Award or Reward?

by: deciminyan

Fri Aug 12, 2011 at 09:38:40 AM EDT

During the two days of Senate deliberations, most of the senators spoke up and stated their positions. The Democrats presented heart wrenching stories about constituents who would be harmed by the Governor's cuts while the Republicans tried to justify not using the small surplus in the 2012 budget to fund these programs, many of which had relatively small dollar costs.  

Senator Allen's actions during the two-day session were puzzling. Unlike her Republican colleagues, she did not cast a single vote on the dozens of override motions. But by the rules of the Senate, her abstentions counted toward sustaining the Governor's vetoes.

Even more surprising was the fact that this former television news reporter remained silent throughout the proceedings. She neither defended the course that her colleagues were taking, nor advocated assistance to women's health as she had so eloquently done in the past.

Given this ambivalence toward an important issue, I was shocked to open up a local newspaper and see an advertisement from the Ripa Center for Women's Health & Wellness at Cooper Hospital.  The ad promoted an event at which Senator Allen will receive the first Ripa Center Award "for her contribution to women's health awareness."

Maybe Senator Allen deserves that award, based on her overall career in the legislature. But her recent actions (or lack of commitment) to the very topic that the award cites takes the shine off this honor.

Of course, we all know that Cooper Hospital is run by South Jersey Democratic Power Broker and Christiecrat George E. Norcross III. So this prompts the question - is this an award for Senator Allen, or is it a reward for her disappointing performance in the Senate?