Has the campaign taken you back?

This story makes sense and it's politics 101 , corruption is off the table for Corzine in this election, especially if one of his own appointed  officials is mixed up in all of this.

Looks more and more like the perfect storm for Christie and the GOP this fall.

Only a real dem "stooge" would have a problem with this story.

I refer to your column several months ago about an unholy and corrupt alliance between Orthodox Jews, Israel and the Republican Party. I see you have nothing to say about your Orthodox/Zionist pals laundering money and sending it to Israel, along with Rabbis who the US Attorney (selected by your pal Chris Christie) referred to as "crime bosses".

I wonder what your Orthodox/Zionist friends think about Chris Christie now? Will they continue to place their loyalty to Israel and the GOP ahead of staying out of jail?

 Everyone knows corruption was systemic in NJ.

If Christie was really a reformer he would have used RICO to get thousands of convictions, not just a few hundred.

Christie is personally unethical because he gave his old BOSS a $52,000,000.00 no bid contract.   

All Jon Corzine has to do is take off the gloves.....and get a real NJ corruption fighter like Loretta Weinberg on his team.

Also, Christie is weak on the substance of actual POLICY!!!   The fool is pretending to be a liberal to Democrats while he pretends to be a conservative to Republicans!   What a joke!

These busts are great!   I only hope each one of these scumbags is squeezed hard and gives up 20 more each!!!   It's time to use the RICO statutes!!!

C'mon Alan, you carried Gil Medina's water. Ask Torpey, Farmer, McDonough or Kohler how many things they had to cover over every time Medina got in touch with his inner scoundrel? How about those sexual harrassment charges?

and in the absence of a compelling christie economic pitch ("i'll lower taxes but not cut services and improve education" - nobody believes that bs from ANY candidate anymore) the playing field is still less than tilted. so, in an election year when it should be all about economic issues, it'll be about social issues, like choice. but since cc made the fatal mistake of selecting a pro-choice lg, the far right will stay home to "punish" him. the far left will go to corzine, as will the center-left, probably the center, and enough of the center-right. november is a long way off (comparatively) and with only 2 off year gov elections, obama and national dems (the good ones) will come to nj and va. cc will have his hands full begging palin, prejean, and the plumber not to help. doomed? someone is.

So Nick Lento, what is it you smoke? It must be real good stuff if you think Corzine can salvage his campaign with a "crime fighter" like Weinberg. It's over for him. The fat lady has sung. If you believe Chris Christie is a bag of hot air talk to to Sharpe James or Wayne Bryant or 130+ other people. I truly hope you enjoy the next 4 years.

Wake up , this election is about out of control property taxes and the 9.5 % UE in NJ, corruption is just the icing on the cake.

The unaffliated homeowners in NJ will decide this race as they decide every race, and Corzine is trailing 15% or more with that group. How do you change that in 3 months? These people have a lousy opinion of Corzine.

Meanwhile this column was about strategy, and the Corzine attack ads are rendered inaffective after yesterday. Chrstie worked on these cases and many others , and the voters know that. Giving out contracts to friends is not illegal and now is not an issue after "DIRTY 44 THURSDAY".

Corzine is finished, and the hits just keep on coming,

Wayne Bryant gets sentenced today, and who prosecuted him???

NJ hasn't had a REAL attorney general since Cary Edwards! Like him or not, the man had the experience and political acumen to hold the position.

Ann Milgram was 36 when she was made Attorney General - She had limited professional experience as an attorney and little life experience.

Her appointment reflects Corzine's lack of government/political acumen or perhaps his political naivete. Her issues of trying to regulate the internet (chasing windmills - an impossible task for a nation let alone a state) and her recent issue regarding concert ticket scalping reflect the issues that may be viewed as important to her but not the majority of New Jersey citizens.

Its really hard to make the agrument that Corzine is not corrupt when the agencies he runs are corrupt. Lets look at the facts. The two assemblymen that were busted, Smith and Van Pelt, one black, one white, one democrat, one republican, one suburbs, one city. What do they have in common? They were both selling their ability to deliver NJDEP decisions for a price. This is not only an indictment of these two sleazy assemblymen it is an indictment of Corzine's executive branch. Corzine has made DEP a trading pit where deals go to the highest bidder - this is the real crime here and it is squarely in Corzine's lap.

