The state's own top law-enforcement official, the attorney general, seldom makes headlines for corruption-busting. Why is that the case?
One obvious answer is that it's politically easier for the federal prosecutors. They have no ties to state and local politicians and no reason to let them off easy. Attorneys general, by contrast, are appointed by governors, who attain their positions and push their agendas by cultivating the goodwill of state and county political leaders.
Cleaning Up N.J. Corruption
Attorney General Needs Low Tolerance For Dishonest Public Servants~ George Amick
Monday, October 02, 2006
New Jersey produces corrupt politicians. The U.S. attorney exposes, prosecutes and jails them.
New Jersey makes. The feds take.
This is how the division of labor is widely perceived. And it was the subtext of three stories last month that did the state's already embarrassing reputation no good at all.
First, Chris Christie, the U.S. attorney in Newark, won a plea of guilty to official misconduct and tax evasion from John Lynch, a leading political power broker, former New Brunswick mayor and former state senator.
Next, Herb Stern, a one-time U.S. attorney and federal judge, is sued, a finding that Democratic Sen. Wayne Bryant, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and a notorious grazer at the public trough, sought and received a $35,000-a-year no-show job at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, after which state funding for the school that hired him more than doubled. Stern's report, which has led to Bryant's temporary resignation as budget committee chairman, was a byproduct of an ongoing Christie investigation that has shown UMDNJ to be a cesspool of cronyism, fraud and graft into which tens of millions of taxpayer dollars have disappeared.
Finally, there was former Gov. Jim McGreevey, hawking his published confession and reminding everyone that he entrusted the state's anti-terrorism office to his gay lover with no qualifications for the job and that some of his political pals and fundraisers were jailed for corruption by -- who else? Chris Christie. One of these investigations gave us the unforgettable scene in which McGreevey himself appeared to signal his endorsement of a shakedown scheme by uttering the code word "Machiavelli" at the designated moment.
Once again, the U.S. attorney and his deputies and investigators have given evidence that their office constitutes New Jersey's primary defense against crooked government.
It's the way things have been for at least four decades.
Beginning in the 1960s, a procession of U.S. attorneys with a low tolerance for dishonest public servants began tracking them down. Among the bigwigs sent to jail by Fred Lacey, Stern and Jonathan Goldstein were the mayors of Newark, Jersey City and Atlantic City and assorted state Cabinet members and municipal, county and public authority officials.
Christie has maintained the tradition.
Inevitably, Christie -- a Republican who was appointed by President Bush -- has been accused of partisanship. McGreevey tried to sell that line. But other Democrats, who should know better, joined the chorus last month after Christie subpoenaed the records of a Hudson County nonprofit agency that paid rent to U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., while Menendez, then in the House of Representatives, was helping obtain millions of dollars in federal funding for the agency.
Democrats challenged the timing of the subpoena because Menendez is locked in a fierce fight to hold his seat against Republican state Sen. Tom Kean Jr., whose principal campaign strategy is to paint his opponent as corrupt. Menendez first charged Christie with being party to "an orchestrated, concerted effort to smear and personally destroy" him. (Last week he modified his rhetoric, answering a TV interviewer's question about the investigation by saying: "I welcome it.")
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., called the subpoena's timing "sinister," and even Gov. Jon Corzine, who usually weighs his words carefully, said it had the "appearance of being less than objective."
The fact is that Christie has earned a presumption of evenhandedness. He has indicted and convicted Republicans as well as Democrats, including Essex County Executive Jim Treffinger, former Mercer County Chief of Staff Harry Parkin and a clutch of local officials in Monmouth County. And he turned down the entreaties from GOP leaders last year that he capitalize on his Mr. Clean reputation by running for governor.
Meanwhile, the state's own top law-enforcement official, the attorney general, seldom makes headlines for corruption-busting. Why is that the case?
One obvious answer is that it's politically easier for the federal prosecutors. They have no ties to state and local politicians and no reason to let them off easy. Attorneys general, by contrast, are appointed by governors, who attain their positions and push their agendas by cultivating the goodwill of state and county political leaders.
Fortunately, the system, now and then, will turn up a few people whose abhorrence of political crookedness exceeds any feeling of obligation to the crooks. It could be happening now.
Corzine, who owes less to the political machines than do most people who reach high office in New Jersey, seems genuinely interested in cleaning up things. After laying an egg with his first attorney-general appointee, Zulima Farber, Corzine has replaced her with Stuart Rabner, a veteran of the U.S. attorney's office who has drawn bipartisan rave reviews for character and incorruptibility.
At his confirmation hearing, Rabner acknowledged that any citizen with a solid lead on corruption would be more likely to go to the U.S. attorney's office rather than to the attorney general. He promised to change that by working cases alongside the feds, by recruiting top talent and by making his department more accountable "so that in the years to come, those leads will go to both places."
Let's hope Rabner means it -- and sticks around long enough to firmly implant the policy. (He's widely believed to be in line to become the state's chief justice next year.) "Public officials are taking envelopes of cash as we sit here today," Christie once told The Times' editorial board. Even with two sets of prosecutors going all out, there will be no shortage of targets.
Contact George Amick at gamick@njtimes.com.
© 2006 The Times.
©2006 New Jersey On-Line LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Send an e-mail message with a link to this article to anyone/everyone in your address book. Click on e-mail [envelope] icon, below |
0 Comments:
Post A Comment