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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: paret who wrote (710498)	11/2/2005 2:32:28 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 769670

Over all, he has a reputation for making fearless and sometimes ill-considered moves. Some have said that one of those moves was deciding to leave the Senate and run for governor after forgiving a $470,000 mortgage loan he had made to the head of the state's most powerful union, a woman with whom he was once romantically involved. That has led even fellow Democrats to question Mr. Corzine's judgment. An Ex-Wife's Criticism His ex-wife, Joanne Corzine, had resisted talking about him, though she issued a statement after their divorce became final in 2003, saying that politics had had a noxious effect on their lives. But last week she said in an interview that she believed that Mr. Corzine showed poor judgment early in his political career in making endorsement deals with controversial Democratic leaders like George E. Norcross III of Camden County and Stephen N. Adubato Sr. of Newark, and several politically influential black ministers - transactions that Republicans have used to question his independence and integrity. "All day, people around him were telling him to do whatever he wants to do to get ahead, things that the Jon I've known since we were in high school would have never been comfortable with," she said. "And I think it's made him lose sight of anything but success, getting to where he wanted to get." Carla Katz, the union leader to whom Mr. Corzine gave the mortgage when they were dating two years ago, said that she admired his tenacity and commitment to those in need but that for all of his experience in business and politics, he underestimates the complexities of New Jersey's governor's office, which is widely considered the most powerful in the nation. "Even though he believes that being a governor is stylistically more like being a C.E.O. than being senator is, it's not," said Ms. Katz, a labor lobbyist in Trenton for 20 years. "As a C.E.O., you can wield your authority in a direct way. But as a governor, you can't. You have to get a bill to your desk. So you have to move very carefully."

To: paret who wrote (710498)	11/2/2005 2:35:18 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

In 1999, when he entered politics, rank-and-file Democrats were amused to have a Wall Street mogul preaching the kind of sweeping populist programs that the party had long abandoned: universal health care, preschool and long-term care. The timing of his rapid entry into politics - just six weeks after his ouster at Goldman - led many to view him as a dilettante willing to spend a sizable chunk of his $400 million fortune as a face-saving way to reinvent himself. And spend he did. $63 Million of His Own Money Mr. Corzine poured $63 million of his own money into the race, and then doled out millions more to party leaders and interest groups. When he arrived in Washington with his wife, they picked out a Georgetown town house and bought it - contents and all - for $4.7 million in cash. But within a year, he had left his wife and the stately New Jersey house in Summit where they had raised their three children. He moved to a Hoboken apartment building that was also home to the Giants quarterbacks Eli Manning and Jesse Palmer, who also starred in the reality series "The Bachelor." Mr. Corzine replaced his grueling schedule of Wall Street executive with the self-imposed drudgery of fund-raising for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. He also began a public romance with Ms. Katz, the president of Communications Workers of America Local 1034, a public employees' union representing thousands of state workers. His ex-wife said that she noticed a change in her husband soon after he decided to run, in 1999, for the Senate. She said she had been taken aback by the blatant way party leaders bartered their endorsements in return for campaign contributions, and thought that her husband would be, too. But he brushed aside her concerns, calling them naïve, she said. As his campaign and political goals became more consuming, Mr. Corzine distanced himself from friends and family, finally ending the 33-year marriage and leaving his old life behind, she said. "When I saw the campaign ad where Andrea Forrester said, 'Doug never let his family down and he won't let New Jersey down,' all I could think was that Jon did let his family down, and he'll probably let New Jersey down, too," Ms. Corzine said.

To: paret who wrote (710498)	11/2/2005 2:36:46 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 769670

In the Senate, Mr. Corzine chafed at his status as a freshman in the minority party. He helped shape the corporate ethics bills, pushed for more relief for 9/11 victims and pressed for an international response to the ethnic violence in Sudan. As the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2004, he helped raise $85 million and recruited several promising candidates, including Barack Obama of Illinois. But the electoral map was tilted toward Republicans, and when the votes were counted, Democrats lost four Senate seats. "The next time I volunteer for something like that, I should make sure it's not in a year when we have five Democratic senators retiring in the South," he said, laughing. Many people who have worked closely with Mr. Corzine in Washington describe him as charming and engaging, though unassuming. His many admirers from Goldman Sachs see his low-key personality as the secret of his success, a Trojan horse that conceals his drive and incisiveness.

To: paret who wrote (710498)	11/2/2005 2:39:57 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 769670

Yet Mr. Corzine's tendency to overreach proved his undoing. He lobbied for years to take Goldman public, and ultimately succeeded by arranging a vote that allowed junior partners to overrule the management committee's reluctance. When the company finally issued its initial public offering in May 1999, it made multimillionaires of hundreds of employees. But by then, Mr. Corzine's push for both the I.P.O. and the Long-Term Capital bailout had sealed his fate with the Goldman executive committee. "In some ways," said Daniel M. Neidich, who retired as a senior executive at Goldman in 2003, "he was successful probably in spite of not being political." Mr. Corzine said his painful departure from Goldman taught him the importance of tending to political relationships, and choosing his fights more carefully. "If you're going to upset the status quo, you have to only do one or maybe two things at a time, instead of three or four," he said. If he is elected, Mr. Corzine said, he will wage all-out battles for issues like property tax relief, a stricter ethics law and a more equitable formula for funding education, but defer on the minor matters.. But to do so, he must be elected. Early this year, polls showed that he was the most popular politician in the state. Then, in August, published reports revealed his $470,000 gift to Ms. Katz, unnerving Democrats and giving Republicans campaign fodder. Mr. Corzine explained during a series of testy news conferences that his relationship with Ms. Katz had ended and would not affect his policy decisions. But in a state where the previous governor, James E. McGreevey, resigned amid a sex scandal, the incident has set off speculation about his personal life. Mr. Corzine said that voters can rest assured that nothing will emerge to affect his ability to serve as governor. "My private life won't impinge on any public duties," he said. The candidate also said that he would not surrender his principles and, if the struggles in Trenton were to leave him too weak to seek a second term as governor, he would accept the consequences. "I wouldn't be happy, but I've already shown that I can move on and find ways to get on with my life," he said. "There are some issues that are more important than any one person's career. And if you're not willing to take a risk, then you shouldn't walk onto the field in the first place." nytimes.com