SEPTEMBER ARCHIVES

Tues., Sept. 29, 1998  KASICH IN NEW JERSEY

Sun., Sept. 27, 1998    BOB GOES BIG TIME: Prunetti hires celeb pollster

Friday., Sept. 25, 1998   I Love Ken Starr

Thurs., Sept. 24, 1998 Parsons onset has some employees irked

Tuesday Sept. 22, 1998 Whitman: Bill Must Go

Monday Sept. 21, 1998 Miss America Has to Go

Sun., Sept. 20, 1998 JERSEY SAYS NO TO CANNING PRESIDENT: Poll gives thumbs up to president

Sun., Sept. 20, 1998 Jersey pol rips party's elder statesmen

September 18, 1998 Digging Republican Dirt Misses the Point

Fri., Sept. 18, 1998 Jersey gov'tgoingfull tilt

Thurs., Sept. 17, 1998 Move over Hollywood

Tues., Sept. 15, 1998 BILL'S THE MEDIA'S FRANKENSTEIN

September 13, 1998   All the President's (New Jersey) Men

September 13, 1998 What Happens to the County if They Don't Impeach Clinton?

September 12, 1998 Clinton's True Feelings Leak Out

September 11, 1998 Christie's Property Tax Commission is Doomed to Fail

September 9, 1998 Clinton Has a Friend in North Jersey

September 8, 1998 News Analysis:   Torricelli Turning on Clinton

Tues., Sept. 29, 1998

KASICH IN NEW JERSEY

On Saturday night, Gov. Whitman held the state's annual GOP gala at Newark Airport. Twenty-eight hundred people paid a thousand bucks to get in and applaud Whitman on her 52nd birthday. Afterward, they grumbled about the food.

But Sunday afternoon, at the VFW Hall in Manville, another big Republican show drew no complainers, even though they only served hot dogs.

Congressman Bob Franks was the emcee for the Manville Budget Balancing celebration, which he organized to celebrate the first time the federal budget will be balanced in 30 years.

Franks brought his "good buddy" House Budget Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, to rally the troops. Kasich is on everybody's long list as a possible candidate for president and Franks is on the short list of GOP types who are thinking about running for governor. They pulled out all the stops, including a color guard escort for Franks and a band.

It wasn't the congressmen's first visit to Manville, where, Kasich says, "America's heart is beating."

In 1995, Kasich and Franks held a public hearing in the blue-collar town, best known as the site of the old, toxic Johns Manville plant. Back then they said they wanted to listen to what citizens had to say about government spending. They got a earful. Almost 1,100 people showed up and they weren't all polite.

The Democrats were still running Congress in 1995 and the Republicans promised that if they were in charge, things would be different. The next year they threw the Democrats out of power and both Franks and Kasich wanted the Manville crowd to know that things have changed.

The GOP congressmen claimed credit for the balanced budget, cutting some taxes, requiring welfare recipients to work and saving Medicare.

Basically, their list is the same one Bill Clinton has been using lately when he explains what a good job he's doing and why he should get to stay in the White House. But that's not the funny part. What's hard to figure is that if Republicans (or Clinton) have made all these dramatic changes in the Washington tax scene, how come things seem to be basically the same for most everybody in the real world, at least when it comes to money.

Certainly there haven't been a lot of changes for the folks in Manville, who tend not to be the kind of folks who are making a killing in the stock market.

The loyal budget balancers in Manville admit that the Republicans in Congress aren't doing half of what they think needs to be done. They want both more cuts and more help, where they think it's really needed. But the folks at Sunday's rally, who were more Republican than the 1995 crowd, believe the GOP is more frugal than the Democrats. Their expectations are low. It's a kind of shoot for the moon, hit the barn door strategy.

Kasich is one of his party's leaders, but he didn't have much bad to say about the president. Like Franks, he repeatedly referred to the Washington sex scandal as a "distraction."

Kasich even took steps to push the crowd beyond condemnation of Clinton, saying the current problems facing the nation were an opportunity "to define what kind of country that we want to be."

"We're all disappointed in the president," Kasich said. "It's OK to expect a lot from our leaders. It's OK to expect a lot from ourselves."

He also said all the right things about the real world of common-sense Americans who know that you don't spend money you don't have. He said that kids need to be able to look to the parents and grandparents and heroes. He said we needed to recognize that our values come from our belief in God and that it is time to shift the power in Washington away from elite influence and back toward the people who really matter.

Except for the stuff about God, he said the same things that Clinton said before he was elected in 1992.

A couple of folks in the Manville crowd thought he'd make a good president.

Shoot for the moon, hit the barn door.

Starr Report

Sun., Sept. 27, 1998 BOB GOES BIG TIME: Prunetti hires celeb pollster BY SHERRY SYLVESTER Chief Political Writer Mercer County Executive Bob Prunetti doesn't always do what people expect, particularly when it comes to politics. So, when he recently hired Washington pollster Kellyanne Fitzpatrick, a high-profile numbers cruncher and national talking head, for his 1999 re-election race, lots of folks wondered if he had something bigger in mind. Could he be thinking of taking on Frank Lautenberg in 2000 or getting in the long line of Republicans running for governor? With the political landscape shifting all the time, ambitious politicians can't take anything for granted. But Prunetti says he decided to retain Fitzpatrick for his county executive race next year because she "brings a new perspective and approach to polling." "She has something different to offer," Prunetti said. "She's not your normal New Jersey pollster type." Prunetti said that he interviewed four potential pollsters before Fitzpatrick, but he was must impressed by her unique approach. "She is in tune with women voters and has good ideas about Generation X voters," Prunetti said. Prunetti said that Fitzpatrick, who is originally from New Jersey, is noted for zeroing in on which voters are most likely to turn out and what conditions affect whether or not people decide to go to the polls. Princeton Republican political consultant Larry Weitzner says that turnout could be the most critical factor in Prunetti's race next year. "Mercer County is more affected by state trends than other counties," Weitzner said. "In 1991, Bob benefited from the Florio backlash, but he survived an anti-Republican backlash in 1995. But Weitzner said that Prunetti is very popular and predicted that he will win next year unless there are some dramatic changes in the political environment. State GOP Chairman Chuck Haytaian agreed that Mercer County politics can be dicey for Republicans. "Mercer County has been tough for the last four years," Haytaian said. "Prunetti is probably looking at the loss of the freeholder board, and his race was close last time." But Haytaian didn't read anything into Prunetti's hiring of Fitzpatrick and doesn't see the move as a leap into statewide politics. "She's a regular Republican who is nationally recognized," Haytaian said. "But they all charge about the same." Democrat Jim McGreevey narrowly defeated Gov. Whitman in Mercer County last year and Clinton trounced Dole here in 1996, but Haytaian also predicted that Prunetti would be re-elected. Prunetti says that he knows his 1999 race will be tough and denied that his hiring of Fitzpatrick indicated that he has plans to run beyond 1999. "We don't want to get ahead of ourselves," Prunetti said. "It's always tough for Republicans here, but if we do our job, we'll win." Prunetti said he is encouraged by initial polls that found that 63 percent of voters know he is a Republican but 70 percent view him favorably. Fitzpatrick says Prunetti is "very impressive" and could go on to bigger things in politics. Prunetti doesn't deny that he's interested. "She's the type of political consultant who could certainly help us set the foundation for anything after 1999," Prunetti said.

