Bernard Kerik

Two days after then-Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano was arrested on corruption charges, Jay Lassiter, a South Jersey political activist, publicly dropped him from his Facebook friends.

"Please don't re-friend me until after you've resigned," Lassiter wrote on Cammarano's wall on July 25 - a message visible to hundreds of the disgraced mayor's Facebook friends. It was supposed to be one of those "who's coming with me?" moments. 

"It didn't go over like I thought it would.  I thought I was going to lead the parade," said Lassiter.  "I actually got snarky notes by Cammarano supporters telling me what a worthless South Jersey piece of (expletive) I was."

Outside of cyberspace, Cammarano, 32, saw his political career come to an abrupt end and his associations evaporate after he was arrested for allegedly taking bribes from an FBI informant posing as a developer. 

But that obligatory public distancing did not extend to Facebook, where many politicians, insiders and media types (including this reporter) remain Cammarano's "friends" - if only out of morbid curiosity over whether he'll update his profile or out of neglect in pruning their own profiles.  

Many politicians have embraced social networking technology, but, as the July 23 corruption sting demonstrates, there is no standard for online etiquette when your online friend has been arrested.  Some politicians (or the staffers who administrate their profiles) do "defriend" ethically troubled Facebook associates, while the thought doesn't cross others' minds.  

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) is still Facebook friends with Cammarano.

"I think he's suffered enough," said Codey, who added that he tries to be humorous and non-political on his profile.  "I try to be different, as you know if you ever read any of the things I put on there.  I try not to be political, and do different things to get a chuckle sometimes, lighten up somebody's day."

Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose (R-Franklin Twp) remains Facebook friends with Cammarano, and with former Assemblyman Lou Manzo (D-Jersey City), who was arrested in the same sting.

"I didn't defriend either one of them. That wasn't something I consciously thought about doing," said McHose, who has 1,233 friends.  "I was curious to see whether it would be a means for them to reach out to supporters."

If you missed The Real Housewives of New Jersey on Bravo this week, you missed a cameo appearance by former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who was considered himself a possible candidate for Governor or U.S. Senator in New Jersey.  Now under indictment, Kerik is no longer viewed as a potential player in New Jersey politics.  In less than five years, he has gone from being the President's nominee for U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security to a cameo role on a cable TV reality show.

The last Democratic President to name someone from New Jersey to his cabinet was Lyndon B. Johnson, who in 1965 had three New Jerseyans in his twelve-member cabinet: Douglas Dillon who had been the Secretary of the Treasury under John F. Kennedy, Nicholas Katzenbach was Attorney General, and John Connor was the Secretary of Commerce.  When Connor left in 1967, Johnson named another New Jerseyan, Alexander Trowbridge, to replace him.

The Record’s Charles Stile reported today that federal agents searched the Paramus home of State Sen. Joseph Coniglio, the target of a federal criminal investigation.  That will almost certainly create some chatter at Hillary Clinton’s national campaign headquarters, where a senior campaign official had a “conversation” in recent weeks about the Coniglio probe with lobbyist Harold Hodes, an advisor to the New Jersey Clinton campaign.

The Clinton campaign, sources say, wanted to hear from Hodes about his grand jury appearance, in response to a federal subpoena, regarding allegations that Coniglio obtained state funds for Hackensack University Medical Center while working as a paid consultant. At the time, Hodes’ firm, Public Strategies/Impact, was the HUMC lobbyist. The hospital received over $1 million in state grants while Coniglio was on their payroll.

Let me see if I've got this right. Bill Clinton supposedly lied during a civil deposition about a nonmaterial fact involving a personal relationship and they impeached him as President of the United States. Scooter Libby lied about remembering being briefed about  Valarie Palme being a CIA agent. He's going to jail.

Now put Rudy Guliani in the picture. His staff told him that his nominee for the NYPD Police Commissioner, Bernard Kerik,  associated with organized crime figures. He was informed of alleged gratuities that Kerik was receiving from for these individuals while assisting them with government approvals. Guliani testified before a federal grand jury that he doesn't remember the briefing. He's running for President.