Paul Krugman's got it right again, with a post mocking David Broder, taking him to task on the subject of Al Franken, whom Broder calls "the loud-mouthed former comedian".
That doesn't sit well with Krugman, who points out "Al Franken's dirty secret is that ... he's a big policy wonk."
I used to go on Franken's radio show, all ready to be jocular - and what he wanted to talk about was the arithmetic of Social Security, or the structure of Medicare Part D.
In fact, the only elected official I know who's wonkier than Al Franken is Rush Holt, my congressman - and he used to be the assistant director of Princeton's plasma physics lab. (The campaign's bumper stickers read, "My Congressman IS a rocket scientist.")
So what will Franken do to the level of Senate discourse? He'll raise it.
Krugman's slam-dunk right about Franken. As huntsu mentioned to me this morning, you have to understand politics be able to satirize it. Franken always did that well.
During the 2005 Governor's race, my boyfriend and I helped put together an event at the Stress Factory Comedy Club for Corzine. A kind of fusion event - part fundraiser, part message. We had Franken on stage riffing on the piped-in live audio of the last Corzine/Doug Forrester debate. Corzine creamed Forrester; in the club we heard it punctuated by Franken's rat-a-tat-tat off-the-cuff reactions. He was pretty specific, and it was a lot of fun listending to him stick pointy knives into Forrester.
It was worth waiting 20 years for the Al Franken Decade. Particularly since Franken will hold his friend Paul Wellstone's seat in the Senate.
This guy Chris Christie is just not ready for prime time. "Pay-to-play" is basically legalized corruption and New Jersey reformers have worked hard to limit the practice. So I was surprised when Chris Christie complains he can't accept pay-to-play money in today's Philadelphia Inquirer:
McGreevey's executive order banned the state from awarding contracts of more than $17,500 to companies in which high-ranking officials contributed more than $300 to a gubernatorial candidate or state or county party organization... McGreevey's order covered contributors who controlled 10 percent or more of companies getting state contracts. Corzine included any partner, officer, or principal of a vendor firm, further limiting the number of people who would be willing to contribute to gubernatorial campaigns.
...And that has Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher J. Christie in a lather.
"This governor is a hypocrite. He signs this executive order which he doesn't live by, yet he forces everybody else in the race to live by it," he said.
Let's get this straight:
Democrat Jon Corzine took no corrupt pay-for-play money in 2005 and will not in 2009.
Republican Doug Forrester took no corrupt pay-for-play money.
Thanks to Andrew Poag for pointing out the brilliance that is Doug Forrester. He pens an Op-Ed in the Asbury Park Press telling Trenton to stop thinking outside the box. And just in case you don't know what a box is, he takes time to explain the concept:
A box is a container with structure, usually with sides and a bottom, that constrains things, keeping them safe and in their place.
Uh yeah, ok. Maybe he can line that box with this column.
Steve Kornacki, formerly of PoliticsNJ.com and now of PoliticsNH.com and the New York Observer has written a very interesting piece about the possibility that Bob Menendez might have to make a late exit from his U.S. Senate re-election campaign against Tom Kean Jr as a result of the ongoing and possibly politically-motivated federal investigation into his dealings with a Hudson County not-for-profit.
In late October during the gubernatorial campaign, former governor Thomas Kean did an ad for Doug Forrester, highlighting Forrester's "moderate, pro-choice" credentials. A Republican pro-choice group endorsed him, conservatives were furious, and some even called for not voting for Forrester.
Now it's Kean Jr's turn to walk the same tightrope of appeasing his radical base while playing to the state's socially moderate/liberal population. He's already failed. Wally Edge writes that pro-life organizations are about to endorse John Ginty in the primary:
Dan Clark, the President of the New Jersey Republican Pro-Life Coalition, said that Kean might not be able to secure the support of pro-life voters, even in the general election. "The problem Tom Kean has with pro-life, conservative voters right now is bigger than just a possible primary challenge. Tom Kean's committee vote to support human embryonic experimentation last December seems to have been the catalyst for John Ginty's candidacy. Before that vote, Tom had cleared the primary field and kept conservative critics at bay. Kean's vote was perceived as a big poke in the eye to the party's pro-life base and the chatter among activists began to find a challenger. Believe it or not, there are people who claim to be pro-life activists who want to see Tom Kean lose to pro-abortion Bob Menendez in November. Tom Kean gave these activist mouthpieces a huge club to beat him over the head with from now until Election Day. Whether John Ginty ultimately files and runs, Kean's problem with pro-life, conservative voters will remain because of this vote."