Friday., Sept. 25, 1998

I Love Ken Starr

In the spirit of the president's videotape, I must make my own public confession. I have to
tell you that in the course of the Clinton Sex Scandal, I have come to love Kenneth Starr. Every
day I watch the news hoping to see his smiling face as he waves his good morning to the reporters
who are stationed outside his house.

I love the reassuring way he clutches his travel mug as he gets into his car. I fantasize that
he shares my belief that no matter how bad life gets, there's always morning coffee.
Since Starr is a married man, I must stress that my affection for him is not "inappropriate,"
as Bill Clinton would say.

But as a woman and a journalist who has been forced for weeks to listen to Democrats,
mostly men, insist that Clinton's shoddy sexual behavior and subsequent lies about it are no big
deal, I am reassured by Starr's commitment. He is proof that even in a world where Clinton can
get a 65 percent approval rating, not all men believe that it is acceptable to treat women cheaply.

Democrats defending Clinton send just the opposite message. Put bluntly, they are willing
to disregard issues of character and integrity as long as the federal grants keep flowing.
Hudson County Executive and Democratic National Committeeman Robert Janiszewski
said yesterday that while he doesn't "condone" Clinton's behavior, Starr's investigation is a
"partisan witch hunt." He's said repeatedly that Clinton's "personal life" is insignificant compared
to all the good things he's done for Hudson County.

Mercer County Democratic Chairman Alan Karcher, told me last week that Clinton's
perjury was not really a problem because it was in a civil case. Like Janiszewski, Karcher said we
should forget Clinton's behavior because of his policies.

"We live in the best of times. We've never been more secure," Karcher said. "Gas is 90
cents a gallon."

This display of party loyalty is particularly frightening because it shows that Clinton is
actually affecting the way these party men think. Just as Clinton doesn't really believe the scandal
is his fault, Karcher and Janiszewski have shifted the blame too.

Janiszewski calls Starr's report a "50 million peep show." show.

Karcher says the Starr Report was designed for "national titillation."

These Jersey Democrats, who are devoted public servants, have somehow been sucked
into the strange workings of Clinton's brain. How else could they conclude that the president's
personal decision to repeatedly unzip his pants in his taxpayer provided office and receive oral sex
from a taxpayer provided White House employee isn't his fault and should be of no concern to the
taxpayers. Neither is Clinton's decision to lie about it.

What's even weirder is that some obvious cerebral misfire has led them to believe, like
Clinton, that the whole thing is Ken Starr's fault.

Lots of people are showing other symptoms of the same Clinton brain suck, including
memory loss.

On his videotape, Clinton explained that just because his story was different from
Lewinsky's didn't mean one of them was lying. Clinton told the prosecutors that during the
Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill hearings, he believed they both were telling the truth. He said he
still thinks they were both being truthful and that fortunately, because there was no special
prosecutor involved, "Judge Thomas got to go onto the Supreme Court."

Clinton seems to have forgotten that during his now infamous MTV interview in 1991,
when he gave his underwear preference to the nation, he was asked whether he believed Thomas
of Hill.

"I believe Anita Hill," Clinton said.

Guess it depends on what you mean by the word "believe."

Lots of Democrats saw that interview too, but, like Clinton, they must have forgotten it.

Starr probably didn't see it. He's not the MTV type. He's just a straight-arrow kind of
guy who has suffered bitter personal attacks, including charges that he is a religious zealot, for
pointing out to the country that a man is only as good as his word.

He also has made the mistake of thinking that "most normal people" to use the president's
term, would hold women in high enough esteem that they would be shocked and outraged at the
president's treatment of Lewinsky.

Starr couldn't imagine that the Democrats would overlook the cheap treatment of women
and the message that sends to the public if it got in the way of something really important, say
new housing projects in Hudson County.

Women like me, who fear that the national approval of the president's behavior will make
lying about sex official public policy, can't help but find the slobbering support of all the
president's friends depressing.

On some days, Ken Starr is the only sign of hope that there are still men who believe that
personal standards and decency matter.

So there he goes off to his office each day, with his coffee mug and a smile, working on
the slim chance that the country's sense of decency may finally kick-in.

I love the guy.

Starr Report

Thurs., Sept. 24, 1998 Parsons onset has some employees irked By Sherry Sylvester Rumors are flying fast inside the Department of Transportation and tension among many employees is high. Hundreds of state employees received layoff notices on Monday as the first step in the transfer of state vehicle inspections to a private company, Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group. The same day, according to some DOT employees who insist on remaining anonymous, Joe Bubba, former state senator and newly appointed assistant commissioner of Customer Advocacy and Administration at the Department of Transportation, was not happy with the size of the office that was assigned to him. Bubba began his new job on Monday and efforts to re-configure his office space in order to make it larger, began almost immediately. Some workers holding pink slips thought this careful accommodation to a Whitman ally like Bubba was particularly cruel. Meanwhile, there is persistent gossip that DOT Commissioner John Haley has decided to leave. DOT spokesman Jim Berzok told The Trentonian yesterday that Haley has not resigned and that the office overhaul had been in the works since August. "We're making a new office for the new assistant commissioner," Berzok said. "We would have been doing it in any event since we re-organized some of the functions of the position." Bubba replaces Brian Scantlebury, former assistant commissioner of Finance and Administration, who resigned last month after charges that he misused a state vehicle. Berzok said that in addition to Scantlebury's assignments, Bubba will manage parts of the human relations department and customer service for DOT. Berzok said he did not know if Bubba had been interviewed for the assistant commissioner position. Bubba supported Gov. Whitman's pension bond deal last year and then lost his re-election election. He is the third lawmaker who supported the governor's pension financing plan who has been given a high paying state jobs after failing to return to the legislature. Former State Sen. Dick LaRossa, D-Mercer, was given an $89,500 job last year to be come executive director of the state capital Joint Management Commission. Former State Sen. John Scott became assistant to the Director of Private Carrier, a newly created position, at NJ Transit. His salary is $84,500. Bubba will be paid $89,500. This has not been an easy year for Commissioner Haley at DOT. First, the company the state had hired to develop its EZPASS program started looking financially shaky. Then, New Jersey's congressional delegation, decided to attack the High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes in North Jersey, charging that they were creating traffic jams and adding dirty air instead of getting rid of it. The politicians sent DOT back to the drawing board to come up with a study to show that their clean air plan didn't work. And last month, a routine signing of the contract with Parsons was delayed for weeks while the company was pummeled by the press for subcontracting with several high powered New Jersey Republicans. Bubba's spacious new office is at the DOT complex in Ewing.

