Wed Jun 02, 2010 at 10:00:00 AM EDT
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| The silence is deafening. For all their talk about wanting to fight corruption, Governor Christie proposes to get rid of the independent arm charged with doing just that, and the NJ GOP collectively loses their voice. It's not that they can't talk, because Jay Webber is putting out press releases about Mother Teresa. They're just not saying anything about their Governor's plan to get rid of the State Commission of Investigation.
But why would Republican legislators refuse to stand up for their co-equal branch of government? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they belong to the party that is about to embark on a plan to privatize many functions of the state and they know the SCI has a strong track record in rooting out waste and fraud in that arena.
Lets look back in time to the 1990's, when GOP Gov. Whitman tried to privatize everything in sight. It was the SCI that unmasked nearly every major initiative, from the Parsons auto emissions testing contract to the E-ZPass toll deal, as abject boondoggles that wasted enormous amounts of public money.
So is it any surprise that as the Governor prepares for yet another Republican privatization extravaganza -- this time to include even more functions of the government -- backers of his approach aren't anxious for the type of scrutiny an independent watchdog like the SCI can provide? Their silence speaks volumes. Hopefully they can find their voice at today's hearing when Senator Buono shines a light on what is in store. |
| Jason Springer :: Why aren't Republicans up in arms over Christie's effort to kill the SCI? |
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