NJ Governor resigning right now

[MRT144]

Originally posted by Winston


He must've forgotten that in 2004, we're not allowed to make jokes about gays under any circumstances.

Either that, or you have something stuck up an intimate place of yours.

Maybe a bit of both.

1. calling democrats perverts because of this. totally off base and wrong

2. cant imagine how he slept with a dude? is he stupid or ignorant to not realize he is gay? by definition a gay man likes other men not women. or is he just playing stupid?

finally winston, go **** yourself.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by The diplomat
Just goes to show that Democrats are perverts!

Not like the pure-as-the-driven-snow Republicans.

Like for instance...

1) Republican Mayor Philip Giordano will serve a 37 year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.

http://www.nbc30.com/news/2268479/detail.htmlDtopstorie...

(2) Republican Congressman, Donald "Buz" Lukens, was found guilty of having sex with a minor and sentenced to one month in jail.

http://www.time.com/time/archive/pre...m_redirect/... ,00.html

(3) Republican fundraiser, Richard A. Delgaudio, found guilty of child porn charges.

http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/2153721/detail.html

(4) Republican activist, Mark A. Grethen, convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/weird/index.asp?now=3400

(5) Republican activist, Randal David Ankeney, arrested for assaulting a 14-year-old girl he had met in an Internet chat room.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/1130885/detail.htm...

(6) Republican Congressman, Dan Crane, had sex with a minor working as a congressional page.

http://archive.salon.com/col/cona/1998/10/05cona.html

(7) Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader, Beverly Russell, admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter.

http://wlo.org/nw/nww5.html

(8) Republican anti-abortion activist, John Allen Burt, was charged with sexual misconduct involving a 15 year old girl.

http://www.brojed.org/wwwboard/messages/14076.html

(9) Arnold Schwarzenegger had sex with a 16 year old when he was 28.

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/stories/feature.cfm?ins...

(10) Republican congressman, Robert Bauman, was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar. United Press International, Oct. 24,1980

http://www.glinn.com/news/h122989a.htm

(11) Republican activist, Marty Glickman (a.k.a. "Republican Marty"), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with a juvenile and one count of the delivery of LSD.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/01/top10_200...

(12) Howard L. Brooks, a Republican staffer for a California assemblyman, was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.

http://www.sacbee.com/static/live/news/calreport/N2001-...

(13) Republican Senate candidate, John Hathaway, was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.

http://www.cascobayweekly.com/cbw/news/al01.31.02.stm

(14) Republican preacher, Stephen White, was arrested after allegedly offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy in West Chester, Pa. for permission to perform oral sex on him.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=23709

[Boris Godunov]

McGreevey being gay was the worst-kept secret in NJ politics. One of my best friend's boyfriends is in NJ politics, and they've all known for years. McGreevey's wife already knew well before this, actually.

He's not resigning because he's gay, he's resigning because the guy he had the affair with was trying to blackmail him, and now denied that avenue is seeking to sue for sexual harrassment. It's a BS accusation, but it's enough trouble to make McGreevey's ability to do the job greatly diminished. Not as if he needs any other knocks to his administration.

Of course, he also probably would like to sort out his new situation and adjust his life accordingly. Hard to do that while fulfilling his role as governor at the same time.

Anyway, I think he did the right thing and was pretty brave to do it. I just hope his family can cope alright with everything.

And diplomat, you can just go and do to yourself what McGreevey was doing to Cipel. You can look to the "perverts" in your own party here: www.logcabin.org

[ajbera]

I was just about to post the link to the Log Cabin Republicans in response to Diss claiming there are no gay republicans, as well as www.andrewsullivan.com.

[Boris Godunov]

Yeah, but Sullivan is a pervert. Or at least a sleazebag.

[I Am Jeff]

He is not resigning because of his affair, the President has done that w/o resigning. Many of McGreevy's top officials are corrupt, his whole administration has been corrupt. And him paying that guy off to keep his secret about being gay was only the straw that broke the camels back. In the next few weeks (even days?), I think we will find out about rampant corruption throughout the administration.

There has been a lot of talk of replacing him for the 2005 election Democrat ticket (biggest rummors are with Senator Corzine). As a NJ resident, it comes as no surprise that he was going either going to resign or not seek re-election. His administration has just been going downhill for the past couple of years. However ending like this is a surprise.