Tuesday Sept. 22, 1998

Whitman: Bill Must Go

Gov. Christie Whitman called on Pres. Bill Clinton to resign yesterday saying it is "time to
end this seamy sideshow."

"Leadership depends on trust and the president's testimony has completely and
permanently undermined his ability to lead," Whitman said.

At a press conference in Mexico City, where she is heading up a New Jersey trade
mission, Whitman said she had reviewed parts of the videotapes that were broadcast
internationally and had concluded that "it is time for the president to put an end to this and resign."
Whitman said that she had tried to remain objective about the president's situation but that
Clinton has put the respect and prestige of his office in jeopardy.

"To watch the president under oath, split these hairs and try to evade the truth is
discouraging as a public official and as an American," Whitman said.

The governor stressed that the president's problems were his own fault, but said he is
causing all Americans to suffer. She that his "facile obfuscation of the truth...and his outright
denials have been crafted with the sole purpose to mislead."

Whitman's has been consistently unequivocal in her response to the president's admission
that he lied about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Immediately following Clinton's first national
apology on August 17, the governor issued a statement accusing him of "stonewalling" and
charged that he had left us with a presidency that is "both demeaned and demoralized."

Republican pollster and political strategist, Kellyanne Fitzpatrick told the Trentonian
yesterday that Whitman "was the perfect messenger" to tell Clinton that its time to resign.

"This comes as one chief executive to another," Fitzpatrick said, "Only another chief
executive would know that you can no longer lead effectively,"

Fitzpatrick said Whitman's call for resignation could carry some weight nationally because
she is "unique."

"She's a woman who is known as a political independent. She's not a conservative, GOP
party-line girl," Fitzpatrick said. "She even agreed with Clinton on the issue of partial birth
abortion."

Fitzpatrick said that recent polling data indicates that women in Whitman's age group are
withdrawing their support for the president.

"Our most recent polling data shows that 58 percent of baby boomer women, including
many who voted for him, are now embarrassed by the president's behavior and are breaking
away," Fitzpatrick said. "That's 10 percent higher than in other age groups."

Fitzpatrick said Whitman could also score some political points by calling for Clinton's
resignation.

"One might look at this as moving her from presidential wood chip to presidential timber,"
Fitzpatrick said. "Her unequivocal position on Clinton could help her to stand out among her
peers in the presidential race, many of whom are parsing their words carefully in an effort to avoid
a clear position."

Fitzpatrick said that Whitman may also gain some political currency with voters by
presenting the president with the dignified option, resignation, rather than dragging the country
through the long and tedious impeachment process.

Whitman made her statement yesterday immediately after meeting with Mexico's
President Ernesto Zedillo. Today she meets with Mexico's minister of finance and visits a
Pediatric AIDS clinic built by the New Jersey firm, Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Monday Sept. 21, 1998

Miss America Has to Go

"My mother is very, very special," said Miss Indiana.

"Identity comes from inside. I face each day with a smile," said Miss North Carolina.

"The turning point in my life was my junior year in high school when I decided not to be a
cheerleader," revealed Miss Missouri.

This year they added personal profiles to the Miss America pageant and all the contestants
sounded like Hallmark cards. They each brought video tape from their home towns and stressed
that their philosophy of life was to "just be myself."

Unfortunately, they stuck to their word.

Each candidate is now required to have a "platform" as if she were running for the state
legislature, and some actually had some ideas that could probably get them elected to something.
Miss Louisiana spoke for lots of women across the country when she said, "I would really
like to be Scotty Pippin's wife."

And Miss Kentucky hit the nail on the head when she said that if she were Hillary Clinton,
the front door would be locked and Bill Clinton's clothes would be out on the lawn.

It would be easy to label the 78th Annual Miss America Pageant as just another "Airheads
on Parade" except the whole ridiculous event is not the fault of the clueless young women who
were involved.

If the Atlantic City beauty pageant ever served a purpose, that time has long past. Today
the assembly line of toothy young beauties with skimpy resumes is embarrassingly irrelevant. Its
also an insult to all the twenty-something women out there with of genuine intellectual and
physical accomplishments who were noticeably absent from the field.

Feminists, who burned their bras in Atlantic City in the 1970's, have long tried to kill the
Miss America pageant on the grounds that it is sexist to glorify women's bodies over their brains.
But that part is not really sexist, at all. We glorify men's bodies over their brains all the
time. The last I heard, both Michael Jordan and Mark McGwire make lots more money than the
president.

Hyping physicality in men or women is not a bad thing. In a country where fully one-third
of the population is overweight, folks who work to keep their bodies in shape should feel fine
about showing them off.

But the Miss America pageant doesn't focus much on physical fitness. Instead, the women
have soft, 1950's kinds of bodies and seemed to be the kind of people who look good, but run
out of breath going up stairs.

One of the most embarrassing moments of the evening, outside of Miss Indiana's
horrifying tap dance to "You Ain't Nothing But a Hound Dog" was a segment in the final dance
routine focused on sports.

Contestants demonstrated their awkward and inept methods of batting, swinging a tennis
racquet and throwing a ball. Ms. Hawaii did a few on-camera push-ups and there may have been
some other athletes in the group. But there was no fitness or athletic competition. Most of these
women appeared to have trained for nothing but the swim suit competition.

At a time when jock bodies are in, their whimpy display leaves lots of modern women,
from Olympic hockey players to Richard Simmons acolytes, wondering the point to having a good
body if you can't do anything with it.

Besides, the beauty queen bodies seem pretty unremarkable if you watch women sports,
say the WNBA. There are lots of folks who now regularly watch the gorgeous Cheryl Swoops
fast break to the basket dodging hordes of defenders to get in position for a perfect goal. They've
also seen the magnificent Lisa Leslie remain poised enough to sink a three pointer when there's
two seconds on the shot clock. By comparison, being able to walk down a runway wearing only a
bathing suit and a big grin doesn't seem like much of a challenge.

The new Miss America, Nicole Johnson, said the pageant was "sooo relevant because we
have this platform that we need to communicate with people." She has diabetes and will no doubt
do a bang-up job the next year going around the country educating people about that disease.
But a television advertising campaign with the same amount of money they used to
produce the Miss America pageant would accomplish the same thing without all the horribly
hoopla.

One of my favorite quotes from the ex-senator and possible presidential candidate, Bill
Bradley, is that perhaps they should decide who should be the next president by choosing the guy
who can hit a jumpshot from the top of the key.

Maybe its time to pick Miss America the same way.

