Turns out that the latest individual to join "Democrats for Junior" is none other than the disgraced and convicted Former Hudson County Executive Robert Janiszewski (prisoner #25038-050). From the Star Ledger:
A researcher working for Republican Tom Kean Jr.'s campaign became pen pals with a jailed Democratic political boss in an effort to dig up damaging information on Kean's opponent, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez.
Former Hudson County Executive Robert Janiszewski, now serving time in a federal prison in Kentucky on corruption charges, offered political history and strategic advice to the Kean campaign in a chatty, friendly letter obtained by The Star-Ledger.
"Political intrigue is ... well ... intriguing," Janiszewski writes in the opening, summing up the unlikely alliance between himself and an agent for a Republican campaign. The letter, dated June 11, suggests an ongoing, secret correspondence.
...
Janiszewski, a sometime-ally, sometime-rival of Menendez's in Hudson County, offered a long list of local politicians who hold grudges against the senator and may be able to provide damaging information about him.
One of those people mentioned by Janiszewski -- Oscar Sandoval, a Union City psychiatrist and former FBI informant who helped land Janiszewski in prison -- rocked the U.S. Senate campaign this week by disclosing a secret recording he had made of Menendez's closest adviser.
For those of you keeping score at home, "Democrats for Junior" now consist of astroturfers posing as Democrats, a racist and a federal prisoner. With friends that dirty, Junior can't claim that he's clean as a whistle.
And what does everyone's favorite liar have to say about the whole thing:
Jill Hazelbaker, Kean's campaign spokeswoman, sought to downplay the significance of the letter. She said Kean was not aware of the correspondence and noted that Lyon is not on the campaign payroll. He is a subcontractor for Kean's chief political consultant, Matt Leonardo.
"Are you going to tell me that the Menendez campaign doesn't have a research operation? Let's get serious. This is nonsense," she said.
For a campaign spokesperson, she sure is ignorant about what's going on in the campaign. It seems like Junior, Inc. is becoming the state's biggest supplier of plausible deniability.
But Matt Miller puts it all into perspective:
The Menendez campaign, which has been reeling from this week's release of the recordings and a federal investigation of the senator's rental property, seized on the letter and called it evidence of a "smear campaign" by Kean.
"He's been working with disgraced felons like Bob Janiszewski and crooks like Oscar Sandoval since the beginning of this campaign to dig up sleaze and make up lies and now he's been caught red-handed," said Matt Miller, spokesman for the Menendez campaign.
Let's not let our eyes off the prize, people. Tom Kean, Junior is a incompetent blowhard of a State Senator and his campaign is full of the same. Don't let him win.
