Jim McGreevey

To the tune of God Bless the U.S.A. (Proud to be an American:)

If tomorrow all the things were gone,
I'd worked for all my life.
And I had to start again,
with Pfizer stock, with which I'm rife

I'd thank my lucky stars,
to be livin here today.
' Cause the rotary wheel still stands for votes,
and they can't take that away.

And I'm proud to be a Rotarian American,
where I can pander to the Rotary.
And I won't forget the men who died,
and freed up membership there for me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and discuss the Rotary.
' Cause then you won't be talkin' about,
My work for Jim McGreevey.

From the reaches of Asbury,
to Sussex's Port Murray.
Across Bergen's jammed up roads,
I talk about the Rotary

From Passaic's rolling hills,
and Paramus to West Milford.
Well there's pride in my Rotarian-American heart,
and its time we stand and say the word:

That I'm proud to be a Rotarian American,
where I can pander to the Rotary.
And I wont forget the men who died,
and freed up membership there for me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and discuss the Rotary.
' Cause then you won't be talkin' about,
My work for Jim McGreevey.

And I'm proud to be a Rotarian American,
where I can pander to the Rotary.
And I wont forget the men who died,
and freed up membership there for me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and discuss the Rotary.
' Cause then you won't be talkin' about,
My work for Jim McGreevey.

by Mike Hennessy

Like most New Jerseyans embarrassed by the state government shutdown fiasco, I am astonished at how badly Governor Corzine has managed to mangle the current budget process. To make matters worse, the tax-and-spend economic policy he is following has also jeopardized New Jersey's economic future, making it even less affordable to live and work in the Garden State. The shutdown is but a foreshadowing of the disaster we face due to a $2 billion increase in taxes coupled with a $3 billion increase in spending. This repudiation of supply-side economics which is creating record tax revenue on the federal level may prove to be the downfall of yet another Democrat Governor of New Jersey.

I optimistically held out hope that a successful businessman such as Jon Corzine would never follow in the economic footsteps of Governors Jim Florio and Jim McGreevey. And yet here he is, arm in arm with two of the worst gubernatorial administrations in the history of the state. It is obvious that Corzine has not changed Trenton politics, nor does he seem able to lead even his own party.

Unbelievably, he is even following his Democrat predecessor's policy. He is increasing spending 10% while at the same time increasing New Jersey's already onerous tax burden, with our property taxes the highest per capita in the nation. His compromise with his own party is to raise the sales tax to 7% to fund so-called Property Tax Relief. It is ridiculous to raise one tax in order to make false promises about lowering another tax while not addressing the real reasons property taxes increase every year. It sends the wrong message to the business community and potential investors, something we can ill afford given that New Jersey already ranks 49th in the Tax Foundation's State Business Tax Climate Index.

We can no longer afford government that solves its self-created budgetary crises by constantly reaching into taxpayers' wallets. We can no longer afford the sort of government that breeds cycle after cycle of political patrons and cronies who corrupt the system and endanger the health and wealth of New Jersey's citizens in the name of partisan personal and political gain. Our government has become so inefficient that it cannot effectively administer even the smallest programs, let alone protect us from our greatest threats. New Jersey politics needs to change and change now.

Government's proper role in society is a far cry from the bloated and burdensome presence envisioned by liberals like Jon Corzine. It is tragic that Democrats like Corzine promise relief to the working poor and middle class and then turn around and make their state even less affordable a place for them to live. In light of New Jersey's grand failure of liberalism and big government, we must return to our first principles of individual responsibility, democracy, and the market when seeking political reform.

The sad truth is that men such as Governor Corzine can use their fortunes to fast track their political ambitions, leaving us with elected officials who are out of touch with the concerns and dreams of their fellow citizens. We must change the process to ensure we are represented by men and women who will administer a government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people. One way to begin is to support political reform initiatives that make use of the democratizing potential of the Internet. Just as we have utilized this new tool to change the way we do business, so too must we now leverage its capabilities to change our politics.

Keeping an extraordinarily low profile over the last seven days has been Paul Stuart Aronsohn, the Rotarian-American who is the Democratic nominee for Congress in the fifth district. Aronsohn, a former Press Secretary to Governor James E. McGreevey, has declined comment on the state budget, the proposed sales tax, and the budget war betwen Governor Jon Corzine and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts. Aronsohn also side-stepped a question on the controversy surrounding Attorney General Zulima Farber. Asked about it late last Friday afternoon, Aronsohn said only: "Been out on the trail. What's the story?" He did not respond to a follow-up question. There is, of course, a small chance that the congressional candidate from Ridgewood didn't look at The Record that morning, where there story on Farber spanned five columns across the front page of their newspaper, or that no one on Aronsohn's campaign staff saw it either.

Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson asks: "Do you think any of this would've happened if Joe Doria were the Speaker?" Wilson suggests that the source of the state's current government shutdown is ex-Governor James E. McGreevey, who engineered an Election Night 2001 move to dump Doria and replace him with Albio Sires.

A high ranking Democratic leader says there has been discussions among Governor Jon Corzine's staff about removing Joseph Roberts as the Assembly Speaker, although the front office strongly denies that they are focused on anythig but the budget. James E. McGreevey, as the Governor-elect in 2001, engineered a deal to elect Albio Sires as Speaker instead of then-Minority Leader Joseph Doria.

Any group of ten Democrats could effectively organize the Assembly, if they can develop an alliance with the 31 Republicans. Similarly, a group of four Democratic State Senators could remove Richard Codey as Senate President with the help of the eighteen GOP Senators. In 1971, after Democrats won control of the State Assembly, Republican Thomas Kean cut a deal with four Democrats from Hudson County to become the Speaker.

Codey and Roberts, of course, are perpetual targets of leadership change rumors.

Paul Aronsohn, a Rotarian-American who served as a top aide to Governor James E. McGreevey, captured the Democratic nomination for Congress in the 5th district and will face two-term Congressman Ernest Scott Garrett in November. But his victory over attorney Camille Abate, a political newcomer who ran to Aronsohn's left, was a less-than-impressive 66.5%. Aronsohn had the support of Democratic organizations in Bergen, Passaic, Sussex and Warren counties, and had raised $249,000, while Abate spent just $33,000. Abate held Aronsohn to just 58% in Passaic County and 59% in Sussex.

By Steve Adubato, Ph.D.

I have no problem with former Governor Jim McGreevey raking in $500,000 for his book called "The Confession"due out in September. McGreevey is in a tough spot. It's very hard for a guy who left office the way he did to make a legitimate buck practicing law, running a non-profit or taking a corporate job. As for running for office again, that will never happen.

So, McGreevey enters the world of publishing and makes $500,000 promising to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth�the good, the bad and the ugly; the embarrassing and the scandalous. But here's the catch. Last week, excerpts from McGreevey's book were released at something called "Book Expo America"in Washington, D.C. Those excerpts were excerpted in front page stories in a variety of newspapers.

Check this one out from the Star-Ledger on May 21; "How do you live with such shame? How do you accommodate your own disappointments, your own revulsions with who you have become?...Here's how: You spit in two." Or, "I knew I would have to lie for the rest of my life -- and I knew I was capable of it. The knowledge gave me a feeling of terrible power."

Then, McGreevey gets into the really juicy stuff, the kind of revelations that got him booked on Oprah in the fall right before the book comes out. "As the years went on, I became an avid womanizer as anybody else on the New Jersey political scene…But my attraction was largely artificial, my sexual performance a triumph of mind over matter." (You're kidding, right?)

Then more on sex and its connection to New Jersey politics; "The more the rumors circulated, the more public and brazen I became about my heterosexual conquests. I started checking out the strip clubs in Linden and Carteret with friends. It was amazing to me how often we ran into local political operatives in such places�because a great deal of New Jersey's backroom business is conducted by men while folding bills into the waistbands of women dancing in their laps." (That's funny. I've been to strip clubs, and I can't ever remember a meaningful piece of political or other business ever taking place.)

Later, McGreevey talks about chasing his political dream, but still having to hide his sexual orientation. He talks about anonymous sexual encounters; "When I made it my goal to rid myself of the desire, I was disavowing something else: my authentic self, my humanity. But desire doesn't go away under this kind of pressure. It mutates. In my case it went from the simply passions of a young adult-for physical and romantic love and happiness�to a particularly rank, unfulfilling variety of lust."

He goes on to talk about having sex with guys he didn't know or care about and wanting just to be held by another man. It is all very fascinating, except here is what the so-far released excerpts from McGreevey's book misses�The biggest reason Jim McGreevey was disgraced and was forced to resign had little if anything to do with him being gay. It was the fact that one of the guys that he was intimately involved with, Golan Cipel, was placed in an absurdly influential position when McGreevey was governor. Not only did McGreevey bring him from Israel where they met and place him in high paying, powerful positions within his office, he compounded matters by trying to appoint Cipel as the head of homeland security in the state AFTER September 11.

Can you imagine? As governor, McGreevey tried to put 8 million New Jersey lives at risk by putting his boyfriend (with absolutely no security, law enforcement or really any professional experience at all) in charge of the most sensitive and important position in the state after the worst terrorist attack in American history. It was insane. This was never about McGreevey being gay and having to fight his demons. It was about the fact that on so many levels he lacked a sense of integrity and honesty when it came to being an elected official with real power. It was about unbelievably bad judgment.

