Corzine’s Cribbing

We’ve been working on a post about Jon Corzine and his sudden interest in political ethics and ending pay-to-play in New Jersey. But someone else with far superior writing skills has covered the subject much better than we ever could. Just a little bit of our opinion before you get to the good stuff.

Typically when you give campaign contributions you choose a party or a candidate that supports your position on the major issues. Some give contributions in the hope a candidate’s position can be influenced through the donation. Wouldn’t you think with all the money he’s spent on “party building” Corzine could have pushed for some ethics reform if he really cared about the issue?

Of course it might have been a bit awkward for Corzine to buy their support and then demand they abandon their pay-to-play ways. Now that he looks a bit compromised on the issue, he’s all over it. We are discovering that the Senator is not very sincere in his public pronouncements. But you already knew that didn’t you?

Read Charles Webster’s column - Corzine cribbing from GOP’s playbook in the Trentonian. Snips below.

Corzine says he wants to clean up New Jersey politics and he insists he is the only man that can deliver.

Ol’ Jonnie is shopping a plan to put a stop to influence peddling, contract swaps for campaign donations and other assorted schemes better known as pay-to-play.That’s what voters in the Garden State want, but they have been looking for it to happen for a long while now.

The big news is that Corzine’s ideas are nothing new. In fact, Corzine’s ideas are ripped right out of the Republicans’ playbook.You got it! Corzine stole GOP ideas and is now shopping them around as his own.Call it stealing, call it plagiarism, call knowing a good idea when he sees one, but don’t forget to call it exactly what it is -- and that’s downright dishonest.

Republican lawmakers Rick Merkt and Michael Patrick Carroll already have a bill introduced to create a new elected office of state comptroller. If Corzine is sincere about wanting to see that post created he needs to get Assembly Speaker Albio Sires and Assembly Majority Leader Joe Roberts off their collective duffs and tell them to post the bill for a vote.

By the way, Jon, If you can’t find the bill on that long list of "ideas," reference it as ACR 55.And as for that pay-to-play ban you say you want to see in place, well, same thing applies here. There are already bills introduced in the Legislature to get the dirty deed banned, but they’re collecting dust over in the Democrats’ Twilight Zone.

Bill Baroni, Kevin O’Toole and Tom Kean, Jr. all have bills pending that will stop pay-to-play dead in its tracks. But good old boys Sires and Roberts keep moving the bills to the bottom of the pile.You want to be the Democrats’ leader in New Jersey? Well, get those guys in line first, everything else will fall into place.

So Jon, it’s nice to see you’re finally playing the ethics reform card.But I’m sorry to inform you that you’re a little late in the game. Eight million dollars in donations from you and Mommy over the last five years does buy you a bye. If you want to be governor, you’ll have to come up with a sharper game plan.In the meantime, the Republicans are waiting to see their bills passed. All you have to do is make the call.