Starr Report

Sun., Sept. 20, 1998 JERSEY SAYS NO TO CANNING PRESIDENT: Poll gives thumbs up to president By Sherry Sylvester The latest statewide poll measuring opinion on the presidential sex scandal shows no strong support in New Jersey for impeachment or resignation. Poll Director Cliff Zukin said that the attitude of Garden Staters could be summed up by saying, "OK, so the president had a sexual relationship with an intern, lied about it and got caught. Impeach him? Are you people crazy? Get a life." New Jerseyans are going even easier on Clinton than the rest of the nation. Almost 75 percent are opposed to a resignation or impeachment, and more than 40 percent think Clinton deserves no disciplinary action at all, according to a poll released Friday by The Star-Ledger of Newark and the Eagleton Institute of Rutgers University. Sixty-three percent of New Jerseyans say the president is doing a good job. That's about the same percentage of folks who are satisfied with the performance of Gov. Whitman, and, oddly enough, with Congress. The majority of New Jerseyans seem to believe the presidential scandal is the fault of Independent Prosecutor Kenneth Starr and the media. While almost 75 percent of state residents believe the president lied, just more than half have a more negative attitude about the press since reading the Starr report. Forty-three percent have an even lower opinion of Starr now than they did before he released his report, and almost nobody has liked him for months. For the incredulous folks who believe presidential lying under oath is an open and shut case, the polls are impossible to understand. Looking for answers, Michael Barone, the senior editor at Reader's Digest, pointed out in The Wall Street Journal on Friday that from 1938 to 1941, large majorities of Americans believed we should not go to war with Germany or Japan. At the same time, most expressed the belief that the U.S. could not exist in a Nazi-dominated world. But when World War II was finally declared, it had almost unanimous support from the public, and Barone believes the ultimate impeachment or resignation of Clinton would likely rally folks around. Other observers insist that because the personal disapproval ratings for the president continue to climb, the strong bounce he receives from his positive job-approval ratings is shaky. Forty-three percent of New Jerseyans have a worse opinion of Clinton since they read the Starr report and more than half believe he is not really sorry for what he did. That's why many Democrats continue to worry, despite strong poll support, about what will happen to their candidates in November. According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll, those who believe Clinton should be ousted are much more motivated to vote than those Democrats who are standing by their man. Republican voters, particularly upper-middle-class professionals and conservatives, are always more likely to vote for the GOP in off-year elections. But presidential support is eroding among seniors, who usually lean Democratic. Even if only a small percentage of voters choose the GOP because of the president's performance, it could erase the slim margins Democrats need to hold their ground in Congress. Hudson County Executive Robert Janiszewski told the New Jersey Democratic county chairs last week that the state party has no reason to be worried about November because of strong support for the president and his agenda. He's right that Americans are looking to Democrats to handle health care, which they consider to be the number-one problem facing the nation. But a new statistic showed up in national polling data last week that could also spell trouble for Democrats. About the same percentage of people who listed health care as a national concern said that "moral values in the country" is the second biggest problem. Clinton's "moral scores" are laughably low. Seventy-three percent believe his "ethical and moral values" are "bad" and that he is a bad role model for children. These attitudes might get worse for the president once the videotape of Clinton's testimony before the grand jury is released tomorrow. Still, judging by the way the public has responded so far, it's just as likely that the polls will show that Starr or the media is to blame if the public doesn't like the president's taped performance. But Democrats who are betting that support for Clinton will hold should be concerned that the same NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that even though the public is mad at the press for its presentation of Clinton, they continue to trust the media. Almost 70 percent say the information they get from CNN and television network news is accurate, and half believe what they read in their local daily newspaper is on-target. More important, by a 2-to-1 margin, Americans believe that media criticism is more likely to prevent leaders from doing things that shouldn't be done than to keep them from doing the jobs properly. More than a hundred major newspapers, including The Trentonian and many of the nation's largest and most-read newspapers, have called for Clinton to resign. Democratic pollster Mark Mellman told the Associated Press recently that the only people who read newspaper editorials are "the people who write them and members of Congress." But it's Congress that will decide whether the president will be impeached. Ultimately, that vote will be the only poll that matters.

Starr Report

Sun., Sept. 20, 1998 Jersey pol rips party's elder statesmen By SHERRY SYLVESTER Chief Political Writer Mercer County Democratic Chairman Alan Karcher didn't support Bill Clinton in his first New Jersey primary. But lately he's become a do-or-die Clinton man, blasting his own party's elder statesmen for failing to uphold the party line. Following a statewide meeting of New Jersey Democratic county chairs last week, Karcher said that Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., "betrayed the Democratic Party" when they called Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky and his subsequent lying about it "immoral." "It was reprehensible," Karcher said. "Lieberman and Moynihan are not national arbitrators of anything. It makes me want to puke." Karcher said that he had "given 40 years of my life to the Democratic Party," and he understood that "if we don't hang together, we will hang separately." Karcher, an attorney and the former speaker of the New Jersey Assembly, said he is also outraged at the criticism being leveled at Clinton by Republicans and the press, noting that "there is not one person in the country who is in jail for perjury." He also criticized the Starr report for failing to include information about the lack of charges against the Clintons in Whitewater and the White House travel office incident. Karcher said what concerned him about Clinton's behavior is that it appears the president may have taken advantage of Lewinsky, a young woman who appears to be unstable. "It's horrendous if it's true," Karcher said, but he stressed that the Starr report was only one side of the story. Karcher's comments came in response to a speech by Hudson County Executive Robert Janiszewski, who has called the Starr report a "$40 million peep show." Janiszewski told the New Jersey Democratic leaders that "as Democrats, we cannot dwell on stained dresses, phone sex, Republican philanderers like Dan Burton or Henry Hyde or the right-wing conspiracy." Karcher said the president's critics have failed to "separate the sin from the sinner" and to focus on the fact that the economy is strong. "We live in the best of times," Karcher said. "We've never been more secure, and gas is 90 cents a gallon." Karcher said the defection of Lieberman, Moynihan and Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening, who is running for re-election and avoiding the president, was "unacceptable." "We must accentuate the positive," Karcher said. "This was a mistake. It has nothing to do with the issues."

September 18, 1998
Digging Republican Dirt Misses the Point

by Sherry Sylvester

That national debate about whether or not Bill Clinton should be impeached has become as divisive as anything we've experienced since the Viet Nam war. People on both sides feel very strongly and families and friends are divided.

Both Clinton supporters and the people who think he has to go are sure they have the moral high ground, so conversations about the presidential mess quickly descend into stand-offs. Most discussions on the issue end up with someone pounding on the table.

It is not a happy time.

One of the ugliest things that is happening is that Clinton supporters, who persist in believing that the charges against the president are the result of some kind of national prudishness, are digging up dirt on the past affairs of the president's Republican critics.