This is the worst possible news for Kean Jr. As Wally notes, Junior "is scared to death of John Ginty." It's no surprise then that he caved in to BCRO chair Guy Talarico - even after telling the opposing ticket that he would not abandon them.
Kean Jr was hesitant to back the slate of the ineffective Talarico since he needs to have the strongest Bergen County party possible. But Talarico had threatened to run someone else on the line if Junior didn't take the party column - and soon. Afraid of a challenger, Kean Jr finally caved in to Talarico and took the party line.
Rather than fight for the strongest party organization possible, he took the easier route of bowing to Talarico and avoiding a primary challenge in the county. Which led Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky to raise an important question about his leadership: "If Tom Kean can't stand up to Guy Talarico, how's he going to stand up to George Bush and Dick Cheney?"
Way back in ancient blog history (November), you may have read a post or two by yours truly describing how Doug Forrester was using a flawed study to portray New Jersey's business climate in a dismal light.
Don't trust any study comming from a right wing think tank; particularly those that label themselves "independent." That goes double for candidates who throw this junk science out there during their campaigns. It goes triple for any slimy business coalition that uses this type of junk as a foundation.
All that being said, I wish there were more liquor licenses available in this great state so that I could open a brew pub in a decent location at a reasonable cost.
Anyway go read the whole thing. Then come back here early and often. Because if anything, this is proof positive that you can definitely trust the BlueJersey Bloggers to sniff this sort of BS out months before official bonified policy wonks get to it.
Laurel Hesterthanked former colleague Dane Wells for his help: "I want to thank, from the bottom of my heart, the person most responsible for this, my first partner at the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, Dane Wells." For months, Dane has been contacting state, national and international media outlets to bring visibility to Laurel's cause. He said that "tens of thousands of phone calls and e-mails from at least three continents were sent to the freeholders. Hundreds of thousands of people were outraged." His effort s paid off. Freeholder John Kelly who once claimed that domestic partner benefits threatened the sanctity of marriage, noted that "advocates for change have done a very good job of humanizing the issue." Republican State Senator Leonard T. Connors Jr. thinks that all counties will have domestic partner benefits: "A third of the counties have passed benefits, and I am sure they all will." The Asbury Park Press has an online poll asking whether or not the freeholders should grant Laurel her pension benefits.
Governor Corzine isn't ready to ban smoking in casino floors, citing economic reasons. Sharon asks: "Is it fair to treat casino workers as second-class citizens compared to other workers around Our Fair State?"
Some Republicans have doubts about Corzine's nominee for Attorney General, Zulima Farber.
Earlier we wrote about the revelation that Forrester's campaign manager was the source of rumors surrounding Corzine's personal life. Enlighten-NJ started dropping hints of these and other rumors about two weeks ago. Finally, the last piece of the slime machine, the Drudge Report, helped push the rumors to the mainstream press. This set in motion blowback for the Forrester campaign, and dispirited the New Jersey electorate even further. Even Forrester condemned the rumors he set in motion (then later changed his mind), though he won't go so far as to fire or discipline his campaign manager Rick England or communications staffer Sherry Sylvester for pushing them.
But I'm not so interested in the smear campaign so much as what it portends for the future, and specifically 2006.
Let's start at the beginning. I wrote earlier about a blog called Enlighten-NJ. It appears to be part of a network of blogs funded to push rumors on Democrats (another one is here). This is version 2.0 of a strategy outlined here in Personal Democracy Forum: Daschle, Thune and the Blog-Storming of South Dakota...
