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Trenton, N.J. (AP) -- Former Gov. James E. McGreevey will not have to pay alimony to his ex-wife, a judge ruled Friday in granting the couple a divorce after a tumultuous eight-year marriage that crumbled publicly when McGreevey acknowledged he was a "gay American." A superior court judge ruled Friday that McGreevey, the nation's first openly gay governor, must pay $250 a week, or $1,075 a month, in child support for his 6-year-old daughter with Dina Matos. Matos had asked for $2,500 a month alimony for four years and $1,750 a month in child support. The couple share custody of...

A former aide to James E. McGreevey said today that he had three-way sexual trysts with the former governor and his wife before he took office, challenging Dina Matos McGreevey's assertion that she was naive about her husband's sexual exploits.

Democrat presidential hopeful Barack Obama cast himself as the leader the US needed to stand up to and engage renegade nations such as North Korea. ’We need a president who’ll have the strength and courage to go toe-to-toe with the leaders of rogue nations, because that’s what it takes to protect our security,“ the Illinois senator told Democrats at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa. “That’s what I’ll do as your next commander in chief.� Obama and rival Hillary Clinton have had a running argument since clashing in last week’s debate over how far the US should be willing to...

Former Gov. James E. McGreevey has started the process to become a priest in his newly adopted Episcopal faith and hopes to begin a three-year seminary program in the fall. McGreevey, who often described himself as a devout Catholic while in public office, was officially received into the Episcopal religion on Sunday, at St. Bartholomew's Church in Manhattan, and is now part of the church's "discernment" phase that usually precedes any seminary work, said the Rev. Kevin Bean, vicar at St. Bartholomew.

URGENT BULLETIN: The New Jersey Supreme Court will hand down its ruling in the marriage equality case Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 3:00 pm. THIS SUPERCEDES THE COURT'S EARLIER ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THERE WOULD BE NO DECISIONS COMING DOWN ON WEDNESDAY. The Court will post the decision at http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/opinions/index.htm Please attend Garden State Equality's statewide rally for marriage equality Wednesday night at 7:00 pm, Unitarian Church of Montclair, 67 Church Street, downtown Montclair. The rally supercedes any other event we have e-mailed you about. Right now please call as many people as you can, and please forward this e-mail to every...

Thirty-four days after I was elected governor of New Jersey, I began a secret affair with an aide named Golan Cipel. It destroyed my career, ruined my marriage, and helped me discover who I really am.

Hillary, McCain Campaign in New Jersey The candidates for New Jersey governor called in two of the nation's most prominent senators Friday to help rally support as polls showed the race tight with less than three weeks to go. Democratic nominee Jon Corzine appeared alongside New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Republican contender Doug Forrester brought in Arizona Sen. John McCain. Clinton addressed a crowd of 1,500 women, telling them Corzine has "the best combination for public service: He has a great mind, big heart." Clinton said she got to know Corzine when both were new to the Senate in...

Barack Obama's rousing oration at the August 2004 Democratic convention established America's favorite son of a goatherd as the shining hope of his desperate party. After humiliating the hapless Alan Keyes in November, he took his seat in Washington as the junior Senator from Illinois and set himself immediately to the thankless service of the workingman. On June 4, Obama appeared in Galesburg to deliver a commencement address at Knox College that has liberal scribes writing love poems and doodling hearts inscribed "Obama 2008." In a valentine that appeared on the New Republic website, David Kusnet says that "All Obama...

Five months after Gov. James McGreevey left office in disgrace, a new public opinion poll shows that 49 percent of New Jerseyans would consider voting for him in a future election. ......Zogby International was commissioned by the gay rights advocacy group Garden State Equality to measure public support for gay marriage (which remains at 55 percent statewide). The group piggy-backed the McGreevey question onto the poll, largely in an effort to test electoral support for gay and lesbian candidates. The poll asked voters what their opinion would be if McGreevey ran for another office, like Congress or the Legislature. 6...