Rep. Dan Burton, R-Indiana, was forced to admit that he'd fathered an illegitimate child. Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, had an affair with a married man 14 years ago and Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Illinois, who will chair the impeachment hearings, had an affair in the 1960's.

This has caused Clinton's cheerleaders to scream "gotcha" and insist that no one has the right to cast stones against the president.

But actually the dirty laundry of the Republican congresspersons makes just the opposite point. Those who are calling for the president to quit are not holding him up to an unattainable or overly prissy kind of standard. He is not being called on the carpet for Gennifer Flowers or any of the "hundreds" of women he allegedly told Monica Lewinsky he'd had affairs with. All that is being asked of the president is the same kind of professional behavior that would be required of any company CEO or public administrator in almost any job in this country.

Voters will not likely remove Burton, Chenoweth and Hyde from their positions in Congress for what they have all admitted were bad personal decisions in their past. They're in the same position as the president whose reputation as a womanizer didn't disqualify him to run for higher office in 1992.

But Clinton's behavior with Lewinsky is something else. He lied, abused his power and committed conduct unbecoming to the commander-in-chief during the time that he served in office.

Though many people, including me, are extremely upset about the what Clinton's behavior demonstrates about his attitudes toward women, what is really being questioned here is whether or not we can have a president who, in addition to the lying and all the rest, repeatedly demonstrated such extremely poor judgement while on the job.

The free love crowd needs to recognize that the movement to oust Clinton is not the latest battle in the sexual revolution. In fact, until Clinton sent out his loyal crews to dig up sexual dirt on Republicans, the media has been mostly stand-offish when it comes to the private lives of politicians.

This summer I wrote a lengthy article for New Jersey Monthly magazine on how the demands of grueling political schedules has resulted in more divorced and single politicians in New Jersey.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg has been separated from his wife for over ten years. One of the reasons that marriage ended, according to Lautenberg, was the strain of Washington life on his family. Sen. Robert Torricelli also divorced his wife while he was in Congress. GOP rising star, Mike Pappas, R-Rocky Hill, is divorced as is the once and future Democratic candidate for governor, Jim McGreevey.

Lautenberg, who takes great care to protect his family from the limelight, has been seeing the same woman for a number of years. Nobody thinks that's a news story. Torricelli, who leads a much more flamboyant lifestyle is always on Washington's most eligible lists and, most notably, dated the controversial Bianca Jagger. Most reporters want to stay current on the senator's girlfriends, but its never made headlines. Pappas, who has been known to burst into song in the Capital, is said to be the cause heart flutters for a number of crushed out young (probably conservative) women who work in the capital and when McGreevey was running for governor last year, one radio talk show host got dozens of calls from women who wanted to go out with him.

But none of that was news either. McGreevey's private life only made the papers when he provided incorrect information regarding his marital status to the press, implying he was only separated when a divorce was in the works.

Several other members of New Jersey's congressional delegation are single or divorced and about twenty percent of the state legislature has the same status. There's always an avalanche of rumors about the private lives of lawmakers whether they're single or not, some fact and lots of fiction. But despite the wails of Clinton's supporters, voters in general (and the press in particular) is not particularly intrusive.

The only legitimate public questions can are raised about the private lives of politicians, even adulterous ones, is if there is evidence of corruption, sexual harassment and abuse of power or public dishonesty.

That's not an unreasonably high standard for elected officials. Most leaders in New Jersey pass but Bill Clinton doesn't come close.

Starr Report

Fri., Sept. 18, 1998 Jersey gov'tgoingfull tilt By SHERRY SYLVESTER Chief Political Writer The wheels of government may have ground to a halt in Washington, but democracy was moving along in the State House yesterday as New Jersey lawmakers put big causes, little causes and lost causes on the legislative agenda. Democrats began by boycotting the swearing-in of Assemblyman Ken Faulkner who got his seat when a judge ruled that last year's election results were invalid. The Republicans picked Faulkner (who holds the Burlington County record for most high school basketball games won) to take the Camden-Burlington County seat held by Jack Conners. In what Senate Minority Staffer Joe Donnelly described as "symbolic support for Jack," Democratic Assembly members didn't bother to show up for Faulkner's ceremony. He will face Conners in the general election in November. Meanwhile, Senate Pres. Don DiFrancesco, R-Scotch Plains, a recent convert to the movement against High Occupancy Vehicle lanes, spoke to the Senate Transportation Committee yesterday about ways to get rid of the dreaded "lanes of pain." The Committee issued a statement saying that "Its time to recognize what New Jersey commuters realized long ago: HOV lanes don't work." Then they asked DOT to do a study to prove HOV lanes don't work. Over in the Assembly, Minority Leader, Joe Doria, D-Bayonne, got the same committee to stop the DMV from harassing drivers about their speeding tickets after they've died. Doria was standing up for families of deceased speeders who are sometimes barraged with letters and phone calls from the state agency after their loved ones are gone. Following the lead of the feds, Senators Peter Inverso, R-Hamilton and Anthony Bucco, R-Morris, pushed a bill through the Senate Budget Committee that would allow New Jerseyans to deduct the complete costs of their health insurance from their state income tax. Bucco also joined with Sen. Joe Kyrillos, R-Middlesex yesterday to establish tougher penalties for people who disseminate child pornography on the Internet. Their proposal, which cleared the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee, would make cyber pornographers guilty of endangering the welfare of a child. In a proposal that will undoubtedly be referred to as the "Richard Carley bill" in reference to the former Deputy Attorney General who was recently convicted of sexual harassment, Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Mercer, introduced legislation aimed at freeing the state from having to pay the legal costs of defending state employees in sexual harassment cases. The state has been criticized for spending millions in several high profile sexual harassment cases over the past few years.