Yesterday we noted that while Forrester condemned his campaign manager for spreading lies about Corzine, he was unwilling to fire him from his campaign. That alone says a lot about his complete lack of ethics. Now, he's flip-flopped and won't even condemn the smearmongering of his most senior campaign officials:
Forrester, meanwhile, backtracked from his statement Friday condemning his campaign manager, Rick England, for fueling a rumor that Corzine had an affair with a young female political staffer. The Star-Ledger reported yesterday that England cited the rumor in an August conversation with a lobbyist for the New Jersey Education Association.
On Friday night, Sylvester said Forrester had spoken to England and "condemned" his actions. But Forrester said the issue came to his attention only yesterday morning through The Star-Ledger report. He said he would review the circumstances. Asked if there was any chance he would discipline England, he said, "Let me get the facts first."
Either his spokesperson is a liar, or Forrester approves of these smear tactics. A man of real integrity however, wouldn't let that happen in his campaign:
Corzine, however, said if such gossip were spread by senior people on his campaign, there's no question what he would do: "I would ask him to step down."
It's been revealed by the Star Ledger that the smear campaign against Jon Corzine has been led by Doug Forrester's campaign manager, Rick England. Forrester initially denied that he even knew about it:
Forrester said he was unaware of the details of a rumor Republicans have been circulating about Corzine: that the U.S. senator had a sexual relationship with one of his young female aides.
Riiiiighht. Then, one of the people who had been fed the smear spoke up:
In August, England spoke with Jim Schroeder, a lobbyist for the New Jersey Education Association, about the decision by the state's largest teachers union to endorse Corzine.
Schroeder, in an interview yesterday, said England "did tell me I was making a mistake" by endorsing Corzine. He said England relayed the rumor about Corzine and the staffer, saying reporters were investigating it and that resulting stories would embarrass the Democrat's supporters.
Lindsay asked Forrester to square his position (of NJ being number 45th) with Entrepreneur Magazine's #2 rating... Forrester cited (presumeably) this Beacon Hill study (pdf).
For the Record, Beacon Hill Institute resides in Suffolk University and is a conservative think tank (in Flaming liberalville Boston?!?) whose mission is... ahem:
Grounded in the principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility and free markets
I will delve into the Beacon Hill study to see if it is flawed in any way. If so... I will report back to you my fellow readers.
Earlier, I wrote about the Swiftboat machine that Forrester's camp is gearing up to smear Jon Corzine.
Please welcome the newest member of the smear machine: Enlighten-NJ. They're setting the stage for media outlets to pick up on unsubstantiated rumors:
...it’ll make Jim McGreevey look like a Cub Scout compared to Jon Corzine.
The fact that the Forrester camp is using Enlighten to put out this information means they can't get anyone respectable to bite.
The lies that Enlighten refers to originated on online message boards from anonymous posts and have already been repeated on NJ 101.5 radio. These smears are salacious. (Note: I've removed one of the rumors I mentioned here before. They are gross, unsubstantiated smears and don't even deserve repeating. Also, it appears that the link to the nj.com board is no longer working - the smear appears to have been removed from their site as well.)
Then there are idiots like Michelle Malkin who claim that Jon Corzine has been buying the votes of blacks. Last time I checked, it was the other party that was struggling with support from African Americans.
These people know they're about to lose, and rather than do it with dignity, they are choosing to smear Jon Corzine's name with rumors and lies. They aren't worthy of licking the bottom of his boots.
They are lies, which is why they haven't been repeated by any reputable news organizations. To the mainstream media - thanks for keeping these nonsensical rumors out of your pages.
Update: In the comments, Frogsdong reminds us that Enlighten is no stranger to smear tactics. In fact, it's all he knows.
Doug Forrester, with the help of the national GOP, has started a desperate swiftboating campaign against Jon Corzine. Using national GOP funds and a well-orchestrated whisper campaign, the Forrester campaign is resorting to the GOP’s tried and true tactics of race-baiting and questioning the patriotism of Jon Corzine and Democrats.
