Bernard Kerik may not be People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive. And his nanny problem has zapped his bid to be President Bush’s director of homeland security. But it seems this Cabinet-post-poor lothario has got a way with the ladies.

Mr. Kerik, 49, a married father of two, reportedly engaged in not just one, but two extramarital affairs, according to the Daily News. Make that two concurrent affairs: one with a city correction officer, Jeanette Pinero, and another – which, a spokesman told the News, Mr. Kerik has denied – with a publishing powerhouse, Judith Regan of Regan Books. And his draw was purportedly so magnetic that he lured both of them all the way down to his Battery Park City pad. Even for downtown girls, that’s a long haul – and Ms. Regan lived on Central Park West.

So what’s so hot about Bernie? What does this Newark, N.J., native have that the average hair-challenged, middle-aged guy doesn’t have? Is it the mustache? The sleepy eyes?

A random sample of New York women weren’t impressed with his photos.

“He has neck rolls,” Jessica Deangelis, 22, of Staten Island, said.

But there’s just no getting around that man-in-uniform thing. Mr. Kerik is an Army vet and a former NYPD cop. In 2000 and 2001, he held the Big Apple’s top law-enforcement post: New York City police commissioner.

“I don’t find him attractive. But he had a high-power job, and a lot of women are attracted to men who are policemen,” Cathy Wilke, 36, creator and performer of the show “Thin Body, Fat Mind,” said.

“He’s very macho, manly,” Mary Jane Post, 63, said. “People are attracted to power” – though that Manhattan woman does not consider herself among such people.

A 27-year-old woman formerly in the film industry who wanted to be identified only as Rebecca, said: “He’s paunchy, intimidating. He comes across as a strong person.”

Authority does, after all, have its appeal, especially when it’s flaunted. According to several accounts, Mr. Kerik is a valiant fighter for his gal pals. When he was commissioner of the Department of Correction, he allegedly blocked the promotion of an officer who had previously reprimanded Ms. Pinero. And when Ms. Regan lost her cell phone in a television studio and suspected it had been stolen, there was grumbling that he dispatched a police contingent to hunt down the item.

But ask men what they think Mr. Kerik has, and their not-so-lofty opinions of female motivation become clear.

“Sex is the most part of a relationship – and money,” Isaak Hamoye, of Crazy Video and Lingerie, said, suggesting that Mr. Kerik is able in both departments. “I’m 52. I look better.”

Draygon Xandovalo, a body-piercing expert at a Sixth Avenue tattoo shop, reduced it even further: “He was the top cop. It was the power, plain and simple.”

Whatever the draw, it worked. And it raises a question about Manhattan real estate: Is Battery Park City the new place to conduct one’s backdoor romances? It’s certainly out of the way, and, with the anonymity of its large buildings, a person’s comings and goings would not necessarily be easily observed.

But associate broker Dimitrios Skretas at the real estate firm Douglas Elliman isn’t so sure. “It’s more of a family neighborhood because it has a park nearby,” he said. “There’s a demand for bigger apartments.”

A broker at the Corcoran Group, Stephen Smith, used the same words, saying, “It’s pretty much a family-oriented neighborhood.”

TriBeCa, Mr. Skretas said, is a more likely spot for a “trophy loft.”