I know that most of this is going to come off like sour grapes because I was a Florio supporter in 2000 and a Codey supporter in 2005 and on both occasions saw Corzine's money rule the day, because as we all know, in New Jersey politics, money talks and if bullshit is accompanied by enough money, it talks as well, but I need clarification about what exactly we should be thanking soon-to-be former Governor Corzine for?
Is it for buying a Senate seat in 2000?
Is it for turning the balance of power in the state's political dynamic towards the bosses that backed Jim McGreevey, enabling him to run unopposed in 2001 instead of being challenged by former Morris County Prosecutor, Michael Murphy, who earned the attention of a lot of people during the 1997 Democratic gubernatorial primary as a result of his candor, honesty, and solid, third-place showing in that year's gubernatorial primary without the support of a single Democratic machine?
"If Ray [Lesniak], [John] Lynch and [George] Norcross agreed on a statewide candidate, nobody else had a chance."
If that still holds today, Rob Andrews is in pretty good shape. Lynch is in jail, but he's got many of the big players in Middlesex -- including three state senators -- on his side, plus Steve Adubato Sr in Newark.
Late update: I updated the title. NJ.com and the Star Ledger are different entities. NJ.com deserves all the scorn in this case for the silly images and text. But the Star Ledger still pursued the story and created the content they used on NJ.com, so they're not off the hook.
You could try, but you couldn't make this stuff up. If I wanted to parody the NJ media's coverage of Jim McGreevey, I might have created something like this:
Update: I wasn't kidding when I said I couldn't make this stuff up. I really couldn't. At least twothree people contacted me thinking I made this parody of nj.com. I did not. This is actually on their front page right now. For the record, here's a screenshot of the top of nj.com.
Can you let it go already, please? Pretty please? Your profits are down and you're cutting staff. Don't waste your dwindling resources on irrelevant crap like peoples' divorces. Normal people don't care about this.
Bombshell across the Hudson.
So New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, who was swept into office as a hotshot ethics reformer, has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
It's no laughing matter. One's thoughts immediately go to his family - wife Silda and three children. Finding out your husband and father is caught up in a prostitution ring is bad enough. Now imagine it all with CNN, the New York Times and the Republican Party breathing down your necks. One also feels for the people of New York; they deserve better.
But for those of us on this side of the Hudson River, well, we've been here before.
The wronged wife, looking like a deer in the headlights, standing to the right of her husband in the standing-room-only press conference, shoulder-length hair loose and gently coiffed, outfitted in the tailored light blue suit with a tasteful strand of pearls. Maybe a little pressure's lifted off Dina Matos McGreevey today, she's got a sister.
And then there's the commuter train, that which is traveled everyday by politicians, and businessfolk hurtling from New York to Washington by Amtrak. According to the federal affidavit that kicked off this news Spitzer paid big bucks to have the prostitute he knew as "Kristen" travel from New York to Washington by train to have sex with him in a D.C. hotel. That train goes right through New Jersey.
And finally, clearly, both governors' undoing was sex, the kind that surprises people. McGreevey managed to detour mounting ethical challenges of his own with his gay American announcement. And wiretaps appear to reveal Spitzer as what might be called a "john" if Client 9 was a little more low-rent.
But I'm sure that's not where the comparisions end. Who has more? Be snarky or be sincere, and drop your thoughts in Comments.
Former Governor Jim McGreevey wrote an op-ed reflecting on Senator Larry Craig's experience and comparing it to his own. I thought this one point was particularly interesting:
But being in the closet uniquely assisted me in politics. From my first run for the state legislature until my election as governor, all too often I was not leading but following my best guess at public opinion. Politics was for me a way to secure the crowd's approbation while maintaining a busyness that obfuscated the desires of my heart. Despite being a moderately liberal governor, my stance on marriage was: "between a man and a woman." The position, in my mind, created a tension with the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender community that affirmed my bona fides as a "straight." Only after the crisis that resulted in my resignation, when public opinion no longer mattered, did I realize the importance and legitimacy of same-sex marriage.
How many in our own legislature - Democrats and Republicans - oppose marriage equality for similar reasons? I think it's safe to say...more than we might think.
If you live in the greater NYC/NJ(north) area, you have to have heard that former NJ Governor Jim McGreevey might be headed for a professional clergy position in the Episcopal Church. McGreevey left the Catholic Church for the Episcopal Church after he admitted he is gay and resigned his governorship. The Catholic Church isn't exactly gay friendly, while the Episcopal Church - particularly in New Jersey - is. So it's very easy to understand why someone with a deep and personal sense of faith would move to a church where he would be accepted and welcomed as a full member.
