Posted on 02/03/2005 2:35:53 PM PST by Liz
I spend a lot of time reading children's books these days. One of my daughter's favorites is the story of a fish who is ostracized until he learns to share. Another encourages wee ones to say "Excuse Me!" after they burp. I've yet to find a fable about a rich guy who buys his buddies, a U.S. Senate seat and, when he gets bored, bids on the Governor's Office. That book is being written.
Goldman Sachs & The Seven Dwarfs, by Jon Corzine, should be released by Election Day, at the latest. It seems like only yesterday that Corzine, the Wall Street wonder, was spending almost $70 million for the honor of becoming our U.S. senator. Then he got buyer's remorse.
Turns out that the Senate wasn't much fun, what with 99 other suits swaggering around the place, and the Republicans in charge. Corzine is a chief executive at heart. This being New Jersey, that job is up for grabs since Jim McGreevey resigned in a sex scandal.
So Corzine has pulled out his checkbook again, spending millions more to woo powerbrokers across the state. If only he could seal the deal now. Perhaps he could pay acting Gov. Richard J. Codey to resign, buy off his Republican competitors, and make a big show of donating the rest of his campaign fund to whittle away at the state's $4 billion budget deficit. Corzine is a businessman, after all.
He knows this race has nothing to do with ethics reform or restoring people's faith in their elected officials. It's all about the Benjamins. And Corzine is a one-man mint. Poor, poorer and poorest
At this point, the Republicans would need a Rockefeller to relocate to New Jersey to field a candidate who could go dinero a dinero with Corzine. Instead, they got the Seven Dwarfs.
There's Bret Schundler and Doug Forrester, who could star in their version of TV's The Biggest Loser, given their previous electoral efforts. There's Steven Lonegan, mayor of Bogota, which as far as people in South Jersey know is the casino with the super-sexy cocktail waitresses. Bergen County businessman Robert Schroeder pretends to be a hip blogger on his campaign Web site. His most recent entry? July 7, 2004. Morris County Freeholder John Murphy vows to restore integrity to Trenton. And because he is also a volunteer firefighter, he'll make sure the smoke alarms are working in the Statehouse. When Assemblyman Paul DiGaetano boasts that he is a "Blue-Collar Republican," he's inviting reporters to dig into his business dealings. And the seventh dwarf? A former freeholder named Todd Caliguire. Don't know him? Don't need to. Doesn't stand a chance. Add it up.
The funny thing is, the Democrats already had an accidental incumbent in Codey. But as folks were starting to see Codey as more than a seat-warmer, Corzine called in his chits and froze Codey out of the campaign.
Even the Today show's Matt Lauer couldn't help but join the pity party. "If a guy like you cannot keep that job or run for a full elected term because you don't have money," Lauer asked, "that's a problem, isn't it?" Codey gobbled up the bait. Naw, he doesn't begrudge Corzine a penny of his hard-earned fortune. "But it puts me, obviously, at a disadvantage."
Getting dizzy from all the dancing dollar signs, I rang up the Corzine campaign with the question on everyone's mind. "How rich is he, anyway?" I asked Steve Adamske, Corzine's spokesman. "I honestly don't know," he said. "Well, I've heard he's worth between $300 million and $600 million. Could you narrow that down a bit for me?" "It's not something we talk about," Adamske said. To the Corzine camp, the candidate's wealth is an accessory, like his beard or a pair of Italian leather loafers. "It is what it is," Adamske reasoned. "He has it, he made it."
And as everyone knows by now, the candidate is more than willing to spend "it" to get what he wants.
And Corzine is a one-man mint.
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Perfect comment!! It fits. Things always smell a little like fish when you get around New Jersey....(chuckle)
NJ has a lot of competition as the home of the dumbest voters, but it may well win the sweepstakes title again in 2005 in that category.
Nice take.
As a Dimocrat state, it won the title fair and square.
Yeah, but he's worth less than half as much as Terry Kerry and actually had to earn some of it.
Could he possibly do a worse job than McGreedy? At least he won't be able to pee in the nation's water supply when he's out of the U.S. Senate.
I'm sure, however, NJ can find some equally left-wing chucklehead.
>>> As a Dimocrat state, it won the title fair and square.
How can you say that with all the articles that have been out and are still coming out on voter fraud?
NJ has been a fixed selected state for a while.
Tongue in cheek......
bump
Heck, I don't know; maybe he goes after chiles, too.
but the republicans don't run against him on this. most NJ voters don't even know who this guy is - how he walked off with millions from Goldman, while their analysts were pumping and dumping tech stops, leaving 401K and pension and small investors holding the bag. instead, the Dems portray republicans as "for the rich" and Corzine is a "man of the people".
And yet Bret Schundler would be a GREAT candidate ---Let us not give up yet!!!
Keep us posted on that ONC
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