- The governor's skeletons

My favorite politician was ex governor of Louisiana Edwin Edwards. When asked by a local newsman if he was afraid that the investigation he was the subject of would expose a few of the skeletons in his closet, he allegedly said “Now you listen here boy… I ain’t got no skeletons in my closet… they all out there running around on the front lawn.” Now THAT is style. But the thing that makes him my all time favorite politician wasn’t his way with words, but the fact that he’s currently serving time in a federal prison in Oakdale Louisiana, like most politicians probably should.

They have a saying in Louisiana, “When it comes to political corruption, thank god for New Jersey.” And one of our recent governors has reminded the good people of Avoyelles Parish that their native son has some competition. When it comes to colorful, it’s hard to beat that bastion of good taste and careful judgment, the king of the highway rest stops, Jim McGreevey. His skeletons weren’t in the closet either, but it turned out that he was. In a move that was reminiscent of the scene in Blazing Saddles where the black sheriff, Cleavon Little, saves himself from the townspeople by putting a gun to his own head and taking himself hostage, McGreevey allegedly avoided indictment for corruption by very publicly resigning his office for being “A Gay American”.

Since then though, after a few months where interim governor “what’s his name” held the office, the people of New Jersey elected ex Senator Jon Corzine to the job. Corzine was once head of the Byzantine financial powerhouse Goldman Sachs, and was elected as a Democrat to the US senate after he left the private sector. There were some allegations that his team at Goldman used data stolen from a laptop to worsen the “long Term Capital” financial crisis where the Fed was forced to step in to keep the US monetary system from unraveling, but as CEO he was never directly implicated and nothing was ever proven.

In his two elections, one for the Senate and one for Governor, he is reported to have spent over 100 million dollars of his own money, and has elected to take only a token salary of $1 during his term as Governor. Whatever his current sins, I think we can be confident that he’s not in it for the money. He doesn’t seem to think he should be subject to the same laws as the peasants, but to be fair, I can’t think of a New Jersey politician who does, so he’s hardly exceptional on that front.

In fact, I have no great issues with him at least as far as his character is concerned. Even in 2006 when he had the government of the state shut down (alas only temporarily) he was arguing with the legislature to get an increase in the state sales tax. As wrongheaded as I think any tax increase is, the disagreement with the legislature was because the political machines didn’t like the idea of doing something so transparent to the taxpayers. Instead of a relatively straightforward sales tax increase that could be attached to their names, they were instead proposing a more convoluted and obfuscated set of increases that would be harder to track. Eventually, Corzine got his way.

While I do generally think that Corzine is doing a pretty good job so far by New Jersey standards, he’s hardly sin free. For instance, the Democratic Party in New Jersey has traditionally been the bought property of the labor unions, while the Republican party is owned by the real estate developers association. Corzine took that traditional Democratic relationship to a new level by literally “getting in bed” with CWU local head Carla Katz, whose union represents nearly half of the states employees. They were both unmarried at the time, they are of opposite genders, and there are no videos being shown on the Internet, so the relationship itself was hardly cause for scandal. But there have been some large cash gifts and no interest loans of a “personal nature” which have come under some scrutiny. And in the meantime the seediest Republicans in the legislature have been trying to get their hot little hands on his personal emails with ms Katz, which will no doubt make for entertaining reading.

There was also Corzine’s famous traffic “scoff law” incident where a high-speed traffic accident hospitalized him and put his life in some jeopardy because he wasn’t wearing a seat belt. But overall, I’ve got to admit these issues are small potatoes by New Jersey standards. There are no dead girls under the beds of the governor’s mansion; no suitcases of cash being delivered in the middle of the night, or bags of coke under the seat of the limo. In the state house offices these days, there are no hookers, hustlers or thieves… well none we didn’t vote for anyway, and Paulie Walnuts is nowhere to be found. I’m a little surprised at myself to be saying this, but my biggest issues with Corzine are not personal. My problems with him are more philosophical.

For instance, Corzine claims to be an adamant supporter of gun control, which makes it clear to me how he feels about the peasantry, but at least he has yet to take up the issue legislatively. This could either mean that he’s got other fish to fry, or that he’s simply paying it lip service to the Democratic faithful, who knows. He’s also claims to believe firmly in favor of using racial preferences as a basis for legislation, but the ACLU has only given him a 60% approval rating making him roughly 40% OK by me. On the other hand, he’s also said that he supports performance pay for teachers, and allowing school prayer, even though New Jersey’s most powerful union (and therefore his boss) the NJEA has made it perfectly clear that they will fight to the death (and burn the state capital to the ground) to prevent both.

In short, when it comes to his actual positions, Corzine is really a mixed bag. He knows too much about economics to be a classic big government socialist, but the only way he was going to get elected to anything in New Jersey was if he convinced the political machines that he would not rock their boat too much. That means he needs to at least offer tacit support for some of their plans to be “in charge of everything”. But so far, there is simply no way to separate what he actually believes from what he plans to legislate minimally as a matter of political pragmatism. Some things he wants to do, and some things he has to do… you just can’t tell which is which.

If you look at him fairly, I think he seems to be a Democrat who has abandoned the most suicidal positions of the party’s far left. I disagree with almost everything he says he believes, but he strikes me as the kind of guy I could actually have a discussion with about it. He’s not delusional or too condescending like most Democrats, and I don’t think he’s just trying to be famous. And in that respect, I think he might be a sort of throwback to a more responsible time in our history when politicians worried about being leaders of men and not “getting seated at a table close to Paris Hilton.” I think he’s wrongheaded, but at least he’s seriously wrongheaded. He’s not just looking at his role as governor as a great way to get girls.

I don’t think he’s going to be as colorful and entertaining as McGreevey or Edwards. There won’t be any rhyming invitations for federal prosecutors to kiss his behind, or any boys in high profile state jobs doing the kissing. But I think New Jersey could use a little responsible boredom, even if it’s misguided as to policy. And if we admit to ourselves that all we can manage right now is to elect candidates who are not obvious thieves, philanderers, and liars or worse, then I think it’s a small step in the right direction. Corzine may not be entertaining, and he may yet turn out to be wrong about virtually everything, but at least his skeletons are back in the closet where they belong.