Bill Pascrell

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) today in Parsippany.

PARSIPPANY - Not street enough.

It's a common Democratic Party complaint leveled at Gov. Jon Corzine.

But in a rally flag speech at the Morris County Democratic Committee's picnic here this afternoon, guest U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson), a crusty former Paterson mayor who kicks off many of his public remarks with the tagline, "Once a mayor, always a mayor," said it's time for party members nursing dreams of an operator governor to get over any personality resistance they have to Corzine.

"I think we have a shot here," Pascrell told an outdoor crowd quietly wolfing hamburbers in a gazebo at Lake Parsipanny Park. "One thing you know about Gov. Corzine is with him in Trenton you have an honest governor. This is a governor who cut the state budget to make it smaller by $1.5 billion than when he first raised his hand as governor.

"He may not be Mr. warmth to you," the congressman added, "but I want someone in Trenton who's going to tell the truth. ...Jon Corzine is one of us. We prayed for him when he was in that accident. He needs us. He needs us to do more than pray. He needs us to go the extra mile for him."

Obama as a presidential candidate with AFL-CIO workers at the War Memorial in May, 2007.

This time, he is the establishment.

Democratic Party dog-soldiers go back to 2006 with Barack Obama, who campaigned in the Garden State for Bob Menendez and made fast friends with Paterson Councilwoman Vera Ames - among others - when he addressed her personally from the stage at a Passaic County rally.

Since then, Obama came here for numerous private fundrasiers connected to his 2008 presidential campaign, among them an early Bergen County mixer with elected official supporters he could count on two hands at that stage of his career, including state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), Newark Mayor Cory Booker and West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice; and later a summer soiree at the Middletown manse of Jon Bon Jovi after he secured his party's nomination for the presidency and had the big money behind him. 

Now as Democrats hope to solder their champion to the still-standing but wobbling - if most of the polls are to be believed - candidacy of Gov. Jon Corzine in an attempt to create energy by proximity, President Obama's Thursday evening PNC Bank Center rally with the governor stands within a two-year campaign context.

Paul Brubaker, a former high school social studies teacher who covered politics for the Star-Ledger, the Herald News and the Montclair Times, is the new Communications Director for U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson).  Brubaker succeeds Caley Gray, who has moved over to the Senate side to work for U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park).

He may have called it a ‘political circus’ immediately afterwards, but Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie is still glad he testified at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law.  

"I am glad I had the opportunity to discuss in detail the good work the U.S. Attorney's office was able to accomplish reforming corrupt industries, protecting taxpayer dollars and ultimately, saving jobs,” said Christie in his post-testimony official statement. 

WASHINGTON – When Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie exited the congressional committee room at 1:30 this afternoon, most of the press and spectators left with him.

The subsequent  lower-profile testimonies U.S. Reps. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) and Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), whose pending legislation regulating the way deferred prosecution agreements are assigned was the ostensible reason for today’s hearing, did not attract the same attention.  

After a panel of experts and a Justice Department official dismissed the need for their legislation in earlier testimony, the two argued for it by exhibiting two sets of invoices. 

A star of the Bravo TV reality show The Real Housewives of New Jersey, was arrested last April by the civil complaint division of the Passaic County Sheriff's Department (PCSD) because of an unpaid fee to a law firm.  Danielle Staub was arrested at her Wayne home on April 2 and placed into custody on an outstanding non-incarceration daytime Passaic County Superior Court civil action contempt warrant, by officers of the PCSD . Staub was transported to PCSD headquarters in Wayne, where she completed an information subpoena from the plaintiff's Short Hills-based law firm, Gourvitz and Gourvitz.  Staub was released after two hours, once the plaintiffs were satisfied with the information that the defendant supplied.

Yesterday, a spokesman for Staub, Thom Ammirato, said the now-famous housewife had not ruled out a run for Congress against U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) next year.

Bravo Photo

New Jersey housewife Danielle Staub has not ruled out a campaign for Congress against U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) next year, according to her spokesman, Thom Ammirato.

"At this point Ms. Staub is fielding numerous offers and has ruled out nothing.  Her advisors will be discussing her future shortly," said Ammirato, a Republican strategist who recently signed on as Staub's official spokesman.

But is the controversial star of Bravo's TV reality show, The Real Housewives of New Jersey a Republican?

"I don't know, but she can become one," said Ammirato.  "She would have to of course meet with the approval of (Passaic County GOP) Chairman Scott Rumana to see if she could get the line."

Staub, a 48-year-old mother of two, recently moved from Franklin Lakes to Wayne, which is in Pascrell's district.

According to her Bravo bio, Staub is active in her local parish and attends mass regularly.  She has admitted to being arrested 25 years ago, but has denied reports that she was involved in prostitution or in a cocaine ring.

Bravo Photo

New Jersey housewife Danielle Staub has not ruled out a campaign for Congress against U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) next year, according to her spokesman, Thom Ammirato.

"At this point Ms. Staub is fielding numerous offers and has ruled out nothing.  Her advisors will be discussing her future shortly," said Ammirato, a Republican strategist who recently signed on as Staub's official spokesman.

But is the controversial star of Bravo's TV reality show, The Real Housewives of New Jersey a Republican?

"I don't know, but she can become one," said Ammirato.  "She would have to of course meet with the approval of (Passaic County GOP) Chairman Scott Rumana to see if she could get the line."

Staub, a 48-year-old mother of two, recently moved from Franklin Lakes to Wayne, which is in Pascrell's district.

According to her Bravo bio, Staub is active in her local parish and attends mass regularly.  She has admitted to being arrested 25 years ago, but has denied reports that she was involved in prostitution or in a cocaine ring.

U.S. Reps. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) and Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) today issued a statement indicating that former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie’s testimony next Thursday is long overdue.

“We welcome Mr. Christie’s willingness to finally answer for his decisions and his actions," said Pascrell.   "His use of DPAs has been covered in near secrecy with the only information indirect and incomplete. The partial disclosures have only triggered more questions. Mr. Christie is the only one who can provide the answers because he appears to have executed the agreements unilaterally with no guidelines and no standards of accountability."

Pallone and Pascrell have legislation pending that was inspired by Christie’s hiring of former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft for a lucrative federal monitoring contract.

Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, Mark Sanford, Rick Perry... Chris Christie?

That’s the association that U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Hoboken) and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) tried to make today on a conference call with the press, during which they panned Christie, the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee, for saying he would not accept some money from the federal stimulus package during the primary campaign.  

“It is beyond my comprehension that Chris Christie… has aligned himself with these folks,” said Menendez.  

Now that the primary is over, Democrats are jumping on the conservative principles Christie espoused while fighting Republican rival Steve Lonegan in the primary.  Today, the focus was on comments he made during media appearances in March. 

Governors Palin, Jindal, Sanford and Perry – leading lights of the conservative movement -- have all famously attempted to reject some of the stimulus funds that were offered to their states.

On WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer" show, he  said he would “be reluctant to accept” portions of stimulus funds that had “strings attached from Washington, DC.”  In later appearances and campaign events, according to a Democratic State Committee press release sent out after the call, he said that he would reject portions of the money and that the conservative governors' positions "make sense."