Posted on 09/12/2004 5:04:20 PM PDT by Liz
TRENTON, Sept. 10 -In the month since he announced his resignation, Gov. James E. McGreevey has been publicly cast into so many new roles - as unlikely gay trailblazer, symbol of New Jersey's tainted political culture and punch line for late-night comics - that it would be easy to overlook his day job as chief executive of the nation's ninth most populous state.
Despite the intense strong-arming from both Republicans and Democratic leaders, Mr. McGreevey is determined to remain in office until Nov. 15, insisting that he needs three months to ease the transition and accomplish several important tasks that will cement his legacy. But a review of his official actions during the past month suggests that Mr. McGreevey's time-lapsed exit from the political stage will provide few of the policy breakthroughs he and his aides have hinted at.
During the first two weeks of his odd interregnum, Mr. McGreevey cloistered himself in his office, hoping to outlast the photographers, television camera crews and reporters staked out in Trenton, eager to document the activities of the nation's first openly gay governor.
Since then, the media horde has disappeared from the State House parking lot, and Mr. McGreevey has begun venturing out to a smattering of public functions. On several occasions however, the bill signings and ceremonial events have been overwhelmed by reporters' questions about the extramarital affair that led to the governor's downfall.
From the relative safety of his office, and on public stages where the press is kept at bay, Mr. McGreevey has still been able to use bits of the enormous power of New Jersey's governor's office. He has made ceremonial appearances, issued a handful of executive orders and signed bills on subjects from a property tax reform commission to tolls on the Garden State Parkway.
Yet most bills the departing governor has signed have the support of his successor, Senate President Richard Codey, and would have been enacted anyway had Mr. McGreevey left office when he announced his resignation on Aug. 12.
And while Mr. McGreevey's advisers once suggested that his swan song would include groundbreaking new initiatives like tough campaign finance regulations and a plan to legalize hypodermic needle exchanges, the executive orders he has signed have involved less ambitious matters like a plan to penalize companies that outsource jobs to foreign countries.
Now that legislators have little incentive to deal with Mr. McGreevey, and many members of his administration are scrambling to determine whether they will still be employed when Mr. Codey becomes acting governor, his dwindling leverage is likely to diminish further as his announced departure date grows nearer.
"The New Jersey governor's office is inherently strong, but once you announce you're leaving, you become a lame duck," said Ross K. Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University. "In Jim McGreevey's case, because of the circumstances of his resignation, he's become this phantom, a fleeting figure, really, who has basically been reduced to ribbon-cutting."
In an interview this week, Mr. Codey said that the transition was proceeding smoothly. Many elected officials say it is ludicrous for Mr. McGreevey to suggest that the New Jersey governor's office would require a longer period of transition than the office of the president of the United States. But Mr. Codey has been unwavering in his contention that Mr. McGreevey should not be pushed from office before he is ready to go.
"He's still getting business done," Mr. Codey said.
Republicans, meanwhile, are incensed that Mr. McGreevey stayed beyond the Sept. 3 deadline that would have brought about a special election this fall. If Mr. McGreevey were to step down any time before October, Republicans would almost certainly go to court to ask that a special election be held. But even if a court challenge were to fail, Republicans argue that Mr. McGreevey owes it to voters to turn over the governor's office to someone who has not been hobbled by scandal.
"The next couple of months just aren't going to be productive for him or the taxpayers," said Brian Nelson, executive director of the New Jersey Republican State Committee. Even if Dick Codey were in there, at least you'd have someone who isn't distracted by the problems of his personal life."
Mr. McGreevey's staff disputes the notion that the governor's extended status as a lame duck status has rendered him irrelevant. His communication director, Kathy Ellis, points out that among other things, Mr. McGreevey has signed a bill enacting his overhaul of the child welfare agency, announced lawsuits against oil companies accused of polluting Linden and Bayonne and taken steps to steer development money into Atlantic City and blighted sections of Newark, Camden and New Brunswick.
At an appearance at the New Jersey Institute of Technology on Wednesday, Mr. McGreevey said he had been buoyed by the support of constituents since announcing his resignation, and pledged to make the most of his remaining two months in office.
"My goal, obligation and task is to work hard to be the best governor I can be," he said. "And while my personal decision has provided a certain clarity for me personally, that is distinct from my obligation as governor."
But there are still times when it appears as if he is governing under a state of siege. On Thursday, when Mr. McGreevey appeared in the governor's outer office to sign the executive order to discourage outsourcing, he was cheered by a group of union leaders who had been invited to the ceremony. Once speeches had ended however, reporters began peppering Mr. McGreevey with questions about Golan Cipel, the former aide whose threat to file a sexual harassment lawsuit led to the governor's resignation.
After several heated exchanges, one labor leader stood up and tried to shout down the reporters, saying they were spoiling what should be a joyous occasion. But the questioning continued, and Mr. McGreevey provided a few more answers before his aides whisked him away.
>>>Buzz was that McGay consulted with gay groups on what to say.......
David Mixner?
Wow, worse than I thought. Do you live there? The only thing I remember about NJ was driving on the Pulaski skyway when I was a kid, and it sure stunk.
ROTFL..........priceless McG to-do list.
Isn't the Newark sports arena on-hold b/c they found bodies on the site?
Maybe it's a Dumbocrat burial ground......where they dump the bodies of their political enemies.
Yes, I live here.
You would NOT want to be on the Parkway this morning.
Thank you McGreevey.
>>>Isn't the Newark sports arena on-hold b/c they found bodies on the site?
That is why the 'special election' was held off. Gotta get all those bodies registered.
LOL...........new voters......how patriotic.
I heard McG is looking for a post-guv home in Bergen County......his (ahem) wife is looking elsewhere.
I've seen homosexuals on "moderate" political discussion sites disavowing support for him because he's a "breeder." Isn't that nice?
People - either personally homosexual, advocating or supporting same, or leftists in general - are mentally ill. They "believe" in constructs that are unreal, irrational, internally inconsisent, have no stable foundation; and, if implemented, will destroy human civilization.
And I'm trying to be polite.
Oh - and political and/or homosexual "moderates" are those who want to go to hell just a little slower than the radicals, or use more polite language on the trip.
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