Robert Torricelli's blog

Everybody needs to start a new job with a list of priorities and Chris Christie is no exception. There might be a thousand things that need to get done but a limited number that can be achieved. He needs to get up every morning, read the list, and raise hell until the list is complete. When it's done, write a new list.

Here's a start:

Robert Torricelli represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate from 1997 to 2003.

The contest for Governor of New Jersey might be the most visible but in the long term it might not be the most important. Long after our youngest children have forgotten the winner of this year's gubernatorial election they'll be aware of the pernicious loss of our quality of life in New Jersey.

The things that we value most in our quality of life are at issue. A quiet drive on a Sunday afternoon. A walk with family through falling autumn leaves. Having fresh produce for a summer picnic. They're all part of the struggle to preserve open space in New Jersey.

On November 3 voters will be asked to approve a $400 million bond issue to continue preserving our diminishing open space. It's the latest in a bipartisan effort over the last two decades to reverse the destruction of farms, fields, and forests that make New Jersey a wonderful place to live.

Our instincts in difficult economic times are probably to oppose the referendum. The last thing that our state government needs is more debt; and schools, tax relief, and health care are higher callings. A closer look might lead to a different conclusion.

When did we become such an unforgiving people? Former U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli says he'll root for any team that plays the Eagles, now that Michael Vick is on their roster.

The decision of who to support in this year's NFL match ups just got easier. I'm for anybody who plays against the Eagles.

Michael Vick is joining the team. The same man who just left a federal jail on felony counts involving the torturing and death of animals is about to reenter center stage. That's quite a message about the state of our culture and the role that NFL wants to play in our lives.

Homicide detectives sometimes track animal abuse because it's often the first act of mass murders. The same sociopathic behavior that takes pleasure in the suffering of an animal will migrate to the pleasure gained by harming a person. It's the same complete indifference to life. The killing of a helpless animal is not only unlawful but an act of depravity and sickness.

Think about Michael Vick. He trained dogs to maul and maim each other until death. When he was disappointed in them, he hung them by the neck. Their teeth were forcefully removed without anesthesia. Their torture became a means of his entertainment.

The talking heads on television describes him as a victim of "political correctness" and we're "denying him his right to make a living".  What a sick society.

Let the Eagles make their choice. You should make yours. Watch every company that advertises during Eagles games and refuse to buy their products. Decent people should have no part in this charade. Sportsmanship used to involve more than athletic prowess. A sportsman was a person of character and a role model. It seems that the NFL has traded the notion of representing the best to allow the participation of the worst.

It's called making perfection the enemy of the good and it's the first lesson of legislating.

Every legislative action involves compromise. Effective leadership means doing the best that you can to get the best result. Freshman legislators often make the mistake of demanding too much and being left out of the final product. By wanting perfection, they become the enemy of the good and the final result can be failure.

This is exactly the scenario that played out last week in the New Jersey Legislature. State Senator Bob Smith introduced legislation for a $600 million bond issue for open space preservation.

This has always been the most popular cause in New Jersey. Dwindling open space and rising congestion is destroying our quality of life, choking our economy and impacting our health. We're not only the most densely populated state in the nation, we've now past India as one of the most densely populated places on earth.

Getty Images Photo

Former U.S. Senator Robert G. Torricelli

The economic crisis is deepening. The declining rate of employment, mortgage payments, international trade and GNP is accelerating.

The current danger is that the Obama Administration will interpret these facts as evidence of a recession that is simply deeper in scale than previous down turns. It isn't deeper, it's different. You can almost feel the structure of our economy coming unglued.

Simply pouring billions into conventional economic vehicles will do nothing except financially restrict other more important options. If ever there was a time to break conventional molds, this is it. The Obama Administration needs to forecast evolving events and begin implementing measures for the crisis as they're likely to be perceived in six months. Nobody this summer is going to believe that educational assistance and a modest road building program are a solution. We shouldn't fool ourselves now either.

Here are a few things that are aggressive now but likely to be standard international procedure by September:

Robert Torricelli, a Democrat, served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 1997, and in the U.S. Senate from 1997 to 2003.

It's hard to not be concerned these days. We've all witnessed frustration with our institutions before but I never remember anything of this scale.

