It's Fred Snowflack of the Daily Record v. Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen. Snowflack saw this video posted on Frelinghuysen's website, featured where he talks about the number of uninsured:
That's right, if you break down the number of uninsured people by how they are characterized, they don't really count as not having insurance according to Frelinghuysen. Snowflack decided to pen an editorial taking Frelinghuysen to task. Here's how he started:
One way to diminish the magnitude of a problem is to pretend it doesn't exist. Republicans are doing that with healthcare, something that was plainly evident when Rodney P. Frelinghuysen talked to seniors last week at an assisted-living center in Morristown.
We'll continue below the fold as Snowlfack takes apart Frelinghuysen's argument and calls him out on his talking points.
His e-mail included this line: "His coronary event was triggered just following a phone conversation with a member of the press who related to my father the details of the sleazy and untrue accusations against him that were being circulated by another challenger's campaign." (Full disclosure: the member of the press was Fred Snowflack, Daily Record editorial page editor).
OK, but as campaigns go, this has not been a particularly nasty one.
In fact, the senior Bucco has endured many tougher campaigns in a more than 20-year political career, with the most recent one being defending his seat from a well-financed challenge from Democrat Blair MacInnes in 2003.
The "sleazy and untrue allegations" in this year's Assembly primary revolve around the senator allegedly making phone calls to other Republicans in an effort to solicit political and financial support for his son. This is not exactly unheard of, and given the fact none of those receiving those reported calls have said so publicly -- courage is in short supply these days -- it's a moot issue.
They wish the Senior Bucco well, but take a swipe in closing as well:
We join Anthony M. Bucco in wishing his father the best, but we must seriously question if anything happening in Morris County politics caused the senator's medical problem. In the absence of a pronouncement by an attending physician, let's not politicize a man having a heart attack.
And that's exactly what it seemed like Bucco was doing Jr., trying to gain sympathy from his father's health issue and squash a potential issue in his campaign at the same time.
Fred Snowflack follows up where I left off the other day with Congressmen Scott Garrett and Rodney Frelinghuysen, calling them out for trying to get funding in the spending bill while talking out of the other side of their mouth saying they oppose spending. Snowflack even calls his article, "Their hypocrisy is politics as usual", and he has this to say:
A representative can not have it both ways.
If you oppose the bill, do not seek money from it.
If you want money from a federal spending bill, support the bill.
Frelinghuysen and Garrett are dismissing the bill with one hand and trying to grab money from it with the other.
You call that hypocrisy.
Yup, that's exactly what you call it. So the next time they're in a neighborhood near you, railing about the ills of federal spending, make sure to say hello and remind them of their double talk.
Fred Snowflack has been a major Chris Christie booster for quite a while now. Hell, a lot of people are.
But not everyone is the editor of a major New Jersey Newspaper.
And not everyone has the ability to spin, spin, spin to help a US Attorney obscure the true issues.
Take this take from Snowflack on Chris Christie being called to DC to testify to Congress on his use of deferred prosecution agreements to give friends and colleagues big contracts:
It should be an interesting scene in Washington next week if U.S. Attorney Chris Christie testifies before a Congressional committee about his retaining of former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to monitor a settlement agreement with makers of hip and knee replacements.
The real issue is not so much the hiring of Ashcroft, but what his firm could make: anywhere from $27 million to $52 million over 18 months.
Ashcroft, of course, is Christie's former boss.
Wait, the issue is "not so much the hiring of Ashcroft," even though Ashcroft is Christie's former boss, a friend of Christie's and a potential future donor to his political campaigns. Using your office to force lawbreaking companies to give your friends contracts is not so much the issue.
The issue is not the forcing of the contract onto a company you have over the barrel, it's how much you make them pay?
No, Fred. The price of the corruption is not the issue. It's the corruption that's the problem.
I'm reminded of an old story, this time told by Groucho Marx.
Groucho (to pretty lady at dinner): Would you sleep with me for $52 million?
Pretty lady (laughing): Of course!
Groucho (leering wildly): How about for $10?
Pretty lady: Mr. Marx, what do you take me for?
Groucho: We've already established what you are. Now we're just haggling over price.
Fred Snowflack is the editor of the Daily Record, the hometown paper of US Attorney Chris Christie. Today Fred ran an unattributed editorial about the $52 million no-bid contract Christie gave to his former boss, John Ashcroft.
Christie, who has done a great job putting political crooks in jail, has earned the privilege of getting the benefit of the doubt. Ashcroft's firm may do a great job for a price that will be much less than $52 million.
May do a great job? Sure, so could a ton of other lawfirms that didn't give Christie a job. And the only evidence Snowflack has that this "will be much less than $52 million" is Chris Christie's word, and that's what is in doubt right now.
Point two on the $52 million is that Snowflack knows government contracts -- particularly no-bid contracts with little external oversight -- usually run over budget not under. Oh, unless it's Super Christie handing out the contract. Because we trust him.
This is about the most blatant case of misdirection I've seen since the Daily Record refused to reveal which story Chris Christie told them about his near-miss in the US Attorney firings.