A wild U.S. Senate debate spilled into living rooms Thursday night as Republican Alan Keyes and Democrat Barack Obama rocked each other with blistering attacks on religious faith, crime, gun control, abortion and sex education.In a bid to jolt his long-shot candidacy, Keyes excoriated Obama for coddling gang members, proposing kindergartners learn about sex and using his faith disingenuously to get votes.The choice of topics meant Obama, who holds a 40-percentage-point lead in polls, often found himself on the defensive during the hour-long debate on WLS-TV, Channel 7. But Obama did rip Keyes for being a too-preachy name-caller who opposes...

RENTON, N.J. - The wife of resigning Gov. James E. McGreevey is buying a home where she apparently will live without her husband. Dina Matos McGreevey, 37, executive director of the Columbus Hospital Foundation in Newark, has not spoken publicly about her husband's recent announcement that he is gay and had an extramarital affair with another man. She took ownership of the modest, ranch-style house in Springfield in the last few days, Maureen Leddy, the real estate agent who handled the sale, told The New York Times for Wednesday's editions. She declined to disclose the sale price. Similar homes in...

Couldn't resist

Votes in Senate defy easy labels Barack Obama's critics often hammer the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate as being too far to the political left for most Illinois voters, using as evidence what they say is a very liberal voting record over the eight years he has represented the Hyde Park neighborhood in the Illinois Senate. A review of Obama's legislative record shows that the liberal label is not misplaced. He has fought for gun control, worked to expand government assistance to the poor, led efforts to reform the death penalty system, proposed universal health care and opposed legislation...

NAPERVILLE, Ill. - In a U.S. Senate race that looks increasingly like a grand philosophical debate about religion and government, Democrat Barack Obama stood before a packed church Tuesday and argued the case for keeping the two separate. As Exhibit A, he held up his Republican opponent: "It's not clear to me that I want Alan Keyes telling me what it means to be a Christian," Obama said. Obama, currently a state senator representing a Chicago district, and Keyes, a conservative activist recruited from Maryland by the Illinois GOP, are vying for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen....

September 24, 2004 — Democratic U-S Senate candidate Barack Obama says he's opposed to gay marriage because of tradition and his Christian beliefs. But Obama says he supports civil unions for gays and lesbians and would oppose a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Obama made his comments today during a taping of W-B-B-M Radio's "At Issue" program. His Republican opponent, Alan Keyes, has said repeatedly that Obama supports gay marriage. But Obama says he personally believes marriage should be between a man and a woman. The Democratic candidate also says the issue of gay marriage should be left to the...

HundredPercenter has learned from unimpeachable sources that NYC democrat Councilman Vincent Gentile is going to resign, due to sexual harassment allegations from a teenage male intern. Gentile, who is a freshman councilman from Brooklyn, NY, is rumored to announce his resignation within days. The backround of the accuser is unknown, however, sources tell us that his father is a NYC detective. This can get ugly.

OK, I just heard McGreevy's announcment that his decision to resign was "a process of transformation and prayer." The poor victim of a repressive society. Apart from the political corruption, it is imperative to remember that he is a callous sociopath. Would the same crowd defending him defend his wife if she had a lesbian affair and he were a normal guy? A lot wouldn't and nobody should. Assuming he loved her there would be heartbreak and humiliation involved, much like I think what is happening with Mrs. McGreevy. Of course, a lesbian affair would not have endangered McGreevey's life...

McGreevey Has Yet To Submit Resignation Letter Tue Aug 24 2004 9:31:09 ET New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey has yet to submit an official letter of resignation, officials said Monday. A spokesman for the Department of State confirmed that McGreevey, 12 days after his historic announcement, had not given them the required letter to abandon the governor's office before the end of his four-year term. The EASTON EXPRESS TIMES report: "What he announced was his intention," Micah Rasmussen, a McGreevey spokesman, said of the timing of McGreevey's letter. 'It will be done at the appropriate time." Without the letter, under...