Starr Report

Thurs., Sept. 17, 1998 Move over Hollywood By Sherry Sylvester Cheif Political Writer Despite the scandal, rumors persist that the president has plans to go into the movie business when he gets out of office. Some Hollywood reports say he will join Steven Spielberg at Dreamworks to create new films. Movie people are frequent guests in the White House and the president obviously likes to hang out with the stars. CNBC commentator Chris Matthews has suggested that Clinton has found his soulmates with the movie making crowd. "His spiritual home is in Santa Monica, where O.J. found his spiritual home," Matthews told the National Review last month. "Where everybody's rootless, everybody's new, everybody's out on the make and all that matters is looks and celebrity and let the good times roll." Clinton's movie star friends have been providing him with strong support this week, even though they're all at the Venice Film Festival. Robert DeNiro told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that Starr's investigation was a "Macarthy-ite persecution of powerful and successful men." Presumably, speaking for those men, DeNiro called Lewinsky an "intriguing bitch." Warren Beatty, who recently played a sleazy politician in Bulworth, told the same paper that because Americans are "a moralistic and sexophobic race," Clinton should have known that he would have to "renounce his manhood for four or even eight years." Perhaps the president should have called Bobby and Warren before Starr's people taped his testimony before the grand jury last month. Now the fate of the nation and the free world seems to hang on that "performance." Last week, the Starr Report provided the country with the written story of Bill Clinton, the lover. The videotape will flesh out the character by showing us Bill Clinton, the liar. Whether he gets a thumbs up or thumbs down seems to hinge on the kind of lying performance that the president gives. If he presents himself as a belligerent defensive liar, he could turn audiences off. If he creates a character who is simply outraged at the impropriety of being hit with questions about his sex life, the audience may sympathize. How he uses his eyes and hand gestures will also be important. If he looks guarded or conniving while he's concealing the truth through legal hairsplitting, evasions and half answers, audiences will desert him in droves. To pull off an award winning performance, Clinton must also make sure that people can watch the videotape without being reminded of Anthony Hopkins' terrific portrayal of Richard Nixon in Nixon, in which he delivered the lines, "You don't have to lie, you can say you don't remember. If they ask you about it you can say you don't recall." Clinton claimed yesterday that he knew that the videotape would eventually make it out, even though he claims its release was "against the rules." But we know that's not true. Clinton is a great performer. If he really believed that the videotape was going to make it to primetime, he would have put on the same presidential act that he put on yesterday at his press conference with Czechoslovakia president Vaclav Havel. Clinton and Havel walked to a center stage in the State Dept. that was clearly set up to create the effect that, despite everything, the president is in charge. The president is very good at looking like he's running the nation and the world with the kind of honesty and good judgment that almost 75 percent of the public no longer believes he has. "I have never stopped leading in foreign affairs and I never will," Clinton said, as if he were Harrison Ford in Air Force One or Michael Douglas in An American President. State Department employees, political appointees mostly, were put into the audience like movie extras to applaud the president at appropriate moments. Their cheering (and hissing at hostile questions from the media) turned the presidential press conference into a kind of high brow "Jerry Springer Show." Clinton dodged all questions about the lies on the videotape. Instead, he said that in his testimony he told "what I believe the essential truth to be." Sounds like Shakespeare, doesn't it? "To be or not to be, that is the question." Maybe he'll try Hamlet next.

Starr Report

Tues., Sept. 15, 1998 BILL'S THE MEDIA'S FRANKENSTEIN By Sherry Sylvester Chief Political Writer In 1992, some people argued that it was the media that made Bill Clinton president. They said the so-called liberal leaning press didn't push him hard on his lies about the dodging the draft and Gennifer Flowers or even his slippery answers about marijuana. Today, however, Clinton is soaring in opinion polls while newspapers and television journalists around the country are demanding that he step down. If the media made Clinton, can they unmake him too? The battle lines were drawn over the weekend. After reviewing the Starr Report, the American public reaffirmed its support for the lecherous president by a whopping 62 percent. At the same time, almost 30 of the largest newspapers in the country have called on the president to resign since last Friday when the dirty details of Clinton's philandering hit the Internet. Oddly enough, a USA Today Poll found that about 50 percent of the public would like to see the president impeached if it can be proved that he lied to a grand jury. Since it has already been demonstrated that Clinton has led to a grand jury in his appearance on August 17, that could mean that the public is on the same side as the press. But that's not likely. A huge chunk of people think the press are the problem. Throughout the Clinton-Lewinsky debacle, easy-going "live-and-let-live" Americans have not wanted to bother with kicking the president out. Some of the president's defenders fall into the group of folks the National Journal has described as "Lechers United," a brotherhood of married older men who have their own Monica Lewinsky's. These are the guys (and sometimes their wives and girlfriends who don't want to be embarrassed) who are going around scheming that the scandal is no big deal and is an invasion of the president's privacy. But most of the folks who say they don't want the president to resign imply that they don't want to rock the boat. They're busy. They've got work to do, bills to pay, kid to raise. They know Clinton is a liar and a sleaze, but when they get up in the morning they want the same guy to be president who was in charge of the country the night before. They don't seem to understand why the press doesn't just forget about it. But the Washington press, which didn't ask Clinton the tough questions in 1992, can't forget about it. Many of them believe that its their fault this guy got into office in the first place. Everybody knew Clinton was a prolific liar with such a weakness for women that it could affect his judgment. But nobody believed he'd risk his presidency by tom-catting around while he was in the White House. For the rest of us in the press, outside the Beltway, its the "truth thing" that keeps us from letting go of this story. After watching the ease with which Clinton lies, its hard to figure out how he can continue to run the country. Once he's wagged his finger in outrage, insisting that he never slept with Monica Lewinsky, how can we believe him when he looks straight into the camera and says he's truly committed to saving Social Security? After he's repeatedly insisted that his answers were "legally accurate" when he said he'd never had sex with Lewinsky, how can we believe him when he says he had to blow up that pharmaceutical plant in Sudan because they were making nerve gas. The polls will probably come to show that the public supports Clinton, but don't expect the media to be won over, or to go away. They might even win the war against Clinton. After all, they made the guy.

September 13, 1998
All the President's (New Jersey) Men

New Jersey was the state that bailed Bill Clinton out after his first bimbo eruption. After Gennifer Flowers told the world that she'd had an affair with Clinton, he came to New Jersey Democrats for the money he needed to stay in the race and managed to ride it out.

Its clear that if that if comes down to the same thing today, New Jersey's most powerful Democrats would bail him out again. 

State Sen. Ray Lesniak, D-Elizabeth, who chaired both of Clinton's successful presidential campaigns in New Jersey, hadn't read Kenneth Starr's report when he spoke to the Trentonian.

But he said he couldn't imagine anything in the report that would cause him to believe the president should resign or be impeached.

"Clinton was obviously wrong for what he did and we should say that," Lesniak said. "But Kenneth Starr is insane. He is hellbent on destroying the president and the country."

Lesniak, who is an attorney, said that if the charges against Clinton came up in court they'd be thrown out. He also criticized House Speaker Newt Gingrich's appeal to the Congress for a non-partisan approach to Starr's report.

"Gingrich doesn't know the meaning of non-partisanship," Lesniak said charging that the goal of the Republican Congress would be to embarrass the president with the Starr Report.

Hudson County Executive and Democratic Chairman, Robert Janiszewski is also standing by his man.

Janiszewski said last week that what he called "Ken Starr's $50 million peep show" was an effort by Clinton's enemies to tie the president's agenda up in knots.

"I'm on the ground, I'm not insulated inside the Beltway," Janiszewski said. "We ought to be talking about schools, student aid, tax cuts and issues that are important to the country."

State Democratic Chairman Thomas Giblin, was not as quick to gloss over Clinton's problems.

"The ball is in Clinton's court," Giblin said. "People might forgive him for his indiscretions, but he needs to talk about obstruction of justice. It has to be addressed and he doesn't have a lot of time."

