| Bob Ingle -- the Trenton Bureau chief for Gannett, their lead political columnist and Friday regular on the Jersey Guys show on 101.5 - has declared war on Jon Corzine. We're not sure why, but Ingle has decided that Corzine is corrupt and a terrible person and he is out to get him.
The only problem is that, like with his Chris Christie love affair, Ingle has to make up facts out of whole cloth in order to make the case.
In today's blog post Ingle tries to equate Corzine's reaction to receiving subpoena's from Chris Christie in the Christmas Tree investigation to Bush's press conference threats last night regarding the US Attorney kerfluffle.
Why is it when people get elected to high position they assume an air of arrogance? President Bush, under fire on all fronts but lately because of firing prosecutors of what looks like political reasons, says he will make White House aides available to Congress for questioning but only in secret and not under oath. What good is that? When the federal prosecutor in New Jersey, Chris Christie, sprinkled subpoenas on the Legislature and the Governor's Office, Gov. Corzine questioned why Christie just didn't ask for documents without the formal subpoena.
Let's look at these two issues. Back in February when Corzine received the subpoenas from Christie, here was the immediate reaction:
Anthony Coley, a spokesman for the governor, said that Mr. Corzine's office would comply with the subpoena and that Mr. Corzine had directed Attorney General Stuart Rabner and his own counsel's office to oversee that compliance.
Here's Bush's reaction from last night to the possibility that Congress may issue subpoenas to Karl Rove and Harriet Miers if they do not agree to testify on the record and under oath:
I will oppose any attempts to subpoena White House officials.
Corzine will comply, Bush says - before any subpoenas are issued - that he will fight. See the difference? Bob Ingle doesn't! Why? This line from Corzine on the day after he got the subpoena:
"The only question I have is, `Why are we doing this?' We'd be more than happy to give this without a subpoena," Corzine said.
For some reason, Ingle thinks it's damning that Corzine would have given Christie whatever he wanted without a subpoena, but Christie had never asked for it. Corzine is hiding nothing, and is willing to hand over whatever Christie wants.
Ingle does have a point that Corzine's refusal to talk about his financial connections to Carla Katz is fishy, and is right to bring it up as a potential conflict of interest. But Corzine also has a point that, assuming he is telling the truth, the relationship was personal and predated his term in office so may be out of bounds. Either way, however, only the press has been interested in seeking answers and the Governor has the right not to answer questions from the press. If a subpoena is issued, my guess is that Corzine will comply.
But my guess or Ingle's guess on the Katz conflict issue is immaterial to the Christmas tree investigation or the Bush Fires US Attorneys imbroglio. Ingle is twisting and spinning and misleading his readers into making connections that are not and have never been there.
Sounds to me like Bob Ingle has a case of Corzine hate, or he's just plain lying to sell newspapers. |