That's actually the reason (at least one of them) why I moved to the Episcopal Church. I simply could not continue to be a part of a church that singled out a few scattered verses to justify and codify their hatred. I wanted a church that met me, in all my frail humanity, with an open heart and open mind - and challenged me to open my own heart and mind as well. In the very short time I've attended the Church of Our Saviour, I've come to think of them as my family - and they've certainly reciprocated beyond my wildest expectation. I needed a church where I could take my spiritual cup for replenishment every week, and they do so every week without fail.
So I've come to feel a deep affection for my new church, and for the greater structure that supports it. The issue of having openly gay clergy has not been easy for the Episcopal Church to deal with - to the extent that some of the oldest congregations in this country have voted to leave the administration of their duly appointed bishop. That's the church equivalent to secession, in case anyone is wondering.
Lawyers for James E. McGreevey filed a two-page document in Union County Superior Court in Elizabeth seeking to dissolve his union with Dina Matos McGreevey. A spokeswoman for Union County Superior Court, Sandra Thaler-Gerber, confirmed receiving the filing Friday.
The two have lived apart since November 2004, when McGreevey resigned following a stunning public announcement that he was "a gay American" who had had an affair with a male staffer.
"It's a sad day for everyone," McGreevey told The Associated Press Friday. ''It is something that had to be done. We are blessed with a wonderful daughter who remains our focus."
Just to totally start a rumor based on no evidence at all, he is finally filing for divorce just 17 days before civil unions become legal. Could there be non-nuptuals in the offing?
And, to further start rumors with no evidence or even substance, Dina McGreevey is writing her own version of her life with the former Governor. Could Jim be having a fit of niceness and filing for divorce before she cashes in on the book, allowing her to keep the whole bag of booty?
Any other unsubstantiated, made up rumors or interpretations can be put in the comment section.
Well, if Jim McGreevey's book wasn't enough for you now we are going to get a tell all from his ex-wife (though she may not be ex yet).
Hyperion announced today plans to publish a book by Dina Matos McGreevey, the ex-wife of former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, who resigned from office in August 2004 with the public pronouncement that he was a "gay American."
In her memoir, SILENT PARTNER, Ms. Matos McGreevey will speak openly and honestly of her life with the former governor. The book is scheduled for publication in spring 2007.
If it's coming out this spring, then it is probably already written and in the galley stage. The timing also suggests that this is a response to McGreevey's book, which came out in the fall.
I didn't read the Governor's book, and I probably won't read this one.
When Jim McGreevey high-tailed it out of Trenton in 2004, Andrew Sullivan published a piece in New York magazine that I found unduly credulous toward McGreevey’s insistence that his gayness, rather than his connection with some of the greasiest sleaze weasels in Middlesex County, was the issue at hand.
Rather than give the Democratic majority 6 months to establish marriage equality, the progressive community should give them 6 weeks. As far as I am concerned, the clock is ticking on Trenton Democrats.
If marriage equality has not been established by Wednesday, December 6, and/or our State Senators or State Assemblypersons have not at the very least stood up and been counted as supporters of marriage equality by then, progressives need to begin shopping around for alternative representation.
I don't know when the filing deadline is for the 2007 legislative primaries, but I do know that April 25 is definitely too late to begin launching primary challenges.
I was watching Catholic League President, William Donohue, on one of the talking-head programs the other day denouncing Hollywood's latest, the Da Vinci Code. Hello? It's fiction! Although when I look at the artist's masterpiece, the Last Supper, I either see Mary Magdelene or someone who could have orginated the church's sex scandal. But what I'm saving my boycotting dollars and energy is for the new tome purported to be by our former governor Jim, errr James McGreevey. At least Christy Whitman's My Party Too will have company on library shelves marked "self-serving revisionist histrionics."
That rumble you hear off in the distance is the first tremor of the massive, city-shaking, continent-shifting, world-girdling yawn that is going to greet the September publication of Jim McGreevey's memoir The Confession. Why, just reading this Star-Ledger story about the excerpts from the book now being circulated by McGreevey's publisher had me stumbling into the kitchen to make another pot of coffee. Even so, I nearly lapsed into a coma before I was able to get the cup to my lips.
Tonight was the NJ Legislative Correspondents Club Annual Show - where the NJ media gets to roast New Jersey's politicians. My table was a pretty interesting bunch - Newark mayor-elect Cory Booker, CWA President Carla Katz and Assemblyman Bill Baroni, among others - all of whom were easy targets and took the roasting in stride.
One of my favorite skits was a song sung by reporter Robert Schwaneberg of the Star Ledger. The song, titled "In the Book," is his take on what we can expect to find in former Governor Jim McGreevey's new book. If you're subscribed to our podcast, it should download automatically for you. If not, you can use the player below to listen (it may take a little while to load before it plays). My best attempt at transcribing the lyrics is below the fold.
So New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, who was swept into office as a hotshot ethics reformer, has been caught with his hand 