Radar reports that millions of dollars previously earmarked for Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) are being redirected by the national GOP into Doug Forrester’s coffers:
Increasingly dubious about Santorum’s chances, Capitol Hill sources report GOP powerbrokers have refocused their attentions—and dollars—on Doug Forrester, a little-known party hack who’s currently embroiled in a dead heat race with multi-millionaire Democrat Jon Corzine for New Jersey’s governorship.
“The party is pouring millions of dollars in PAC money into Forrester’s coffers, but most of that money was previously earmarked for Rick,� reports a well-placed Republican senate staffer. “It’s disgusting. Rick used to be Bush’s biggest booster on issues like stem-cell research, Social Security, and the Iraq war. Now the White House won’t even take his phone calls.�
Leading the charge on this effort is Forrester’s media advisor Greg Stevens – whose firm, Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm - the same firm that produced the Swift Boat ads against John Kerry, has been paid $16 million so far by Forrester’s campaign....
As reported by others, after basing his entire campaign on ending corruption, government waste and pay-to-play, The Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday busted Forrester and his company for wasting taxpayer money through pay-to-play deals:
While running for governor, New Jersey Republican Douglas Forrester has received $3.4 million in business from a Burlington County agency tied to the GOP machine that helped make him the party's gubernatorial candidate.
Moreover, the government contracts awarded to Forrester's company were brokered through the son of a powerful South Jersey Republican, State Sen. William L. Gormley, who also played a key role in Forrester's nomination.
Forrester's company, BeneCard Services Inc., was chosen by the Burlington County Special Services School District to manage its prescription-benefits program in 2004 and again in 2005. Since 2003, Forrester has contributed nearly $60,000 to county Republican coffers.
The school district selected BeneCard even though other companies offered lower costs for each year, and it renewed the contract this summer despite a 37 percent price increase by BeneCard.
Later Hank probably made the connection between eating the toad and consequent thoughts that he was really a caterpillar.
And this:
The next time you run across someone whose bahavior has an extra-dimensional aura about it, assume the worst, point your finger and say, "Begone you shameless toadlicker."
Hint: it's one of the two gubernatorial candidates. For the answer (and to read much, much more), click here.
That was three years ago while Forrester was running for Senate.
Now, with Bush's approval rating in NJ down into the 30's, Forrester is trying his best to distance himself from the wreckless administration.
But he can't change the fact that he espouses the same ideological opposition to embryonic stem cell research - which has the potential to lead to cures that could save millions of lives.
He can't change the fact that his tax plan mimics that of Bush's fiscal ideology. It won't help out low and middle income renters, but it will result in thousands of dollars of tax breaks for our wealthiest residents. This is Forrester's plan to "starve the beast" in order to cut New Jersey's social programs that help our most vulnerable. Meanwhile, Corzine wants to make sure that every uninsured child in the state has the health coverage they need. Who's your choice? It's clear who Bush's choice is.
(Gloucester Co. Times)
Update - October 11, 2005 at 10:03:08 EST by jmelli
Today's editorial cartoon from Jimmy Margulies in The Record:
Last night, Former Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes said he "strongly" supports Doug Forrester despite disagreeing with his positions on abortion and gay rights.
“Well, unfortunately, you have to realize that even if he is [pro-choice and pro-gay marriage], he is to right of most of New Jersey. But it’s like a menu and you gotta go with the best pick," Forbes told PoliticsNH.com
And during the gubernatorial primary, Forbes came to the obvious conclusion that "Forrester's property tax plan will not work". (mailer from Schundler campaign on left)
So Let's summarize: Forbes disagrees with Forrester's social AND fiscal policies, yet "strongly" supports him because Doug is to the "right of most of New Jersey". In one shot, Forbes managed to throw his integrity out the window, and at the same time unmasked the facade of a moderate that Forrester has tried to fool New Jerseyans into buying.
Last night, Former Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes said he "strongly" supports Doug Forrester despite disagreeing with his positions on abortion and gay rights. 