Snowflack ignores the vast body of evidence out there that Christie bought his job, something that really should be noted when you are talking about sending $52 million contracts to the guy who gave Christie the job. Imagine if a Democrat donated $500K to the state and national party, got a job worth hundreds of thousands, and then gave million dollar no-bid contracts to high-profile Dems? There would be a bloodbath, but for Super Christie he gets a pass.
Snowflack completely ignores that the Bush Justice Department is under a number of investigations into how it used its powers for partisan and personal gain, and that the move to a partisan use of federal policing powers happened under John Ashcroft -- the very guy who got Christie's $52 million contract.
Snowflack also ignores the tendency -- noted on Blue Jersey in the past and on PoliticsNJPolitickerNJ today the strange tendency of subpoenas, leaks and press releases to come out at times opportune for Christie and the Republicans and damaging to the Democrats.
Snowflack further ignores the Christie hissy fit when a Democrat put a temporary block on the appointment of Stu Abner to the state Supreme Court while totally ignoring a Morris County Republican Senator doing the same thing for the Morris County Prosecutor.
The fact is that Christie doesn't have a clean record anywhere but in the newspapers and editorial pages. He no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt, if he ever did. His office has made a significant dent in the massive problem of public corruption in our state, but also has made a significant dent in the non-partisan image of the US Attorney's office.
Disney, ABC, Tom Kean and the right wing's attempts to teach our kids propaganda about 9/11 may have suffered a huge setback. Tom Kean Sr had personally written a letter to educators urging teachers to use of the movie and related teaching materials in the classroom. Scholastic had posted the letter, and teaching materials on its site, but it appears the teaching materials may have been removed. For now, Kean's letter is still available on their site. (UPDATE: Think Progress reports that Scholastic plans to put the materials back online.)
"When we were attacked, all the politicians sang 'God Bless America,'" Cosby said. "Then they went in a back room and said 'Let's make some cutbacks (to veterans programs.)"
Jon Corzine yesterday picked executive director of the NJ Institute for Social Justice, Kenneth Zimmerman to replace Stuart Rabner as his chief counsel.
"Ken Zimmerman is an ethical, talented attorney with a wealth of legal experience and strongly held principles. I will rely on his guidance and I am confident he will pursue the people's interests with the single-minded focus he has demonstrated throughout his career."
Paul Aronsohn reiterated his challenge to Scott Garrett for a series of debates. A running "debate clock" on Aronsohn's site shows that it's been 17 days, 9 hours, 38 minutes and 27 seconds of silence from Garrett since Aronsohn first issued his debate challenge.
Bill Clinton spoke at a fundraiser for Senator Bob Menendez yesterday about the importance of winning back the Congress:
“This is a real simple deal: in the last six years the White House and Congress have been under the iron grip not of the Republican Party, but a narrow strip of the most right-wing, the most ideological, the most dominated by the corporate special interests in the Republican Party. They’ve had it their way for six years and they tried their ideas, they implemented their policies and we can see their results."
The Clinton event raised about $750,000 for Menendez, while George H. W. Bush's fundraiser for Kean Jr raised roughly $300,000.
So the reason you haven't had to read my ramblings of late is due to me and the lady signing up for the government subsidies handed out for people of the opposite sex promising to stay together until they die.
Now I didn't tell anyone at PoliticsNJ that I was getting married, but they gave me a gift anyway.
They used to have a link under "Reporter Blogs" to the oft-tosser Bob Ingle there. In honor of my wedding, they took it down! When I saw it, I thought one better would be to have Bob Ingle stop blogging. Alas t'was not to be. Anyway Kudos to PoliticsNJ. Ingle doesn't deserve to be put up there with real reporter bloggers like Snowflack and Jackson.
Speaking of Herb Jackson. Apparently, the DC media is so screwed up they can't even get the basics of reporting right. Go read how Herb Jackson edits George Will. Yes that George Will. The one that gets all that face time on TV. Pesky things those facts.
Anyway I will try not to let my newly acquired subsidies get in the way of my opinions on government.
It seems that leaving government to work for the side you were supposed to be working against is not just a phenomenon limited to DC political appointees. Former DEP head, Brad Campbell, is going to work for a law firm that handles "development" projects.
They had their carrots, now here come the sticks. Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, and Camden school districts will undergo "tough" state audits. No word yet if these "tough" audits will be of the same level of "toughness" we have grown accustomed to in this "tough" state.
Parsippany High Schoolers are going to be suspended for slandering fellow students and teachers using MySpace.com. Michael Cino's lawyers have not been contacted for comment on wether or not they will represent anyone in this case.
After 7 months since the Bergen Record did an excellent job of exposing the toxic waste dump that Ford left behind in Ringwood, The EPA has once again put that site back on the Superfund list. This is now the 6th time this site is on the list. No word as to wether or not this 6th time, it will be clean and carcinogen free.
Despite attempts to protect casino workers from second hand smoke, the smoking ban goes into effect tonight at midnight. Sorry smokers. Look at the bright side, its springtime and beautiful outside! In other news, Atlantic City scientists have discovered that human beings become immune to airborne carcinogens simply by entering a Casino.
