.......our own Vincent Solomeo wrote a brilliant and on point diary last week (seems like ages ago, eh?) entitled, The Merits of a Special Legislative Session in which he said,
"Governor Corzine and New Jersey Democrats should call a special session of the Legislature in order to craft much needed reforms to our state's political system. Doing so would not only be sound public policy, but smart politics. In the wake of last week's arrests, a serious effort by the Governor to tackle corruption head on gives him the opportunity to demonstrate his political independence, forge bipartisan consensus with Republicans, and most importantly, regain the initiative for the fall campaign."
Vincent Solomeo was right then, and he's even more right now.
John Corzine is a sitting governor and should use all of his powers in service to the best interests of the people of New Jersey. In this case, their/our best interests are 100% congruent with Corzine's political interests. He must call an emergency special legislative session and have Loretta and an ally in the assembly introduce a package of legislation that will have the effect of virtually eliminating corruption in New Jersey and of transforming our state into the cleanest and best run in the nation by 2010.
The legislation needs to be as radically progressive as is constitutionally achievable and needs to be focused on the following points/areas.
1) Serious public campaign finance laws that step right up to the line of what the Buckley v Valejo (with this SCOTUS) will permit. We can strive to out do Arizona's good example. Here's a site that speaks well to this issue and to what's possible!
2) Dual public office holding needs to be banned immediately, no more with the "grandfathering"! People have to choose which job they wish to do well and focus on that. Holding office is a privilege that exists to serve the people NOT your own egoic power lust!!!
3) ELEC needs to be strengthened with more funding and the way it carries out it's mission must be made more aggressive. If that requires a shakeup in staffing, then so be it! The people in charge there need to see themselves as cops policing the beat, not as friends of the power structure.
4) The criminal and civil sanctions for for all laws pertaining to violations of the public trust and the rigging or manipulation of election returns/ballots etc must be enhanced to the highest levels possible without triggering the constitutional bans against "cruel and inhuman punishment". If you're an elected or appointed public official who's taken an oath of office and you take a bribe of ANY kind in NJ you should be looking at 20 years of hard time with NO PAROLE!!! And the same penalty should apply to the person who gave the bribe!!! And yes, that means zero tolerance for even something so "small" as bribing a health inspector to pass your restaurant.
5) Corzine needs to order AG Milgram to use the RICO statutes wherever legally applicable, and he needs to triple the funding to her office to hire the staff it will require to wage a real war on corruption. That increase should be funded by a 5% cut in pay for all elected an appointed public officials!
We get tough on terrorists and drug dealers and organized crime; so why do we let public officials (who have far more power to screw up our lives) get off easy???
6) Corzine needs to order AG Milgram to institute os program that recruits and rewards whistleblowers from within and outside of government with all manner of incentives including cold hard cash!!!
As it is now, too many people who come forward are left twisting in the wind and are then subject to all manner of horrible harassment and retaliation by their bosses in the system. No wonder few are willing to come forward!
This is a large topic, our own njnewsgrrl offered her ideas recently......I could go on and on but I want to get this diary into the mix today, so I invite y'all to add to this list as you please.....and let's talk about it.
Meanwhile, the bottom line remains that Jon Corzine must find a way to take the initiative away from Christie on this or he/we will lose this election. It doesn't matter that Christie's a hypocritical asshole partisan ethically challenged hack if he manages to convince the majority of NJ voters that Jon Corzine is soft on corruption.
Frankly, if Jon Corzine were to actually take my advice, I could see a turnover of at least half of all of our public officials over the next five years...and that would be a good thing!
Governor Corzine must come to understand that his loyalties must be to the best interests of the actual PEOPLE of the state....not the institution of the Democratic party establishment....or the institutions of the financial corporate world from which he came.
I will support and vote for Jon Corzine whether he takes my advice or not. Why? Because he's still going to be a lot better than Chris Christie whom I see as a completely hopeless scumbag who sold his soul hook line and sinker to George Bush and John Ashcroft. At least with Corzine there is the possibility that good can be done...especially with Loretta Weinberg there to help motivate him as required.
But I have to tell ya folks, as I've been saying here for YEARS the people of this state KNOW that they are being screwed with and ripped off by the system.
If Christie "succeeds" in usurping the righteous rage of an indignant public that is sick and tired of systemic corruption and turning that into support for a Christie administration that will only give cosmetic superficial bullshit lip service (in the form of a few sacrificial "lambs" going to jail over the next four years) while the underlying system remains intact; then it will be, in great measure, the fault of a Jon Corzine who was unwilling to truly "go the whole hog" in fighting corruption. Let us not let that happen.
Let's, instead, all do whatever we can to press for an emergency special legislative session that will change New Jersey's political and economic culture for the better in a truly large/systemic way! The people of this state have put up with enough of this shit for too many years, we deserve better!!!
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