Friday, August 20, 2004 NEWARK, N.J. (AP)  — A judge on Friday ordered a psychiatric evaluation for a doctor who told reporters he had an affair with the former aide accusing Gov. James E. McGreevey (search ) of sexual harassment. Dr. Michael David Miller was repeatedly urged by a public defender and Judge Donald Volkert to refrain from speaking during his 20-minute arraignment. He was arrested late Thursday on charges including pretending to be a law enforcement officer. Despite their efforts, Miller made remarks including, "I have no law enforcement responsibility in this country whatsoever." Miller, 51, pleaded not guilty to...

MY HANKIES are drenched, my weeping couch a sodden raft. The deluge that Hurricane Charley dumped across Florida was a puddle compared with the titanic swells clogging America’s tear ducts in the wake of New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey’s monumentally brave confession: “I am a gay American.” Great God above, can there be a tomorrow? To hear and read reaction to McGreevey’s announcement that he’ll resign (one of these days), you’d think he’d done something heroic, a self-made martyr deserving of admiration rather than a corrupt individual forced to face the music. So he’s gay. Who cares? The gist of...

Excerpted: TRENTON, N.J. -- The political scene may be chaotic as Democrats and Republicans wrangle over the possibility of a special election to replace Gov. James E. McGreevey, but state law is clear on the process of such an election. If McGreevey stays in office beyond Sept. 3, there will be no special election to fill out his term. He has said he plans to resign Nov. 15, which would make Senate President Richard J. Codey the state's acting governor. --- Codey would serve as governor until the end of McGreevey's scheduled term in January 2006 if McGreevey leaves office...

EXCERPTS TRENTON -- Gov. Jim McGreevey snubbed former FBI director Louis Freeh for the post of state anti-terrorism czar to appoint his alleged lover Golan Cipel. Freeh offered to assume the post free of charge, but McGreevey opted instead to put Cipel into the job with an $110,000 salary. That was just a footnote to reports back in 2002, but is now being revisited following McGreevey’s revelation to the world last week that he is gay and carried on a "shameful" extramarital affair with a former employee. Freeh is a New Jersey native and graduate of Rutgers University and was...

Politics NJ.com has learned that Corzine held a conference call with staffers Tuesday morning and in the wake of it the mood in his Washington office, one person familiar with the call said, was 'crestfallen' since the DC staffers got the impression that he was preparing to run for governor of New Jersey.Most political insiders see a Corzine-South Jersey Leader Norcross-Former NJ Senate President Lynch-US Rep. Menendez alliance developing with a deal cut that would satisfy each party.Norcross and Lynch are united by one common goal: stopping potential gubenatorial candidate Richard Codey (D-West Orange) with whom they would have difficulty...

People always think I’m putting them on when I mention the Lesbian Avengers, but they are in fact a real group. Or were, anyway. One of the most entertaining stories I was ever asked to cover was the kickoff of the Lesbian Avengers Pride Ride through the South in Vidor, Texas, which had been chosen because of some high-profile Klan activity which the Avengers wanted to protest. The Avengers had planned a motorcycle convoy, but most of them were women’s studies professors and other tenured types, and mostly drove minivans and Subarus, and the only diesel power in sight belonged...

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McGreevy Scandal: Homosexuality as the Last Refuge of Scoundrels August 15, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- by Nicholas Stix -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey has managed to snatch martyrdom from the jaws of damnation. He would have the public believe that he didn’t resign his governorship on August 12 because of the scandals that sprouted from his Administration like crabgrass, but because he was the victim of a homophobic society. In McGreevey’s resignation speech, he said that ''My truth is that I am a gay American. Shamefully, I engaged in adult consensual affairs with another man, which violates my bonds of matrimony....

