a "good man."