Perhaps the events of the last few years are too much to grasp. Just consider the last few days. Wall Street executives fight for bonuses as their employees and investors face devastation. Senators from states without auto assembly plants fight government assistance. Auto executives demand assistance but fail for a month to deliver a rescue plan. Labor leaders refuse to concede a dollar of contract wages. The entire debate is worthy of a second rate high school. 

A pillar of the investment community defrauds friends, charities and neighbors of billions.  The Governor of Illinois appears to have put the US Senate on an auction block. The Republican Party responds with advertisements that gleefully attempt to damage the new President. President Bush makes every effort to push every problem into the new Administration.

Now every newscast begins with someone throwing a shoe at the President. No issue is too grave for the media to distort, confuse or simplify. The public responds with a rising tide of anger and ignorance (see comments to follow).

There's nothing more difficult to see than the history before your eyes. It sometimes takes generations to understand the significance of historic events.

The temptation to see hope in the contemporary American landscape is overwhelming. The election of Barack Obama has left most Americans with a palpable sense that the future can be different.

Providence has been kind to the United States. Failures of leadership and policy choices that would have compromised the futures of most nations have been overwhelmed by the natural strengths of America. Abundant natural resources, a massive internal market, a strong work ethic and two broad oceans have protected America from others and ourselves. It's clear that this is no longer good enough. As a generation we're going to have to earn our future. The rules that apply to others and emphasize savings, investment and education now apply to us.

It's too much to declare that Barack Obama is our last chance. America will endure but it's not too much to accept that unless he can lead all Americans to focus again on the basics of economic success, our standard of living will not be maintained. There are just so many years that other nations can out perform our students, foreign households can out save our families, and other governments can accumulate our debt before the world experiences an economic realignment.

Some will accept the consequences of economic decline if we can enjoy just a few more profligate years. They'd also better be prepared to accept the consequences for their freedom and the security of their children. No nation in history has ever entered into economic decline without altering the military balance of power with its adversaries.

The financial debacle on Wall Street may change many things. Our international power, standard of living and individual security might all change. Every cloud, however, has a silver lining. At least the American people will be spared much of the Republican rhetoric that reflects the policy choices that produced this mess.   Here are my favorite classic Republican lines that we might not hear for a while.

There's something missing from the Republican Convention. There is a need for a camera behind the curtain where speakers greet friends and family after they speak. Then we could discover if some of the Republican speakers can actually keep a straight face after their remarks.

It's a fair question. Mitt Romney assailed the Democrats for the growth in government spending. I assume that he is aware that there's been a Republican President for the last eight years who governed during most of that time with a Republican Congress. He expressed outrage at the mounting federal debt. Everyone in the convention hall must know that Bill Clinton balanced the budget and was reducing the debt until the  Bush Administration added more debt than any President in history.

My favorite was the assault on Democrats over national security and the continuous praise of American soldiers. I can't be the only one who remembers George Bush sending young Americans into combat without flak vests and in unprotected Humvees. Wouldn't protecting these soldiers be a better sign of devotion?

One hesitates to quote Shakespeare to the Editors of The Record. The thought of all that dust rising from their library shelves is enough to make me sneeze. They do, however, "protest too much".

The Editors of the Record (known affectionately as the "Hacks on the Hackensack") announced that they were closing their main office, firing photographers, and reporters would operate from homes and automobiles by cell phone. This announcement, in the context of falling subscription rates and declining advertising revenues, led to the inevitable observation that the Record is on a course to bankruptcy.

It was a fair point. Newspapers are failing every day. The Record is located in one of the best demographic regions of the nation but has been increasingly marginalized. Its readership is aging and limited to the least educated and lowest economic base of Bergen County. Subscription rates and the County mortality rate are almost exactly equal.

The Record probably would have died anyway but the decision to abandon its role as the staple of suburban living and adopt an angry and mean tone accelerated the larger destructive trends. Newspapers are dying every day but some survive by filling niches. The Star Ledger has become the only credible source of state news while the New York Times and Washington Post have become indispensable as sources of international or national information. The Record decided that it had a role as the mirror of everything that was ugly on the face of its own constituency.