Corruption from the garden party: Of course New Jersey!

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Written By Ted Lang

Remember Senator Robert Torricelli? And Donald Di Francesco, appointed interim Governor when Republican liberal Christie Whitman left? Remember her Chief Justice, Deborah Poritz, who named “Senator” Frank Lautenberg to the ballot even though the time limit for a replacement had expired? Remember Robert Treffinger and Robert Janiszewski?

And of course, we have our present Governor of the “Garden State,” Democrat James McGreevey. The New Jersey Education Association and New Jersey’s liberal media aggressively supported McGreevey during his campaign. No sooner did McGreevey take office and already there were alleged scandals involving the construction of sports arenas, one in Newark and another in Camden. It could just have been partisan static, but then there was McGreevey’s luxury trip to Ireland, paid for by the taxpayers. The State Democratic Party had to make good on the spent money.

Then there was McGreevey’s appointment of Golan Cipel as director of New Jersey’s homeland security; the guy was a citizen of Israel! He wasn’t even an American citizen! The position paid $110,000 a year. When it became obvious that it wasn’t to bright to have a foreign national in charge of the State’s security, McGreevey transferred him to another staff position with absolutely no job description or any meaningful duties at the same rate of pay.

Then there was McGreevey’s handpicked selection for New Jersey poet laureate, Amiri Baraka. Remember that? Here’s some of this genius’ work lifted from the Washington Times’ website on 11/29/02 from a piece by Ward Connerly:

“Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed; [sic]

Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers

To stay home that day [sic]

Why did Sharon stay away?

Who? Who? Who?

Great choice for a poet laureate, no?

Then there was yet another appointment by McGreevey: his choice for, of all things, New Jersey state police superintendent, Joseph Santiago. The Bucks County Courier Times, a Pennsylvania newspaper, put it succinctly in their report posted December 17, 2002: “…Santiago resigned …after a seven-month tenure marked by troubles with troopers, the attorney general and talk of mob ties.”

Along with many other states, counties and municipalities across America, New Jersey is also in a budget crisis. McGreevey has been cutting back on spending, not because he wants to, but because there is no choice. But he’s cutting mostly in Republican strongholds, especially Morris County.

Yet another scandal is surfacing. During McGreevey’s campaign for governor, two key members of his campaign were Gary Taffet, until recently, McGreevey’s chief of staff, and Paul Levinsohn, his chief counsel. Both men resigned in light of the alleged scandal. Taffet and Levinsohn used the prestige and connections made available via the campaign, as well as once again, Democrat Party Funds, to lock into lucrative business exchange deals.

The flap started when Washington Township in Gloucester County objected to a billboard that had been erected on New Jersey Transit property. Josh Margolin in his June 9th article entitled, “McGreevey says trusted aides kept him in the dark,” explains in his Star-Ledger report: “By putting the sign on state land exempt from local zoning ordinances, Taffet and Levinsohn and their partners were able to bypass a local ban.”

Also, “Over the last few months, new details have emerged about their business, which secured local and state government approvals for at least 19 billboards around the state. Of those, 10 were located on state or other property exempt from municipal zoning, allowing them to steer around local billboard bans.”

The promise of lucrative billboard advertising, especially at sites never vulnerable to “eyesore” complaints of liberal Democrat environmentalists, surely was a persuasive selling point. Add to this seed money availability from Democrat Party financial supporters, and mutually beneficial arrangements were morphing.

Again Margolin: “During that transition time, Taffet and Levinsohn reached deals with 14 companies, a nonprofit group and a union to advertise on their billboards. Many of those companies are affected by actions in Trenton. The ad commitments increased the value of the signs by one-third as they prepared to sell them to join the new administration, which banned outside income.”

The article continues: “During the same period, Taffet hired a recruitment firm, ExecuSearch Inc., to hire executives to join the new administration. The firm got the job on the recommendation of South Jersey businessman Jay Phillips, who 13 days earlier agreed to buy $216,000 in billboard advertising from Taffet. The Democratic State Committee paid the firm $100,000; Phillips received $34,000 of that. One of the two recruiters sent to assist the transition was on parole for bank fraud after serving two years in a federal prison [Emphasis added].

At the risk of being redundant, as I have pointed this out so many times before, the state evidencing the most corruption and therefore the greatest propensity for angering its citizens, also leads the nation in unconstitutional gun control legislation.
Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”

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