[dudemanjack]

I hope this means no more McGreevy easypass radio commercials.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I think we will find out about rampant corruption throughout the administration.

I agree. The FBI has been over this administration like ants over honey. There is a reason his nickname is McSleezy and if he didn't resign for this, he may have had to leave when he faced corruption charges.

[The Mad Monk]

Another blast from the past, this time courtesy of the Asbury Park Press (a local NJ paper):

Ex-McGreevey aide's credentials exaggerated



Published in the Asbury Park Press 12/22/02
The Israeli national's expertise was in public relations.
By SANDY MC CLURE
GANNETT STATE BUREAU
TRENTON -- Despite his statements to the contrary, Gov. McGreevey, from the beginning, intended to make his now-departed Israeli adviser and friend, whose expertise was public relations, the state's point man on terrorism, documents obtained last week under the federal Freedom of Information Act show.

Using the terrorism attacks of Sept. 11 to justify the hiring, the governor's chief lawyer wrote a letter to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service on McGreevey's inauguration day, telling the federal agency that New Jersey wanted Cipel to coordinate increased security with all branches of government and that Cipel had the necessary "substantial experience" in public security.

The letter was part of a petition by the state for a specialty work visa that had to show Cipel was qualified for what he was being hired to do.

Israeli military expert and journalist Yossi Melman said the letter "more than exaggerates" Cipel's experience and capabilities in the Israeli Defense Force.

"The state of New Jersey's application (to the immigration service) in particular struck me as full of chutzpah," Melman said. "It is rather surprising that the governor went out of his way by using the pretext that his Israeli friend is a terrorist expert in order to accommodate him. I find it especially troubling to use the horrible events of 9/11 as a justification for the nomination of Golan Cipel to a highly important security position which he was not qualified for."

Asked whether the public was misled about the role Cipel was slated to play in New Jersey's security, McGreevey spokesman Kevin Davitt said, "Not to my knowledge."

"This is what we believed his (Cipel's) responsibilities were to be at that time," Davitt said of the letter. "As the administration moved forward, there was a determination made that we needed someone with better experience."

Davitt said that the INS was not misled about Cipel's qualifications.

As for whether Cipel was qualified for the security post, Davitt said, "I think it was found there were probably others more suited to do that job."

Cipel did not respond to requests for comment.

When Cipel quit last August after a Gannett New Jersey report on the exaggeration of his security credentials, the governor blamed the exaggeration on a poorly worded biography issued by McGreevey's office.

But the governor's chief counsel, Paul Levinsohn, who served as McGreevey's campaign finance chairman and is a longtime confidant of the governor, was detailed when he wrote to the federal immigration service and described how Cipel was qualified to be the governor's point man on security.

As McGreevey's special adviser on issues of homeland security and public safety, Cipel's duty would be disseminating and coordinating public safety programs with other state departments and branches of government, Levinsohn wrote.

Although early news accounts of the Israeli's hiring by the state of New Jersey pointed out that Cipel, who is not an American citizen, could not qualify for federal security clearance, that was ignored in the Levinsohn description of Cipel's duties.

The Levinsohn letter said Cipel would coordinate security issues between the governor's office and the New Jersey Domestic Security Preparedness Task Force, State Police, the New Jersey National Guard, the FBI and the Armed Forces.'Exaggerated'

Assemblyman Guy Gregg, R-Morris, said the Levinsohn letter was crafted to place Cipel in a job he was not qualified to do.

"Basically, they exaggerated at a level that most people would find much closer to a mistruth," he said. "It is almost admitted by this administration that he is not an expert in security. He doesn't have years and years experience in it. He wasn't going to be able to pass the simplest of four-way background checks to be a state trooper, let alone talk to one."

Gannett New Jersey obtained the Levinsohn letter last week from the U.S. Department of Justice through a federal Freedom of Information Act request filed last summer with the immigration service. The requests traditionally take months for a response.

Levinsohn has been the subject of his own recent controversy over the money he earned, just before McGreevey took office, from a billboard company whose proce-dures in obtaining a lucrative bill-board deal in South Jersey have been questioned. The FBI is in-vestigating that deal.

In the U.S. Department of Labor application, dated Jan. 9, before McGreevey took office, Levin-sohn listed his title as assistant attorney general, a courtesy title the administration said he was given, and sworn-in to, during the transition period. Cipel's potential employer is listed as the state Department of Law and Public Safety.

