They always say that it's better to be lucky than good -- just ask New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine. The guy practically walked into his 2009 re-election campaign with a giant "Kick Me" sign on his back: Not only has his leadership of the Garden State been uninspired at best and sleazy at its worst, using childish campaign tactics, but he's a multi-multi-millionaire Wall Street guy at a time when most of the public -- regardless of ideology -- thinks that an old-fashioned tarring-and-feathering would be too good for these people.
But the GOP put up a supposed tough-guy prosecutor -- Chris Christie (top) who upon further review is actually the most corrupt candidate in the race, which in most New Jersey elections is not a good place to be. And there's a compelling indepedent candidate who probably can't win but can siphon thousands of votes from these two, but mainly from the anti-Corzine independents who were once flirting with Christie. The bottom line is that Corzine can win with maybe as little as 40 percent of the vote on Election Day -- as frustrated voters go with the New Jersey devil they know.
The latest on Christie is quite damning indeed:
When news broke in August that the former United States attorney, Christopher J. Christie, had lent $46,000 to a top aide in the federal prosecutor’s office, he said he was merely helping a friend in need. He also said the aide, Michele Brown, had done nothing to help his gubernatorial campaign.
But interviews with federal law enforcement officials suggest that Ms. Brown used her position in two significant and possibly improper ways to try to aid Mr. Christie in his run for governor.
The New York Times finds that Christie's financially indebted aide Brown intervened to slow the public release of documents that would have shown the prosecutor's pricey upscale travel on the taxpayer's dime. And I consider this nugget even more serious:
In mid-June, when F.B.I. agents and prosecutors gathered to set a date for the arrests of more than 40 targets of a corruption and money-laundering probe, Ms. Brown alone argued for the arrests to be made before July 1. She later told colleagues that she wanted to ensure that the arrests occurred before Mr. Christie’s permanent successor took office, according to three federal law enforcement officials briefed on the conversation, presumably so that Mr. Christie would be given credit for the roundup.
The real problem with Christie is that he was a team player from Day One in one of the most politicized and thus systematically corrupt Justice Departments in U.S. history -- highlighted by the mid-term firings and hirings of U.S. attorneys, one of the still unresolved clouds lingering from the Bush years. You may recall that the U.S. Attorney from New Mexico says he was ousted after he wouldn't indict ACORN officials even after he decided there wasn't a case, and then there was the episode of Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, an American political prisoner if there ever was one. In New Jersey, Christie was one of the guys who DIDN'T get fired by Karl Rove & Co. He also conducted a highly leaky, headline generating probe of Sen. Bob Menendez at the height of the 2006 campaign that in the end went nowhere.
So barring an unlikely late surge by independent Chris Daggett, it's unlikely that New Jersey will get the change it deserves.
And here's the Christie revelation that South Jersey voters should find most outrageous of all. According to the Times article, he appears to have charged taxpayers for $73 in travel on a night that he went to Philadelphia -- so that the "die-hard Mets fan" could root against the Phillies! How dare he. And how ironic -- now because Christie is copying his beloved team, by choking and blowing a big lead when the calendar turns to fall.
They are all corrupt. Vote out all incumbents. I want the corrupt one who may lower my taxes. Corzine will not do that.— 23
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
Vote against the Mets! Do NOT vote Christie.
When the devil you know is a big government liberal, you take the devil you don't.— jmc- Vote for Chris Daggett, stick it to the two (relativily the same)parties, any new voice without party ties would be refreshing.....— Dadair1
- Keep tearing down Christie, Will. Woo-hoo! The great Corzine wins by default! De-fault!!!! Woo-hoo!— Paul B
- I noticed Christie is now also criticizing Daggett in his adds, though he's just got some generic "he'll raise taxes" thing going. It's kind of like the South Park election where the choices are a feminine hygenie product and a turd sandwhich.— etotheb
- That's right new jersey- elect the fraud crook from goldman sachs that raped the country not the crime fighting prosecutor that risked his life fighting the mafia. "chasing history" - you should be boiled in tomato sauce for such an innuendo. Say yes to incompetent representation, say yes to corrupt democrats, say yes to someone spending 150 million dollars to be a "public servant". OH, Wilbur, what about the "loan" to carla katz. Did you forget about that? New Jersey is a sewer, it was always a sewer, and will always be a sewer with the Corzine types in office. YOU people deserve the highest taxes, so stop complaining!— WriteWinger
They're trying their best to put duct tape on the puncture wound of the sinking life raft of the Obama administration. Losing NJ would be a brutal indictment of the Democratics for their corruption and incompetence. Followed by the inevitable loss in VA, and the ball gets rolling pretty fast for 2010. Expect more muck in the next 2 weeks, as no holds are barred to protect Obama's big-government agenda.— Mr. Smith- I don't see how these charges are damning. A guy lent money to someone who needed it. And then, allegedly, without any real information explaining these acts or the intent behind them, she slowed (not prevented) the release of public documents, and then pushed to have some criminals arrested by a certain date so that the person responsible for the investigation would get the credit. Christie is absolutely not corrupt. All of these charges are overblown fluff nonsense charges intended to temporarily make Christie look guilty until he is exonerated. That is all that Corzine has. He has a terrible record as governor, and he is very unpopular, so all he can do is spend money and trash the competition. And all of you idiot liberals fall in line and parrot this nonsense like good little servants, Bunch being the most dangerous of all of you because he has a public voice. I hope Corzine wins. The downfall of the state of New Jersey is fun to watch.— pete317
- Wow, the big guns are out. Looks like Will Bunch is in panic mode now that he realizes that Christie has a commanding lead (Corzine has *never* gotten above 42% in any poll, and has never pollled above Christie). It sure looks like Christie will win in a rout. Daggett has no chance, and Cozine is a dead man walking. Will takes a page from the Corzine campaign and tried to smear a federal prosecutor? will, did the Corzine campaign write this for you? Bank on this: Christie wins in NJ, McDonnell wins in VA and the GOP starts to slowly take back the country from the radical left wingers. Palin 2012? We can only hope.— J 2 The B
- Comment removed.
- Vote for the independent, because the other two are beholden to someone, and it’s not the voters of New Jersey.— Leary01
- Will - I am absolutely STUNNED that you find all of these things wrong with a Republican candidate, with just a passing comment about Corzine being a "poor" unfortunate millionaire at the wrong time. Yeah, that's all Corzine has done wrong. Just be a millionaire at the wrong time. Still the best leader for New Jersey. Yeah, right.— roger511
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
E-mail Will by clicking here.
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