Barring a switch of candidates, I honestly don't know how anyone thinks Corzine has any chance to victory. Even in a three-way race, his ability to get to 40% is suspect. It's really over and I see wholesale defections by Democrats just to save themselves from an impending GOP landlside. The economy and unemployment are too much for Corzine to overcome, especially when he's done absolutely nothing to deserve a second term. Even before yeaterday's well orchestrated raid by the US Attorney's Office, the whole episide looked like an infomerical for Team Christie. Corzine is just paralyzed politically. He has no accomplishments. He clings to Obama's coattails like some rank amateur. He's indecisive and without vision. This is waht happens when you make a big donor a candidate based solely on the size of his wallet. Christie needs to connect the dots. Corruption means high taxes. You pay high taxes because the people who run the government from a lowly councilman in some small town to the biggest mayors are in fact institutionally corrupt and let this embedded system of corruption take place. Vote Column "A" - All the way!

Alan makes some good points but don't forget JC has a lot of money and I would not count him out. The large Dem advantage in Hudson Middlesex and Camden counties gives JC about 8000,000 vote advantage, from the get go, if the folks come out. Second this is a deep blue state and contrary to Mr. Christie's claims he is no conservative. He won't reveal his positions and just like the last governor's race you have a real Democrat (Corzine) and fake Democrat (Mr. Christie) my bet is on the real Democrat. The folks in the cities are not stupid they know the Dems take the tax money from Morris, Ocean & Somerset counties and give it Hudson, Camden and Essex.
Newark Schools get about 95% of their funding from the State. You can bet the Senators and Assemblymen from these counties will make sure their people know it too. Corzine has also donated lots of money to churches whose pastors belong to the Black Ministers Council. Corzine understand his base and spreads the money around accordingly.

Remember: scandal does not = corruption. Nearly all corruption in turn becomes a media-covered scandal. 

I know I'm in the minority, but that's also how I feel about McGreevey--not corrupt, but he certainly resigned in scandal.

I don't know how you can say Corzine is not corrupt. He is a first class enabler of corruption. "When you sleep with dogs, you get fleas."

“ The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend to all the happiness of man.”

- Thomas Jefferson

Jon Corzine didn't need to get into bed with the dirty politicians in NJ. In fact, once he was elected Governor, he could have pulled the rug out from underneath all of them by telling the public about all the back room deals, the favors bought and sold. He might have had a terrible time in the short run but then he would have turned Trenton on its heels and really made some changes. He could afford to do this because no matter what happens to him politically, he'll is and will continue to be very rich. - But he's too weak a man to do that. He needs to show he celebrates diversity, promotes people because of their race, gender, ethnic origin and makes all of the politically correct moves. I think you can understand is entire philosophy if you understand he's the nerd who can finally get the pretty girl. So he now does everything he can to impress the women. - Many people voted for Corzine because they thought he would be another Michael Bloomberg. But they overlook the fact that Goldman Sachs graciously showed him the door. He played politics to get to the top there and then didn't deliver for his partners. - You don't have to spend too much time around guys like Joe Doria to understand who he is and what he's all about. But JC wants to keep everyone in his clique happy. He doesn't have the guts to stand up to these people and we don't need another 4 years to figure this out.

While Corzine runs his distorted attack ads trying to spend his way to a second term, did anyone notice Corzine does the same (or worse). See the 2008 article at: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/nyu_program_with_corzine_ties.html - for one example.

Corzine attacks CC's integrity but it's Christie whose been cleaning up NJ while Corzine's impotent administration hasn't touched corruption except to partake in it.

Ask the Governor to tell us the truth: Why did he pay all of that money to Carla Katz and her relatives? What's in those emails we can't see?

I'm sorry Governor but you can't have secret communications with your former girlfriend while you're supposed to be representing the taxpayers and negotiating with her union. At least you can't do that and then point the finger at someone else's legal conduct and call it corrupt.

JC's buddies set up an attack squad in Washington who tried to turn CC's monitor deals into a scandal. You have to give CC credit for walking out on that sham. And, BTW, why didn't any of those in Congress who tried to put on this silly show ever complain before CC started his campaign for Governor vs. their buddy Jon?

Even if you support big government, excessive taxation, liberal social programs, reverse discrimination, etc. you really have to stretch to say Jon Corzine's the right guy to lead this state.