But Giblin said he didn't believe the upcoming Congressional races in New Jersey would be affected much by the charges against Clinton and the Starr Report.

"We've always known the challenges we've taken on in the Pappas-Holt race (12thDistrict) and the Franks-Connelly race (7th District) would be tough," Giblin said.

New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli, who has condemned the president's behavior, told the Associated Press on Friday that he was dubious about impeaching a president on the word of Monica Lewinsky, who he described as a "troubled individual of questionable veracity."

Torricelli said that calls to his offices in Washington and Newark are running largely in favor of the president, but South Jersey residents seem to be split down the middle on whether or not the president should be impeached.

Giblin said the president had been scheduled to visit South Jersey in a couple of weeks, but the visit may be canceled.

State Sen. John Adler, D-Camden, called Clinton's behavior "a dreadful example for us as a country and the kind of children that we want to raise."

But the influential South Jersey Democrat said he believed that while a public rebuke of the president is in order, "the ultimate teaching of morality should rest with parents, not the U.S. Senate."

Giblin and Senate Minority Leader, Richard Codey, D-West Orange believe that there is one Democrat who actually benefits from Clinton's current troubles, former Senator Bill Bradley.

Bradley is considering challenging Vice Pres. Al Gore for the Democratic nomination for president in 2000, and, according to Giblin, "his star is rising everyday."

Codey, a Bradley fan who is expected to help organize Bradley's New Jersey campaign if the former Knick star decides to run, said there is "no question" that the current situation helps Bradley.

"This [scandal] could be a Clinton-Gore thing," Codey said, noting that Gore hadn't condemned Clinton's behavior.

"People like loyalty but there's a point when he [Gore] should take a stand," Codey said.

Lesniak has agreed to chair Gore's presidential campaign in 2000.

September 13, 1998
What Happens to the County if They Don't Impeach Clinton?

Folks who really want to get Bill Clinton will probably be disappointed by the Starr Report. The Bill and Monica story feels like one of those sad, biographical movies about a drug addicted celebrity, like Billie Holiday or Janis Joplin, who had so much talent but blew it all because they couldn't control themselves.

Their compulsiveness is so stupid, its hard to watch.

Clinton spots Lewinsky at a reception, invites her back to his office for a little make-out session. She comes back the next day, the affair gets going hot and heavy. He gets scared and break-ups with her, but then gets lonesome a couple of weeks later and asks her to come back.

He knows its risky, but thinks he can't stop himself.

Even those most outraged about Clinton's egregious behavior, including me, can relate to the humanness of the president's very common failure with this young woman.

Because it feels much better to forgive than to be self-righteousm it is tempting to simply sigh sadly and shrug off the president's adultery and lying in much the same way that we joked about his passion for big Mac's and fries. They aren't good for him either, but what are you gonna do?

But we're in for some big problems if the country decides to let the president slide on this one.

For starters, if Clinton gets by with the Lewinsky affair, it sends a very negative message about what Americans believe is acceptable when it comes to the treatment that women.

If Clinton had been caught on tape telling racist jokes in the White House there is little doubt that there would be across the board consensus that the guy was not fit to serve as president.

Pundits and politicians alike would rise up and say that a man who clearly demonstrated so little respect for African-Americans could not run a country where the issue of racism permeates every avenue of public policy.

But the fact that Clinton repeatedly used Lewinsky for sex and did not respect her as a person hasn't drawn the same outrage in many people. Clinton obviously believes that it is O.K. to use women strictly for sex (like John F. Kennedy did) and the country's continued approval of the president seems to affirm his premise.

That kind of devaluation of both women and sex is the root of all kinds of problems including teenage pregnancy, divorce and family dysfunction in our society. It is not good to have a major proponent of such attitudes running the country.

There's also the lying problem. Even if we allow Clinton to keep his shabby ideas about women and sex, how can we have a president who thinks its acceptable to lie and to induce others to lie?

Perhaps more importantly, how can there ever be another prosecution for any kind of sexual crime.

What would stop Richard Carley, the New Jersey's ex-deputy attorney general recently convicted of sexually harassing an employee, from defending himself by asserting that he had the right to lie. After all, the only charges against him have to do with sex.

How would former senator Bob Packwood have been forced to resign after covering up his lying about his inappropriate passes toward women? How could those awkward little French kisses with women over the years made him ineligible to do his job when Clinton got oral sex at his desk and it didn't affect his productivity?

And, of course, any rapist would have the right to lie because his crime was only sexual...not something that really matters.

If you think that couldn't happen, remember that the Clarence Thomas hearings totally changed the way sexual harassment was treated in this country. Clinton's affair could just as significantly reverse all that.

Forgiving Clinton's lying about sex also brings up the obvious question about what other things it might be permissible for a president to lie about. Say some government contractor walked into the Oval Office and gave the president a thousand bucks cash under the table, as personal spending money, just to keep the lines of communication open. Say somebody asks the president about it and he denies it.

Wouldn't anybody lie in that situation?

Its only a thousand bucks. Who cares about a thousand bucks? This is the president's personal, private money. The government contractor willingly gave it to him. Its not taxpayer money so it is not anybody's business.

Would it count as a lie if it was $10,000? A $100,000?

And if we excuse the president's lying about sex are we excusing everyone's lying about sex.? Will lying about sex become official public policy in America?

And what about all the people who lied about sex for Clinton. Are they excused too?

The people who will decide about impeachment all insist that they will make their decision based on what is best for the country. If that's the case, then the answer is clear.

If we want a country where treating women cheaply and lying about it doesn't count against a man's character or integrity, then Clinton should be allowed to stay in office.

But if we want to be a nation which values the ethical and honest treatment of all individuals (even women) then Clinton must be impeached.

If we want to drag ourselves out of the trashy little world of the president's immature and self-indulgent sexuality, then Clinton must be impeached.

If we want to continue to operate on the basic principal that a man is only as good as his word, then Clinton must be impeached.

The president does not need further public humiliation. Clinton should be forgiven and allowed to move on.

But this country, the most powerful and influential country in the world, must have a man in charge whose honesty and principals are above reproach.

Clinton's not that man. He's got to go.

September 12, 1998
Clinton's True Feelings Leak Out

Yesterday the New York Times ran what has been termed an "Atonement Watch" listing of the times that Clinton has apologized for his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky since he first admitted that he'd lied about it on August 17.

Each day, Clinton's remorse is sounding stronger and more genuine. His address yesterday at the National Prayer Breakfast was particularly moving as he finally apologized to Lewinsky and her family and said he was determined to change.

Listening to him talk, it is almost possible to believe, as they say where I come from, that the president has finally "got religion" when it comes to fooling around and lying about it.

Could it be that the president has actually gone through a dark night of he soul and now truly understands that his sexual behavior with Lewinsky was not only reprehensible because it demonstrated disrespect for her and his family, but also because of the example it sets for the entire country?