One can't help but be struck by the running themes of the latter-day Democrats: a penchant for relational dysfunction that plays itself out in hackneyed scripts of sexual domination, an inability to grasp base concepts of adult responsibility, and a disregard of fundamental tenets of national security. Consider the latest Democrat peccadillo, which caused the resignation of first-term New Jersey Governor James McGreevey. By admitting to a homosexual dalliance with a subordinate, he tears a page from a familiar playbook by flooding a sprouting field of corruption allegations 1,2 with an eye-popping sex-scandal. Just as Bill Clinton was inoculated against...

TRENTON, N.J. -- When Gov. James E. McGreevey appointed a young, inexperienced former Israeli sailor named Golan Cipel to head New Jersey's homeland security effort after September 11, no one could figure out why.     He was a political unknown, a recent immigrant with no security experience, named to a plum $110,000-a-year job without a background check or security clearance.     Mr. Cipel, 35, had one qualification, the Statehouse rumors went: He was the governor's boyfriend.     Asked by reporters on several occasions whether he was homosexual or had a romantic relationship with Mr. Cipel, Mr. McGreevey never would answer directly, dismissing the...

Okay, please don't flame me. I'm honestly interested in what freepers think about this. Ever since Rush came back from rehab and started talking about "living a lie" and "not being able to make other people happy" and all that, I've had the uneasy feeling that Rush had "discovered" something more about himself than he was letting on. Today, listening to Rush as he talked about his empathy for McGreevy, it seemed inevitable to wonder if Rush's empathy (and, please, if you did not hear Rush's comments, realize it's difficult to assess the tone and emotion with which he delivered...

TORN BETWEEN TWO LOVERS - right click on the word "midi" and save to hard drive or bring it into your player There are times a governor must be just telling voters straight Well, perhaps that may be a wrong choice of words I had hired someone who's indeed unqualified And I'm caught in a position that could look somewhat absurd There has been a man...I gave a job, you see Because he gave a different kind of job to me Just before the suit's reported, I must nip this in the bud And it has really been exciting...

The Governor's SecretPublished: August 13, 2004 ooner or later, it was bound to happen: a major elected official's calling a press conference to tell constituents that he or she is gay. Yesterday, New Jersey's governor, James McGreevey, described his coming to grips with his sexual orientation with uncommon grace and dignity, offering an extraordinary glimpse into the private torment that can accompany a public life lived in the closet. "My truth is that I am a gay American,'' he said. If that had been the beginning and the end of the story, we would be celebrating Mr. McGreevey's candor, not...

August 4, 2004 -- New Jersey real-estate mogul Charles Kushner wants to cop a plea on charges he hired a high-priced call girl to have a motel tryst with a witness against him, and videotaped the steamy session, a court document reveals. Kushner, a top fund-raiser for New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, waived his right to a speedy trial because of ongoing talks between federal prosecutors and the defense team, the document says. "Plea negotiations are currently in progress and both the U.S. and defendant desire additional time to enter the plea in court, which would thereby render trial of...

The Commissioner of the New Jersey D.E.P. has decided to run interference for his puppetmaster, Governor James E. McGreevey of New Jersey, in blocking a bear hunt, despite a vote of 6-1 by the New Jersey Fish and Game Council supporting such a hunt. The members of said council probably know far more about this subject than either the Governor or his mouthpiece both of whom apparently are willing to sacrifice the welfare and safety of the majority of New Jersey's citizens for the benefit of a handfull of animal rights wackos. If the bear population in that state can't...

"Not New York, Not Pennsylvania, Proud to Be New Jersey". For those of you who don't know, that is the slogan of our state's talk radio station, NJ 101.5. However, it is getting a bit difficult to hold your head high these days as a proud son or daughter of the Garden State. In fact, the news coming out our statehouse and senator's offices is getting downright embarrassing. As a state we are living right up to the stereotypes that the rest of the nation has of us. I think the handwriting was on the wall when the democrats pulled...

