New Jersey Is Hopeless
A Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers poll released Sunday indicates that almost-former New Jersey guv Jim McCreepy’s approval rating has gone up a couple of points since his “wrenching,” soap-operaesque press conference Thursday announcing his homosexuality as though it were a badge of courage.
His retrograde sexuality isn’t the issue, of course, no matter how much he may want it to be. But here’s a question to ponder in that regard: how would you have liked to be his wife, having to stand there at his side and be a prop in that nauseating performance? Talk about tilting the “EWWWW” meter. Who knows how many other “lovers” he’s had, and to what he’s exposed her? And really, how can she even “stand by her man” when he doesn’t really even fit that description?
That cover would seem to have a short shelf life. Golan Cipel, McCreepy’s alleged “lover,” is not only denying being the guv’s boy-toy, but is insisting that he is “straight” and planned to sue only because McCreepy was hitting on him.
Note the past-tense of Cipel’s suit. This is because, reportedly, the two sides had reached a settlement just a day or two before McCreepy “came out of the closet.” Which, of course, only red-flags this thing all the more. Indeed, it suggests that the guv was waiting for that settlement in order to use it as a PR shield once an actual suit was no longer a viable possibility.
Still, while McCreepy seems to have pulled off this PR bait & switch for the time being, it may prove irrelevant after all, seeing as how the call for his immediate departure is growing fastest and loudest from within his own party.
But only high up in his party. The Jersey Dem rank & file don’t seem to think that McCreepy’s political corruption OR moral turpitude matter a whit. But Senator Jon Korzine wants to be governor, and he doesn’t want to wait an extra year to move into McCreepy’s official digs. Moreover, there are even some national Dems who think that if McCreepy hangs around as planned, things could get so ugly, what with the voters getting rooked again by the Dem machine, this time out of a chance to choose McCreepy’s successor before 2005, that it could cause a backlash that could conceivably tip the state into George Bush’s column in November.
There is, however, another school of thought that if McCreepy does quit in time to schedule a November special election, it will so energize Jersey Republicans that that enhanced GOP turnout could also endanger John Kerry’s hold on the Garden state.
Personally, I don’t think an asteroid strike could turn New Jersey “red.” And I don’t think the state deserves honest governance. Its electorate could have averted all of this crap by electing Brent Schundler three years ago, but they chose to indulge in corruption instead, just as they seem to be all but reveling in it now.
I can just picture it – McCreepy is “persuaded” to step down “early,” as Bob Torricelli was to get out of his 2002 re-election bid, Senator Korzine steps in, edges out Schundler or Steve Forbes, and then turns around and appoints McCreepy to his old senate seat. Or maybe he’d appoint Torricelli. Perhaps even Golan Cipel. Why not? It’s not as if Jersey Dems have to worry about political fallout. If they can leave state election laws in tatters and engage in all these felonious hijinx with more or less blanket impunity and otherwise make the Sopranos look like the Cleavers, well, why bother with discretion?
Just spoils da fun, ya know…?
His retrograde sexuality isn’t the issue, of course, no matter how much he may want it to be. But here’s a question to ponder in that regard: how would you have liked to be his wife, having to stand there at his side and be a prop in that nauseating performance? Talk about tilting the “EWWWW” meter. Who knows how many other “lovers” he’s had, and to what he’s exposed her? And really, how can she even “stand by her man” when he doesn’t really even fit that description?
That cover would seem to have a short shelf life. Golan Cipel, McCreepy’s alleged “lover,” is not only denying being the guv’s boy-toy, but is insisting that he is “straight” and planned to sue only because McCreepy was hitting on him.
Note the past-tense of Cipel’s suit. This is because, reportedly, the two sides had reached a settlement just a day or two before McCreepy “came out of the closet.” Which, of course, only red-flags this thing all the more. Indeed, it suggests that the guv was waiting for that settlement in order to use it as a PR shield once an actual suit was no longer a viable possibility.
Still, while McCreepy seems to have pulled off this PR bait & switch for the time being, it may prove irrelevant after all, seeing as how the call for his immediate departure is growing fastest and loudest from within his own party.
But only high up in his party. The Jersey Dem rank & file don’t seem to think that McCreepy’s political corruption OR moral turpitude matter a whit. But Senator Jon Korzine wants to be governor, and he doesn’t want to wait an extra year to move into McCreepy’s official digs. Moreover, there are even some national Dems who think that if McCreepy hangs around as planned, things could get so ugly, what with the voters getting rooked again by the Dem machine, this time out of a chance to choose McCreepy’s successor before 2005, that it could cause a backlash that could conceivably tip the state into George Bush’s column in November.
There is, however, another school of thought that if McCreepy does quit in time to schedule a November special election, it will so energize Jersey Republicans that that enhanced GOP turnout could also endanger John Kerry’s hold on the Garden state.
Personally, I don’t think an asteroid strike could turn New Jersey “red.” And I don’t think the state deserves honest governance. Its electorate could have averted all of this crap by electing Brent Schundler three years ago, but they chose to indulge in corruption instead, just as they seem to be all but reveling in it now.
I can just picture it – McCreepy is “persuaded” to step down “early,” as Bob Torricelli was to get out of his 2002 re-election bid, Senator Korzine steps in, edges out Schundler or Steve Forbes, and then turns around and appoints McCreepy to his old senate seat. Or maybe he’d appoint Torricelli. Perhaps even Golan Cipel. Why not? It’s not as if Jersey Dems have to worry about political fallout. If they can leave state election laws in tatters and engage in all these felonious hijinx with more or less blanket impunity and otherwise make the Sopranos look like the Cleavers, well, why bother with discretion?
Just spoils da fun, ya know…?
posted by JASmius at 2:57 PM
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