It could be, but it isn't. If the president had really changed he wouldn't have exploded when Donna Shalala

criticized him yesterday. Shalala is the Secretary of Health and Human Services, an appointment she gained more because of her friendship with Hillary than her connection to the president. Which may be why Shalala didn't cut the president any slack.

According to a report in the Washington Post, when the president had his "apology meeting" with his cabinet, Shalala challenged Clinton's suggestion that the policies and programs he had brought about as president were more important than his personal morality.

Reportedly, Shalala said she was appalled at Clinton's behavior and his belief that he had no responsibility to provide moral leadership. The president told Shalala that if her logic had prevailed in 1960, Richard M. Nixon would have been elected president instead of John F. Kennedy.

And there you have it.

Clinton can say he's sorry from now until doomsday, but the truth is that he believes his sex life doesn't affect his presidency because it didn't affect Kennedy's. He believes that Kennedy was a better president than Nixon might have been if he'd been elected earlier, despite the fact that Kennedy cavorted with women in the White House.

When Clinton was running for Congress in 1974, he said more than once that Nixon should resign. But today, he doesn't believe he should quit. Consequently, Clinton must think that its O.K. to lie about sex, like he did but not to lie about stealing campaign secrets, like Nixon did.

ABC News filed an excellent report on Kennedy earlier this week which revealed that General Dynamics, the giant defense contractor, apparently managed to land a huge government defense contract by blackmailing Kennedy through one of his mistresses. Congress had begun to investigate it, but stopped when Kennedy was shot.

Kennedy's connections to organized crime, which also involved women, raises other questions about his misuse of power.

It would not be hard to argue that it would have been better if Nixon had been elected in 1960, specifically because Kennedy's philandering clearly clouded his judgement.

As the country goes through the Starr Report this weekend, the president will undoubtedly continue to apologize. But if John Kennedy is still Clinton's hero, then the president has probably got his fingers crossed behind his back.

September 11, 1998
Christie's Property Tax Commission is Doomed to Fail

Gov. Christie Whitman's Property Tax Commission report is is supposed to come out next week with recommendations to help make the Garden State financially livable again.

Whitman promised to do something about high property taxes when she was re-elected last year and folks decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. When it came down to the wire, they figured they might have a better chance getting their property taxes reduced if the Republicans were running the show.

Whitman's strategy in lowering property taxes has been to try to get municipalities to focus on sending less money.

It seems like a reasonable approach. Unfortunately, nobody who is running a town any where in New Jersey has demonstrated any interest in spending less money.

When you talk to them about lowering property taxes, they assume you mean that the will get more money from the state.

Spending less is simply not an option.

Just look at what happened to Whitman's very reasonable idea that the sick leave "golden parachutes" for municipal employees should be eliminated. Currently, when municipal employees retire, they are allowed to cash out their sick leave based on their entire career of work. Because government employees get more days off than anybody else, they've frequently got months and months worth of sick leave which nets them thousands of dollars upon retirement. In some cases, its hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Whitman wants to limit the accumulated sick leave cash out to $15,000 but the municipal officials won't let her. As soon as the governor proposed it last fall, they went on red alert and stormed her office and the offices of legislative leaders insisting that they had to be able to keep those cash outs. People had planned their retirements around them.

O.K., said the state's negotiators. What about making it prospective? You can keep the sick leave cash outs that you have, but new employees will be hired with the $15,000 limit.

The the municipal employees refused to make a change.

If local leaders aren't willing to compromise on such an obviously wasteful practice, what chance is there that they'll do anything to trim the budget when some real budget discipline is required.

But that's not the most depressing thing about New Jersey's property tax problem. Even if municipal employees were were suddently hit by a meterite and decided that they should stop wasting tax payer dollars, it wouldn't make much difference.

Property taxes are high in New Jersey because of teachers' salaries.

The average New Jersey teacher makes $50,814 a year. They are among the highest paid teachers in the country, and they like it that way. Nationally, teachers are paid $38,436 annually.

The stricking teachers in Middletown were willing to let children sit idle in classrooms for days in order to increase their salaries. In fact, they said they would go to jail before they'd go back to work for less money.

They didn't want to pay any part of their health insurance either.

Teachers all over New Jersey have demonstrated the same mentality again and again. The needs of students never take priority over teacher salaries, benefits, vacations, pensions and days off to attend conferences and union meetings.

Local school boards don't stand a chance against the determined New Jersey teachers. Whitman's Property Tax Commissions would help them out by proposing a salary cap for teachers and municipal employees.

But the salary cap must be passed by the Legislature and nobody is holding their breath for that.

Assembly Speaker Jack Collins can frequently be seen around the State House carrying water for the New Jersey Education Association. He's their guy. There's not much help on the Senate side either.

State Sen. John Lynch, D-Middlesex, pointed out recently that the NJEA has the legislative clout to kill any proposal that might threaten their financial interests.

"They want to stamp out everybody who challenges the status quo," Lynch said.

The senator is in a position to know. He's criticized them before and they did their best to stamp him out.

When the Legislature gets back to town next week, we'll all be able to stand back and watch the NJEA walk over the Property Tax Commission Report. It should look something like Godzilla taking New York City.

New Jersey teachers in Middletown have just shown the entire state that they are willing to go to jail if they don't get a raise. But they clearly don't care where Jersey residents go if they can't afford to pay their property taxes.

September 9, 1998

Clinton Has a Friend in North Jersey

Not all of Pres. Bill Clinton's friends are bailing out on him. Hudson County Executive Robert Janiszewski released a letter he wrote to the president yesterday saying he is welcome in Hudson County. In it, he referred to the report of Independent Prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, as a "$50 million peep show."

"I am tired of Beltway 'issues' that fail to address our national needs," Janiszewski wrote Clinton. He credited the president for leadership on a series of issues including education, welfare reform, the economy and a balanced budget. Janiszewski charged that questions regarding Clinton's behavior were "a serious distraction to conducting real, constructive progress on the problems that are facing our nation."

Janiszewski also invited Clinton to New Jersey, saying "...as we welcomed you into our community in the past, we look forward to doing so again."

Clinton has campaigned and raised money frequently in Hudson County which is strongly Democratic. In 1996, Clinton received 70 percent of the vote there.

Janiszewski spokesman, Jeffrey Jotz said yesterday that the County Executive believes that "the American people are making the distinction between Clinton the man and the Democratic party agenda."

Janiszewski is a member of the Democratic National Committee and heads the Democratic Committee in Hudson County.

September 8, 1998 
News Analysis:  Torricelli Turning on Clinton

When the Monica Lewinsky story hit last winter, New Jersey Sen. Bob Torricelli was one of the first guys on Capital Hill to defend the president. But in a report in the upcoming issue of Newsweek, Torricelli says he always thought Clinton was lying about the affair.

Copyright©1998 Sherry Sylvester