NYP: SO MUCH FOR 'MR. CLEAN' - Corzine's 'privacy' problem

New York Post ^ | August 10, 2005 | Eris Fettmann

[OESY]

So much for the suggestion that running multimillionaire candidates who can self-finance their campaigns will rid politics of the "influence of money" factor.

Sen. Jon Corzine... whose approach to politics has always been "you have to give if you want to receive" suddenly finds himself embroiled in a potential scandal involving both money and sex.

Judging by his reaction thus far, Corzine believes his best bet is to stay close-mouthed behind an avowal of his right to privacy... lends an added air of someone trying to hide something.

And since Corzine is trying to run as the Mr. Clean..., the last thing he needs is the perception that he's got his own skeletons in the closet....

But it's still a problem.... Suppose Corzine were the CEO of a major company who'd secretly lavished a $500,000 gift on a woman with whom he'd been involved and who headed the union representing the company's workers and the shareholders found out. Forget about conflict of interest — Corzine would be out of a job even faster than he was ousted as head of Goldman Sachs back in the '90s.

Nor is this the only financial problem on the horizon.

Last October, just before launching his statehouse bid, Corzine invested $7 million in a hedge fund headed by Carl Icahn... majority owner of the Sands Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City. That would be a blatant conflict of interest and a violation of ethics for a sitting governor....

Then there's his financial partnership... with real-estate tycoon Charles Kushner. The soon-to-be-convicted Kushner was brought down in a tawdry scandal involving tax fraud and sex. Ironically, he'd been the key link between then-Gov. Jim McGreevey and his lover, Golan Cipel, whose hiring as a key state homeland security official ultimately led to the governor's resignation....

[FatherFig1o155]

"New Jersey is currently one of the biggest "donor" states in Washington (meaning their Federal tax burden far exceeds Federal spending in the state)...

I hear you on that.

In fact, because I'm an upper middle class white living in a rural area, I probably don't see -- and will never see -- dime one of the money I send to Washington OR Trenton.

Swine.