LEGACY OF SLEAZE
NEW YORK POST
Editorial
September 21, 2006
How appropriate that disgraced former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey's luridly salacious "tales from my bedroom" confessional hit bookstores even as revelations of yet more Democratic corruption roiled the Garden State.
First came news that political powerhouse John Lynch - McGreevey's mentor and a Democratic kingpin for decades - admitted to committing fraud and tax evasion (linked to a Raritan River land project) while he was serving in the state Senate. He faces up to 41 months in prison.
Then came a former federal prosecutor's report stating that another powerful Democratic legislator, State Sen. Wayne Bryant, got paid $35,000 a year for a no-show job by the scandal-scarred University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. At the same time, Bryant was helping the school get millions in state dollars.
The report said that Bryant essentially was paid "to lobby himself in his capacity as state senator."
Jim McGreevey's legacy lives on.
Of course, you won't read much in the self-proclaimed "gay American's" tome about the scandals that sent several of his closest aides and advisors to prison. When it comes to the sordidness surrounding his administration, McGreevey either makes excuses or pleads amnesia.
"I had my people strike back-room deals I kept myself in the dark about or forced from my mind if I learned too much," he claims, adding: "Obviously, this is one root of my memory problems."
It's a highly dubious claim - especially coming from someone who now admits that his entire life has been a tissue of lies.
Instead, McGreevey tries to hype book sales by offering the public - in print and on "Oprah" - a litany of intimate sexual details that seem instead to have listeners and readers recoiling in embarrassment and shrieking, "too much information."
That may well include Sen. Bob Menendez, the Democratic candidate in November's election with ethics problems of his own, who gets a number of friendly mentions in the book - and probably won't appreciate the voters being reminded about how politically close he and McGreevey used to be.
Since his resignation as governor, McGreevey has found himself a new romantic partner; together they've bought a lavish $1.3 million love nest. Meanwhile, the ex-governor seems to be trying to rehabilitate his image in hopes of a political comeback.
New Jerseyans will be paying for Jim McGreevey's sordid political legacy for years to come. If he really wants to do the public a favor, he should just shut up and leave decent people alone.
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