Bernard Kerik, New York City’s former top cop, withdrew his name from consideration to be President Bush's homeland security secretary, a victim of the embarrassing "nanny problem" that has killed the nominations of other prominent officials.

The surprise move late Friday sends Bush back in search of a Cabinet official to help guard the nation against another terrorist attack

While assembling paperwork for his Senate confirmation, Kerik said he uncovered questions about the immigration status of a house-keeper-nanny that he employed. As homeland security secretary, Kerik would oversee the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

"I am convinced that, for personal reasons, moving forward would not be in the best interests of your administration, the Depar-

tment of Homeland Security or the American people," Kerik said in a letter to Bush.

He said he could not allow personal matters "distract from the focus and progress of the Department of Homeland Security and its crucial endeavors."

Kerik the bald, mustachioed former New York City police commissioner was among a small cadre of leaders who became the face of the response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, often directing Manhattan's response alongside of then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

When Bush announced Kerik's nomination last week, he won early support in Republican and some Democratic quarters.

But others questioned whether Kerik had the management experience to continue the nearly 2-year-long effort to meld the Homeland Security Department’s sprawling bureaucracy,

made up of more than 180,000employees from 22 federal agencies.

Democrats also were focusing on Kerik's recent windfall, which he made by exercising stock options in a stun gun company that does business with the Department of Homeland Security.

Kerik's announcement marked an unusual disruption in the White House’s normally well-choreographed personnel moves. But he is not the first prominent government official to fall victim to the "nanny problem."

Similar issues killed the nominations of three candidates for top administration posts in the Clinton administration. That includes his first choice to be attorney general, Zoe Baird, who was forced to withdraw her name from consideration after the disclosure she had not paid Social Security taxes for a housekeeper, an illegal immigrant.