Call girl scandal has got the right ring for the GOP

Call girl scandal has got the right ring for the GOP Thursday, July 15, 2004 There is nothing like a call girl to bring down a government. When I was 12 years old, for example, I can remember bicycling to the park with my friends as we discussed the Profumo scandal in England. Who was Profumo? We didn't know. We did know the name of one of the call girls, however: Mandy Rice-Davies. I still remember it to this day. When I did a Google search on her, I found out that the affair brought down the government of Harold Macmillan, that the second call girl was named Christine Keeler, and that both were absolutely gorgeous. Now that's a scandal. I fear that James E. McGreevey may be in a similar fix even though U.S. Attorney Chris Christie Tuesday made it a point to state that the matter in question had absolutely nothing to do with McGreevey. Nothing? Nothing but everything. As I was driving along later that day, I heard the first radio report on the scandal. It told how "Gov. McGreevey's leading fund- raiser" -- Charles Kushner -- had been indicted because of an alleged attempt to hire a call girl to blackmail a potential witness against him. I'm sure McGreevey had no connection to this scheme, just as Macmillan had no connection to Rice-Davies and Keeler. But McGreevey was connected to Kushner. And Kushner has already paid more than half a million dollars in fines for irregularities stemming from his aggressive fund-raising for McGreevey and other top Democrats. That was a boring story till Tuesday. But from now on, you'll be excited to read about it -- especially if the call girl in question turns out to be as good-looking as Rice-Davies. I got to my destination, a Republican fund-raising gala at Raritan Center in Edison. On the way in, I ran into Matt Ahearn of the Green Party. He was collecting signatures to get Ralph Nader on the presidential ballot in New Jersey this fall. Ahearn was elected to the state Assembly in 2001 as a Democrat. That was the same year McGreevey was elected governor. A former career military man, Ahearn is a do-gooder who thought he and McGreevey were going to Trenton to do good. "But everything we did in the Democratic caucus was about fund-raising," he told me. "There was no real question of what was good for the state. It was all Machiavellian power politics." Machiavellian: We'll come back to that word in a minute. After a year in the Assembly, Ahearn bolted from the Democrats and joined the Greens because of fund-raising issues. He got sick of being asked to make phone calls to potential contributors, among them Kushner. Party leaders hand out all sorts of contracts and jobs to contributors, but they generally avoid any evidence of a quid pro quo, he said. "The quid pro quo is what the prosecutors are looking for," said Ahearn. "But you'll never find it because it's done indirectly under the guise of party loyalty." Never say never, as the old saying goes. On rare occasions, the quid pro quo might come to light. In last week's scandal -- not to be confused with this week's scandal -- the feds indicted another McGreevey fund-raiser by the name of David D'Amiano. The indictment alleged that those in on a scheme to win a big state buyout for a farm owner would use the term "Machiavellian" to signal the farmer that they were in on the deal. Among those using the term was McGreevey. Farms are boring compared with call girls, so that scandal didn't make much of a splash. But it has much more potential to come back at McGreevey, said his old nemesis Bret Schundler. Schundler was among the dozens of happy Republicans inside the hall, many of whom want to run in the GOP gubernatorial primary next spring. The Republicans think they have a great chance of recapturing the governorship thanks to McGreevey's overaggressive fund- raising. Schundler, who lost to McGreevey in 2001, said be believes McGreevey may have a problem similar to the one that got Martha Stewart into such a fix. McGreevey has stated publicly that his allusion to Machiavelli was entirely coincidental. But his attorney has said that the governor may have used the word innocently after having been coached by D'Amiano. "If Jim McGreevey lied to the federal investigators who interviewed him in March about the word 'Machiavellian' and said it was just a coincidence that he used the word, then it seems to seems to me that Chris Christie may already have the evidence to convict him of a felony," said Schundler. "Martha Stewart is going to jail for that very crime." That's just one possible scenario, of course. There are a lot of other ones, and the Republicans in the hall were all grinning as they discussed them. By yesterday morning, radio host Don Imus was piling on. "Here is my suggestion to Gov. McGreevey," Imus said while discussing New Jersey's Scandal of the Century. "Resign now. Avoid enormous legal fees and further embarrassment for the state of New Jersey." I don't know if that will happen. But I do know this: Somewhere in New Jersey, a little boy is asking his pals: "What's a call girl?" Paul Mulshine is a Star-Ledger columnist. Copyright 2004 NJ.com. All Rights Reserved.