Davitt said the letter could not be found in state files, but Levinsohn had a copy at his home.

To hire Cipel for the homeland security and public safety post, the state needed to show that Cipel had a bachelor's degree in an area related to security or collegiate-level expertise in the field, according to U.S Labor De-partment expert Stephen Stefan-ko.

In the state's application on Ci-pel's behalf for his H-1B work visa for a specialty occupation, Levinsohn said Cipel had the nec-essary background in the areas of security and anti-terrorism initia-tives.

From 1995 to 1999, while earn-ing his bachelor's and master's degrees in communications from the New York Institute of Tech-nology, Cipel worked for the Con-sulate General of Israel in New York, where he had the title of chief information officer.

In his letter, Levinsohn described Cipel's work at the consul:

"In particular, his experience as chief information officer, consul-ate general of Israel, involved re-sponsibility for developing and maintaining the country's terror-ism portfolio, keeping govern-ment authorities abreast of ter-rorist activities and threats, maintaining a database of such activities and coordinating that in-formation with data obtained from other agencies."

But former Consul Collett Avital, a member of the Israeli parlia-ment and the official in charge of the consulate while Cipel worked there, told Gannett, "He (Cipel) was not involved in anything re-lated to terrorism."

The Levinsohn letter also stated that "as a naval officer in the Israel Defense Force, Mr. Cipel functioned as a special operations officer and was appointed as me-dia adviser, disseminating data on military operations and anti-ter-rorism measures to the media while insuring that sensitive infor-mation was not disclosed. As such, he is well-qualified in the areas of information gathering, dissemination and sharing with other agencies."

Cipel served for five years in the Israel Defense Force with a Navy patrol boat unit before serving a 10-year stint in the reserves at the Homeland Command, where he reached the rank of lieutenant.

Melman likened Cipel's military service to serving five years in the U.S. Navy followed by 10 years in the National Guard Re-serves. Service in the Homeland Command is noncombatant duty known in Israel as an easy, com-fortable place to do military ser-vice, Melman said.

Levinsohn told the INS that Cipel would be paid $80,000. As one of McGreevey's highest advisers, his salary was $110,000.

When Cipel's appointment first came under fire early this year, McGreevey said Cipel was never intended to be the state's official terrorism leader, only a personal adviser on the issue.

His security role from the begin-ning, McGreevey said in August, was to do an exhaustive evalua-tion of published best practices on the subject.

In the August interview, McGreevey argued that Cipel had been hired in the role of adviser to the governor on numerous is-sues and that his first assignment was security.

McGreevey initially responded to the criticism concerning Cipel by taking him off the security issue and moving him to a general ad-viser.

INS records show that the state applied in March to change Ci-pel's specialty designation from special consul to the governor on security issues to policy adviser. The March letter, authored by Levinsohn, does not mention se-curity issues or Cipel's security qualifications.

After Cipel resigned in August, McGreevey recommended him for a job at the politically connect-ed public relations firm of MWW Group in East Rutherford. An of-ficial there said Cipel only stayed a month because the company and Cipel did not agree on the amount of time he was expected to spend in the office.

With another recommendation from McGreevey, Cipel has been hired at State Street Partners, a small Trenton lobbying firm whose partners include McGreev-ey's best friend, Rahway Mayor James Kennedy.

McGreevey has described Cipel as a very good friend whose ad-vice he still seeks and who still does outreach for the governor to the Jewish community.

Before joining the McGreevey ad-ministration, Cipel was part-time director of Jewish outreach for the Democratic State Committee during McGreevey's election campaign at a salary listed on the INS application at $30,000 a year. He also was a part-time public relations associate for McGreevey's top campaign con-tributor, at an additional $30,000 a year, INS records show.

The contributor, Charles Kush-ner, has since been appointed to the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

McGreevey said he met Cipel during a 2000 trip to Israel, where Cipel served as spokesman for the city of Rishon Le Zion.

Kushner's firm filed the first INS application for Cipel in the fall of 2000, and he re-entered the Unit-ed States in February 2001, ac-cording to INS records.

Lawyers for Kushner's firm and the Democratic State Committee also filed letters with INS applica-tions for his work visas, but the letters made no mention of his security qualifications.

http://www.app.com/app2001/story/0,21133,656898,00.html

[The Mad Monk]

McGreevy's resignation speech:

Text of McGreevey's resignation announcement


Published in the Home News Tribune 8/13/04
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Text of New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey's announcement of his resignation, as transcribed by e-Media Inc.:

Good afternoon.

