What a Tangled Web

by: Thurman Hart

Thu Jul 27, 2006 at 12:59:31 PM EDT

After her boyfriend was pulled over by police on Memorial Day weekend, Attorney General Zulima Farber telephoned Union County Freeholder Angel Estrada, a longtime friend who manages the state Motor Vehicle Commission's office in Elizabeth.

Estrada then met Farber's boyfriend, Hamlet Goore, at the Elizabeth office, where he accompanied him in line and telephoned the commission's Trenton headquarters to reactivate his license, according to Farber.

Is this much ado about nothing?

So it looks like there wasn't (at this end of the fiasco) anything done that was illegal.  Farber was able to get a friend to help her boyfriend take care of what should have been taken care of in the normal course of events. 

The problem is that Farber is the State Attorney-General and her friend is a county freeholder.  If every freeholder did as much for every citizen that had a problem, it would be a full-time gig.  I think there would also be fewer problems, but that's another rant.

From what I can tell - and I don't have anywhere close to all the facts - it doesn't look like any law was broken.  It looks like a typical "business as usual" day in New Jersey where the very small crowd who runs things simply helped each other out.  THAT is the problem.

Holding public office is not - or should not be - a ticket to a hassle-free life.  It's a public trust.  You take on extra responsibility and you have to hold yourself to a higher standard.

So it all turned out to be a big mistake.  Does that mean it's all water under the bridge?  Only if Democrats are serious about cynically charging Republicans with ethics breaches while closing their eyes to problems within our own ranks. 

It's small potatos - akin to missing out on being Labor Secretary because you didn't pay Social Security taxes for a domestic worker.  But the fact of the matter is that small matters count.  If someone will run an end-around to get out of standing in line at the license office or appearing in court to clear up a minor traffic offense, then what will they do when a big matter with big inconveniences comes before them?  Will they reverse course and somehow do what is right, or will they more likely remain true to nature and look for the path of least resistance.

Farber missed out on being a state Supreme Court Justice because she had ignored her obligation to pay traffic tickets.  Apparently, that experience did not make her any more careful of exercising undue influence or fulfilling her mundane responsibilities as a citizen.  Until she learns that less, regardless of her other qualifications, she is unfit to serve the state in any fashion.