Thursday, July 15, 2004

There is nothing like a call girl to bring down a government.

When I was 12 years old, for example, I can remember bicycling to the park with my friends as we discussed the Profumo scandal in England.

Who was Profumo? We didn't know. We did know the name of one of the call girls, however: Mandy Rice-Davies. I still remember it to this day. When I did a Google search on her, I found out that the affair brought down the government of Harold Macmillan, that the second call girl was named Christine Keeler, and that both were absolutely gorgeous.

Now that's a scandal.

I fear that James E. McGreevey may be in a similar fix even though U.S. Attorney Chris Christie Tuesday made it a point to state that the matter in question had absolutely nothing to do with McGreevey.

Nothing? Nothing but everything. As I was driving along later that day, I heard the first radio report on the scandal. It told how "Gov. McGreevey's leading fund- raiser" -- Charles Kushner -- had been indicted because of an alleged attempt to hire a call girl to blackmail a potential witness against him.

I'm sure McGreevey had no connection to this scheme, just as Macmillan had no connection to Rice-Davies and Keeler. But McGreevey was connected to Kushner. And Kushner has already paid more than half a million dollars in fines for irregularities stemming from his aggressive fund-raising for McGreevey and other top Democrats.

That was a boring story till Tuesday. But from now on, you'll be excited to read about it -- especially if the call girl in question turns out to be as good-looking as Rice-Davies.

I got to my destination, a Republican fund-raising gala at Raritan Center in Edison. On the way in, I ran into Matt Ahearn of the Green Party. He was collecting signatures to get Ralph Nader on the presidential ballot in New Jersey this fall.

Ahearn was elected to the state Assembly in 2001 as a Democrat. That was the same year McGreevey was elected governor. A former career military man, Ahearn is a do-gooder who thought he and McGreevey were going to Trenton to do good. "But everything we did in the Democratic caucus was about fund-raising," he told me. "There was no real question of what was good for the state. It was all Machiavellian power politics."

Machiavellian: We'll come back to that word in a minute.

After a year in the Assembly, Ahearn bolted from the Democrats and joined the Greens because of fund-raising issues. He got sick of being asked to make phone calls to potential contributors, among them Kushner. Party leaders hand out all sorts of contracts and jobs to contributors, but they generally avoid any evidence of a quid pro quo, he said.

"The quid pro quo is what the prosecutors are looking for," said Ahearn. "But you'll never find it because it's done indirectly under the guise of party loyalty."

Never say never, as the old saying goes. On rare occasions, the quid pro quo might come to light. In last week's scandal -- not to be confused with this week's scandal -- the feds indicted another McGreevey fund-raiser by the name of David D'Amiano. The indictment alleged that those in on a scheme to win a big state buyout for a farm owner would use the term "Machiavellian" to signal the farmer that they were in on the deal. Among those using the term was McGreevey.

Farms are boring compared with call girls, so that scandal didn't make much of a splash. But it has much more potential to come back at McGreevey, said his old nemesis Bret Schundler. Schundler was among the dozens of happy Republicans inside the hall, many of whom want to run in the GOP gubernatorial primary next spring. The Republicans think they have a great chance of recapturing the governorship thanks to McGreevey's overaggressive fund- raising.

Schundler, who lost to McGreevey in 2001, said be believes McGreevey may have a problem similar to the one that got Martha Stewart into such a fix. McGreevey has stated publicly that his allusion to Machiavelli was entirely coincidental. But his attorney has said that the governor may have used the word innocently after having been coached by D'Amiano.

"If Jim McGreevey lied to the federal investigators who interviewed him in March about the word 'Machiavellian' and said it was just a coincidence that he used the word, then it seems to seems to me that Chris Christie may already have the evidence to convict him of a felony," said Schundler. "Martha Stewart is going to jail for that very crime."

That's just one possible scenario, of course. There are a lot of other ones, and the Republicans in the hall were all grinning as they discussed them. By yesterday morning, radio host Don Imus was piling on.

"Here is my suggestion to Gov. McGreevey," Imus said while discussing New Jersey's Scandal of the Century. "Resign now. Avoid enormous legal fees and further embarrassment for the state of New Jersey."

I don't know if that will happen. But I do know this: Somewhere in New Jersey, a little boy is asking his pals: "What's a call girl?"

Paul Mulshine is a Star-Ledger columnist.

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