George Bush

NEWARK - In the middle of a political battlezone in the lead-up to the Nov. 4th presidential election, the forces of President George Bush aligned with the Democrats on the ground here in New Jersey to support the expansion of a prisoner re-entry program in the City of Newark.

Gov. Jon Corzine today stood with state Attorney General Anne Milgram, Mayor Cory Booker, representatives of the U.S. Department of Labor and others to announce the infusion of $5 million in county, state and federal prisoner re-entry funds.

The program expansion will beef up opportunities for Newark ex-cons to get job coaching, job readiness training and mentoring, Milgram told a packed crowd in the Dryden House near Lincoln Park.

The attorney general laid out the stats: 60 percent of those released from prison are re-arrested, and 50 percent are re-convicted. With the expansion of this program, "we know we can successfully drop the recidivism rate," Milgram said.

MINNEAPOLIS - George Bush’s face filling a screen at the Xcel Energy Center last night didn’t prompt a chorus of boos because most Republicans still like the president, said State Republican Chairman Tom Wilson.

"He’s liked by a lot of people - remember, the people in that room are mostly hardcore party activists," the state chairman said, "and last night he did what he had to do."

"I know his poll numbers are upside down but I think history will judge him well," said Ocean County Republican Chairman George Gilmore. "No terrorist attack in seven years. We’re doing better in Iraq."

State Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (D-Parsippany-Troy Hills) agreed.

MINNEAPOLIS - The Republican Party can survive the appearance tonight by President George W. Bush broadcast via satellite from the White House, assured former Gov. Christie Todd Whitman.

With the help of the family dog.

On her way to do a CNN interview on the suite level of the convention center shortly before the president made his pitch on behalf of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Whitman said, "Sure," the party can bounce back from Bush.

Strategic Vision places the president’s job approval rating at 15 percent in New Jersey, but Whitman, Bush’s former head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said Bush's dog, Barney, is from New Jersey, joking that people will find a connection there.

MINNEAPOLIS - The elevator doors in the Hilton opened and a man stepped off and headed for the bar.

"It’s Chris Christie’s brother," said a veteran newspaperman, staring at the familiar facial features of the newcomer in a scene that all evening took in a steady flow of New Jersey Republicans.

The white-haired, Chris-Christie lookalike made his way over to GOP operative Bill Palatucci, who was seated at the bar, and they began talking. He took an extended handshake from a stranger and acknowledged, "Yes, "I’m Chris Christie’s brother."

The word out the there among GOP sources is that Todd Christie is here to keep the idea firmly fixed in people’s heads that his brother, the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, is going to be running for governor next year.

Former state Sen. John Bennett, left, and Assemblyman Sam Thompson (R-Old Bridge).: Politicker photo

MINNEAPOLIS - Everything but an afternoon business meeting is off the table at tomorrow's Republican National Convention here, with Hurricane Gustav bearing down on New Orleans south of this Mississippi River town.

Standing in front of the Hilton among the early arrivals for the New Jersey delegation on late Sunday afternoon, and going with the flow at this point, were former state Sen. President John Bennett (R-Monmouth) and Assemblyman Sam Thompson (R-Old Bridge).

Widely lambasted for taking a ho-hum approach to the devastation wrought on New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina three years ago, President George W. Bush will not speak at the convention tomorrow night.

DENVER - Addressing the New Jersey delegation this morning, former Gov. Jim Florio told his fellow Democrats that they need to brush up on the harder-edged passages of the Hebrew Scriptures to get toned for what’s coming.

"We can’t afford to have this as a New Testament campaign," Florio told the crowd. "This is not turning the other cheek. This has got to be an Old testament campaign."

The way the Republicans demolished John Kerry four years ago, twisting a war hero, in Florio’s words, into a coward, should provide sufficient preview for GOP campaign tactics. But the Democrats have to huddle up and get ready to fight back with the obvious arguments.

"This president has to slither in and out of a foreign country before anyone knows he’s there, because he’s shredded our relations with the world," Florio said of President George W. Bush. "It’s an embarrassment."

Paterson Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres: Politicker file photo 

DENVER - If he felt any angst about his first choice not landing a place on the Democrats’ presidential ticket, Paterson Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres didn’t show it as he landed in the lobby of the Inverness Hotel on Monday, and turned his attention on the Republicans.

"We are fighting a war in our cities, but we are not putting the resources in to fight those wars internally," said Torres, who noted the fall-off in federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding during the Bush years.

Failing in a 2005 fight to terminate the program that administers urban aid, the Bush administration sought unprecedented cuts - up to 20%, the highest percentage proposed cuts since the program’s inception in 1982.

State Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Mercer): Politicker file photo 

Monday night’s convention tribute to Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) carries special meaning for state Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Mercer), who served as a delegate to underdog presidential candidate Kennedy in 1980, when she attended her first Democratic National Convention in New York City.

"I remember it brought tears to my eyes," says Turner, who supported Kennedy because she believed the Republicans would defeat President Jimmy Carter and doubly humiliate the Democrats by gaining a majority in Congress.

They did - on both counts.

But although Kennedy lost the nomination, in endorsing Carter, he delivered an emotional speech whose final lines Turner remembers by heart: "For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

Gov. Jon Corzine: Politicker photo

No sitting statewide Democrat enjoys what might be called popularity in public office here in New Jersey, according to a Friday Strategic Vision poll.

But Republicans continue to carry the dead weight numbers registered by President George W. Bush.

Up for re-election next year, the poll shows Gov. Jon Corzine with an upside-down job approval rating of 39/47%, and 14% undecided.

It also shows Bush running out of room before he bottoms out, with just 15% of voters approving of his job performance, 70% disapproving, and 14% undecided.

CWA leader Greg Payton of Newark stands against the backdrop of the Bush Legacy Tour bus: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - Driven by members of a progressive coalition called Americans United for Change, the Bush Legacy tour rolled into New Jersey this week, reminding residents in both Newark and Trenton of what the group sees as the wreckage of America’s 43rd president.

An interactive museum on wheels highlighting the war in Iraq, Katrina, the environment, skyrocketing oil and gas prices, and Constitutional abuses - the 45-ft. long, 28-ton clean bio-diesel fueled bus parked next to Bears Stadium on its way down from Bridgeport, Connecticut.

"We kicked off the Bush Legacy tour in Washington, D.C., last month (June 24) and we’ll continue traveling coast to coast throughout the summer and fall making 150 stops," said Americans for Change spokeswoman Julie Blust, who stood with local supporters from New Jersey Citizen Action and the Communications Workers of America.

***For PolitickerNJ.com's interview with Julie Blust, please go to http://www.brightcove.tv/channel.jsp?channel=463872426