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He has a close friend at the White House and an international profile unlike any achieved by a former New York City mayor. Now, Rudolph W. Giuliani and his security consulting firm should soon have another advantage: a former business partner in charge of a sprawling government department that buys $7 billion a year in homeland security goods and services. The move by Bernard B. Kerik from the Times Square offices of Giuliani Partners to Washington, where he has been nominated to become secretary of Homeland Security, will present both an opportunity and a challenge for the former mayor, other homeland security consultants say. It will almost certainly draw more attention to Giuliani Partners, which over the last three years has made tens of millions of dollars helping corporations expand their homeland security sales, among other lucrative contracts. "Any time you have the visibility like that, there is no doubt it can do anything but help," said James Lee Witt, a former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who now runs his own Washington-based homeland security consulting firm. "It puts the focus on the company you come from." Mr. Giuliani, in a telephone interview on Friday, did not dispute the claim, although he said there is a downside as well. "Sure, it is good for the reputation of the company," Mr. Giuliani said. "But it is bad for the company in that Bernie is irreplaceable." [more]