Throughout my life, I have grappled with my own identity, who I am. As a young child, I often felt ambivalent about myself, in fact, confused.

By virtue of my traditions, and my community, I worked hard to ensure that I was accepted as part of the traditional family of America. I married my first wife, Kari, out of respect and love. And together, we have a wonderful, extraordinary daughter. Kari then chose to return to British Columbia.

I then had the blessing of marrying Dina, whose love and joy for life has been an incredible source of strength for me. And together, we have the most beautiful daughter.

Yet, from my early days in school, until the present day, I acknowledged some feelings, a certain sense that separated me from others. But because of my resolve, and also thinking that I was doing the right thing, I forced what I thought was an acceptable reality onto myself, a reality which is layered and layered with all the, quote, good things, and all the, quote, right things of typical adolescent and adult behavior.

Yet, at my most reflective, maybe even spiritual level, there were points in my life when I began to question what an acceptable reality really meant for me. Were there realities from which I was running?

Which master was I trying to serve?

I do not believe that God tortures any person simply for its own sake. I believe that God enables all things to work for the greater good. And this, the 47th year of my life, is arguably too late to have this discussion. But it is here, and it is now.

At a point in every person's life, one has to look deeply into the mirror of one's soul and decide one's unique truth in the world, not as we may want to see it or hope to see it, but as it is.

And so my truth is that I am a gay American. And I am blessed to live in the greatest nation with the tradition of civil liberties, the greatest tradition of civil liberties in the world, in a country which provides so much to its people.

Yet because of the pain and suffering and anguish that I have caused to my beloved family, my parents, my wife, my friends, I would almost rather have this moment pass.

For this is an intensely personal decision, and not one typically for the public domain. Yet, it cannot and should not pass.

I am also here today because, shamefully, I engaged in adult consensual affair with another man, which violates my bonds of matrimony. It was wrong. It was foolish. It was inexcusable.

And for this, I ask the forgiveness and the grace of my wife.

She has been extraordinary throughout this ordeal, and I am blessed by virtue of her love and strength.

I realize the fact of this affair and my own sexuality if kept secret leaves me, and most importantly the governor's office, vulnerable to rumors, false allegations and threats of disclosure.

So I am removing these threats by telling you directly about my sexuality.

Let me be clear, I accept total and full responsibility for my actions. However, I'm required to do now, to do what is right to correct the consequences of my actions and to be truthful to my loved ones, to my friends and my family and also to myself.

It makes little difference that as governor I am gay. In fact, having the ability to truthfully set forth my identity might have enabled me to be more forthright in fulfilling and discharging my constitutional obligations.

Given the circumstances surrounding the affair and its likely impact upon my family and my ability to govern, I have decided the right course of action is to resign.

To facilitate a responsible transition, my resignation will be effective on November 15th of this year.

I'm very proud of the things we have accomplished during my administration. And I want to thank humbly the citizens of the state of New Jersey for the privilege to govern.

Thank you.

http://www.app.com/app/story/0,21625,1025388,00.html

[The Mad Monk]

Note that, if he were to resign before September 2, New Jersey would be required by law to have a gubernatorial election this coming election day. The most popular likely candidate at this time is his previous challenger, Republican Bret Schundler.

By waiting until well into November, he is able to designate his successor, until November 2005.

There will be a battle.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs


Not like the pure-as-the-driven-snow Republicans.

Like for instance...

I followed 3 of your links. Two were broken, and one contained no mention of the apparantly mentally ill suspect's political affiliation.

I didn't bother looking to see if the National Inquirer link was broken or not.

[GhengisFarb™]

Just goes to show that Democrats are perverts!

responded to :

Originally posted by mrmitchell
In other words, Diplomat thinks all gays are perverts?

So mrmitchell says all Democrats are gay.

Wow, call me oblivious but I guess IT WAS right out in the open this whole time.

[The diplomat]

Originally posted by mrmitchell
In other words, Diplomat thinks all gays are perverts?

I was talking about the affair.

[Last Conformist]

(14) Republican preacher, Stephen White, was arrested after allegedly offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy in West Chester, Pa. for permission to perform oral sex on him.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=23709

He offered money for giving a blowjob?