What McGreevey excerpts don't mention is that after he had to get rid of Cipel and distance himself, he did everything he could to get him high paying jobs in public relations and government consulting firms who did business directly with the state. Simply put, Jim McGreevey was compromising the governor's office so that he could make sure his lover (or ex-lover) was well taken care of and would hopefully keep his mouth shut. It is not about being gay. It would have been just as bad if Jim McGreevey were heterosexual and he tried to have his mistress head up homeland security and later hook her up in jobs with firms doing business with the state government that she clearly wasn't qualified for.

The bigger, more important story about Jim McGreevey was that one had a sense that he was willing to do or say absolutely anything in order to get and then hold on to political power. Him hiding his sexuality, getting married twice and having two daughters is bad enough. However, as a commentator, his private life shouldn't be my business or any one else's.

The problem is that what he did privately just simply mirrors the countless decisions Jim McGreevey made and the deals that he struck with all kinds of shady, unscrupulous, not to mention unethical characters from whom he took tens of thousands of dollars from in political contributions and then tried to do favors for them once in office. McGreevey cut deals with political bosses who had way too much influence on him. Those who understand how Trenton works knew that McGreevey had sold out to those he needed in order to get the governorship, which he became obsessed by. That is, until he could one day run for president. (No, seriously. That was his plan.)

The irony is that McGreevey being gay was never the issue. It was all of the other things he did that made him no longer tenable as the state's chief executive. If McGreevey's book is called "The Confession,"this apparently refers to the statement he made in the August 12, 2004 press conference when he announced; "I am a gay American." Fact is, most of us either involved in New Jersey government or covering it already knew that. Most of us didn't really care. That was McGreevey's private business, not ours.

But Jim McGreevey is no dummy. He knows that the way to sell books, get on Oprah and pay back the publisher who gave him a $500,000 advance is to talk about sex. It is to engage in sensationalism and hyperbole. It is to talk about his personal struggle of being Irish-Catholic and having to hide his sexual orientation. Simply put, on some level, McGreevey has mastered the art of making himself a sympathetic victim under the guise of being brutally honest about his past.

Again, I have no beef with Jim McGreevey taking whatever money he can to write this book. However, we should never confuse the sensationalism necessary to sell "The Confession"with the painful truths of how he used his power and influence as governor to do some amazingly unethical, embarrassing, and potentially criminal things. That's the book I'm waiting Jim McGreevey to write. Until he does, Oprah can have him, and trust me, she'll never ask him about any of that. Yet, the rest of us in New Jersey still have to live with the horrific mess Jim McGreevey left us.

The chance the Linda Stender could win election to the U.S. House of Representatives this year has led to some limited discussions among Democratic insiders about a possible replacement for her 22nd district Assemblys seat. Some short-list candidates include: longtime Democratic National Committeewoman June Fischer, Fanwood Mayor Colleen Mahr, Union County Freeholder Rick Proctor, North Plainfield Council President Nathan Rudy, and Rahway Council President Jennifer Wenson-Maier.

One name not being discussed as a potential Assembly candidate is former Governor James E. McGreevey, whose standing among voters might improve after his national book tour in September, which will include an interview with Oprah Winfrey. McGreevey, a former Woodbridge Mayor and State Senator, has been living in Rahway since he left Drumthwacket in November 2004 and has reportedly been shopping for a home in Plainfield with his partner, investment banker Mark O'Donnell.

If Stender upsets Michael Ferguson in November, New Jersey's seventh congressional district would likely become a top target of House Republicans in 2008. One Union County GOP insider, asked about a hypothetical '08 race, said he would expect Stender to face a rematch with Ferguson. The Republican also said that there is no guarantee that Ferguson would have a clear path to the nomination if State Senator Thomas Kean also loses this year and decides to run for the House. Other possible candidates might include: Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance, Republican State Chairman Thomas Wilson, Assemblymen Jon Bramnick, Eric Munoz and Christopher Bateman, and former State Senator Richard Bagger. Conservative Assemblyman Michael Doherty, who represents most of Hunterdon County, could also move into the district to run.

The literary buzz in New Jersey has been mostly about former Governor James E. McGreevey's upcoming book and not as much about a newly-published biography of former Governor Thomas H. Kean. Governor Tom Kean: From the New Jersey Statehouse to the 9/11 Commission was written by historian Alvin Felzenberg, who served as Assistant Secretary of State when Kean was Governor, and was published by the Rutgers University Press.

PEOPLE TO CORZINE: FIRST 100 DAYS A FAILURE
--Q Poll Released on Day 100 Indicates Voters Tired of Taxes, Unhappy with Corzine--