Opinion

They probably could have looked the other way.

The news that Assemblyman Neil Cohen is under investigation for allegedly having child pornography on his office computer was painful to read.

But learning that it was his legislative runningmates -- Senator Ray Lesniak and Assemblyman Joe Cryan -- who turned him in was most shocking.

Lesniak and Cryan often get tagged as the bad guys in Jersey politics. And yet despite how difficult it must have been, they did the right thing by turning in their colleague.

We shouldn't lower the bar too much on what constitutes ethical behavior, but let's give credit where it's due. Not all legislators would have done the right thing in the same situation. Less than two years ago we learned that some of former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley's colleagues knew about his advances toward underage pages, yet remained silent. Some still remain in office.

We'll probably learn more about how this unfolded in the days and weeks ahead, but we should at least give credit to Ray Lesniak and Joe Cryan for the unenviable role they played in this sad chapter in New Jersey politics.

And while we're on the topic, if the legislators are looking for bonus points, they can extend their do-gooder streak by pushing to make sure that whoever replaces Cohen looks a little more like the people they represent.

Although the 20th district's residents are over one-fifth African American, one-third Hispanic, and one-half female, the delegation has been 100 percent white and male for a long time.

Who wants extra credit?

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.

Bear with me here...at least I'm not proposing something patently ridiculous like self-serve gas stations!

It's true that rising energy prices pose serious financial hardships, particularly for those with little to no disposable income, and politicians should take action -- possibly through targeted tax cuts for those hurting the worst -- to ease the burden while the economy adjusts to a new reality. But there is a silver lining to the energy crisis, and most politicians are unfortunately trying to run away from it.

Bucking a decades-long trend, Americans are actually driving less than they did last year, while public transit ridership is surging. Despite Al Gore's best efforts, a heightened public awareness of the effects of climate change couldn't accomplish what basic market forces could.

Among the nearly 1 million residents of Bergen County, approximately 0.4 percent are on the county payroll. But that figure jumps precipitously -- to more than 40 percent -- for one group of Bergen residents in particular: Democratic municipal chairs loyal to Bergen County Democratic Organization chairman Joseph Ferriero. That means that the 70 Democratic municipal chairs and five legislative district leaders in the county are more than 100 times more likely to hold government jobs than the average Bergen County resident.

Joe Ferriero has always maintained that he doesn't control the awarding of government jobs and contracts. But last October, when Republicans accused him of enticing Lyndhurst Mayor Rich DiLascio to switch parties with a $20,000 a year county contract (which was awarded and later withdrawn), Ferriero admitted the obvious -- perhaps accidentally -- to Scott Fallon at The Record: "We chose not to award a contract to him because we didn't want the feeling of impropriety."

Though Ferriero holds no elected position in Bergen County government, he controls how taxpayer resources are allocated. The best-case scenario in such an arrangement is an unaccountable, truly benevolent boss who legitimately looks out for the best interests of county residents. But when Ferriero decides how and when to allocate government resources, the top determining factors are not competency or efficiency, but rather which choice will help him further amass money, consolidate power and ultimately steer contracts to the law firm where he is a partner. No attempt was made to hide this from his bio on the firm's website: "Mr. Ferriero has been appointed by various municipalities throughout New Jersey as Borough Attorney, Special Labor Counsel, Special Litigation Counsel, and Environmental Counsel, and has served as Tax Appeal Counsel to various municipalities and corporate clients as well."

Perhaps the most egregious example of Ferriero's abuse of taxpayer money dates back to November, 2004. Again, it was The Record that reported: "A county police officer racked up more than $1,000 in overtime while chauffeuring Bergen County Democratic boss Joseph Ferriero to Yankees games and to an Atlantic City casino, Police Department records show."

If The Record keeps this up, in a few years it'll be Ferriero penning the update to former U.S. Sen. Bob Torricelli's premature death notice for the Bergen County paper, which in 2006 was awarded the prestigious IRE Medal for investigative journalism.

For the past few weeks, I've watched with fascination as politician after politician have appeared on a beach or a boardwalk and declared their opposition to off-shore drilling.  It is a classic example of the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) phenomenon.  In New Jersey, opposing off-shore drilling has become a valance issue upon which Democrats and Republicans alike can agree.

As labor is burning, our National union leaders are fiddling. Some of them are simply arsonists. While the labor movement has made tremendous progress in the past, every working American knows that we are facing exceptionally challenging economic times and a union movement that continues to decline. Everyone, that is, except for some national union leaders, who these days seem too focused on creating internal divides and engaging in selfish politics to focus on the fight for their members' rights. 

More from PolitickerNJ.com:
Round One: Torricelli on The (Bergen) Record
Round Two: Doblin takes on Torricelli