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August 16, 2004

Poor, poor New Jersey

As Wonkette writes, "There's not a whole lotta news... but what news there is is very, very gay." I grew up in New Jersey during the last period in which Republicans were taken seriously in the state. The 1980s were the Tom Kean years. I saw Christine Todd Whitman come within a hair's breadth of defeating Bill Bradley in a Senate race because of the outrage of Gov. Jim Florio's tax increases, and I saw both houses of the state legislature become dominated by Republicans for the same reason.

That era is gone. New Jersey is one of only two states that has a Democratic governor, both houses of the legislature controlled by Democrats, two Democratic Senators, and a majority of Democrats in its Congressional delegation. However, no sooner did we get a Democrat as governor than he resigned with the announcement I am a gay American. He had an affair, appointed his lover to a position as director of Homeland Security, and his lover tried to blackmail him after being jilted. Well and good, but even if this hadn't happened, McGreevey's bad judgment in the rest of his life would have done him in. In a scandal involving prostitutes, blackmail, and secret codewords, McGreevey has come under fire for corruption, particularly given his connection to one of his major fundraisers, the odious Charles Kushner. The story reminds me of a low-rent version of The Sopranos, particularly the subplot involving Boon State Assemblyman Ronald Zellman.

Understand that because of corruption, the former Republican governor and Senator Toricelli both resigned while running against each other, and two county commissioners have been nailed for corruption, one of whom is in witness protection. Corruption is nothing new in New Jersey. McGreevey saw the writing on the wall, and by turning his resignation into "it's all because I had a gay affair," he effectively jumps on the grenade to insulate the rest of the Democratic party from the rest of the scandal. Had the scandal with the appointment of his Director of Homeland Security caused the corruption charges come front and center, he would have been drummed out under a cloud of corruption. Now he sets himself up as the victim and keeps the focus away from the corruption in his administration, which could turn the electorate to the (still corrupt, but just not-currently-in-power) Republicans out of frustration.

McGreevey deflects the other corruption scandals facing his administration by turning his resignation into his scandalous gay affair. His party, no doubt, thanks him.

Of course, with America's first openly gay governor, New Jersey can add that distinction to its other famous firsts.

Posted by Dean at August 16, 2004 1:02 AM

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