July 14, 2004 Lurid Charges Hit Top Donor to New Jersey GovernorBy RONALD SMOTHERS EWARK, July 13 - Gov. James E. McGreevey's top contributor was charged on Tuesday in a bizarre scheme to enlist prostitutes in an effort to silence potential witnesses in a federal investigation of possible illegal campaign contributions.In a criminal complaint that reads like a plot line from an Elmore Leonard novel, Charles Kushner, a New Jersey landowner and businessman with close ties to many religious and political figures, was charged with hiring prostitutes to entice his brother-in-law and his accountant into sexually compromising situations.The complaint says...

Trenton, NJ (LifeNews.com) -- According to a poll by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, a majority of New Jersey voters disagree with Governor James McGreevy's $50 million proposal to fund a New Jersey institute for human stem cell research. Between February 29 and March 7, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,210 New Jersey registered voters, and found that 48 percent of those surveyed disagreed with the Governor's plan, while only 42 percent agreed with the idea. Only Democrats and urban residents were more likely to agree with McGreevy, while all other segments of the population did not approve of the taxpayer-funded program....

(Columbus) – A growing string of evidence suggests that New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey may bow to animal rights pressure and cancel the state’s upcoming black bear hunt, according to the nation’s principal sportsmen’s advocacy organization. “The McGreevey administration has time and again displayed its sympathy for the anti-hunting cause,” said U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Vice President for Government Affairs Rob Sexton. The Alliance has been in business since 1978, fighting anti-hunting issues, and tracking the decisions of elected officials sympathetic to the anti-hunting movement. Sexton explained that all signs point to McGreevey siding with anti-hunting activists against wildlife experts, public...

March 26 - Hopeful of returning to power in Trenton, state Republicans think they have identified a potent weapon: Gov. James E. McGreevey. The Republican Senate Majority released results today from polling it commissioned in two key legislative districts showing voters responding strongly to an anti-McGreevey message. Sixty percent of respondents in the 3rd District and 59 percent in the 38th District agreed with the statement that they would "send Jim McGreevey a message by voting for legislative candidate's who oppose McGreevey's agenda" in this fall's legislative contests. The polls also showed Republican state Senate candidates beating Democratic incumbents in...

<p>TRENTON -- In what turned out to be his final months as superintendent of State Police, Joseph Santiago took a $2,000 trip to Minneapolis on the taxpayers' tab and ordered $133,000 in renovations for his new offices, including $106,000 in furniture and $900 for two shredders, according to State Police records obtained under the new public access law.</p>

<p>TRENTON -- State Sen. John Matheussen, R-Gloucester, said yesterday that the attorney general should have heeded a plea by State Police in February to share allegations against State Police Superintendent Joseph Santiago with the Senate Judiciary Committee.</p> <p>A State Police investigator wrote a memo, which police sources said was forwarded to the Attorney General's Office, asking for protection from retaliation and asking that the allegations be shared with the committee.</p>

N.J. Gov Slams Plan By GREG GITTRICH DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Friday, August 30th, 2002 New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey has staked his claim to New York City's most sacred land - telling lower Manhattan rebuilding honchos they'll decide what rises at Ground Zero "over my damn body," sources said. McGreevey's comments outraged officials on the New York side of the Hudson River - and threatened to snarl talks between the two states about the fate of the World Trade Center site. "If he thinks that New York is going to let other people decide what happens at Ground Zero,...

Meanwhile, back in Trenton, Governor Jimmy McGreevy today apologozed to the people of New Jersey and announced that there was not enough money available in the budget to send out annual Homestead Rebates to Jersey taxpayers. He admitted that his staff had warned him weeks ago that funding was short and said that he should have made the situation known to the public earlier. The rebates, usually mailed during July, are a return of a small portion of the state income taxes for the previous year to the taxpayers, and are targeted especially to the elderly and lower income groups....