Quiet Sunday at Corruption Junction

While McGreevey has an op-ed piece in the NYTImes today saying I Still Have Work to Do (with the expected “the best interest of the state”, wanting “to finish the good work that has been started”, yadda, yadda), the NYPost looks at the Lonely life of the Garden State’s 1st Lady, unlike that of her husband, who was at Kushner’s house in Florida a while ago and apparently put himself in front of the cameras: Secret McG’s “Pool Shots”

“McGreevey supposedly spent a weekend down at Kushner’s house in Florida and he had videotape of McGreevey and Cipel in a pool or something.”

This new detail comes after The Post’s report Friday that the FBI was eyeing “tapes and photos” of the gay governor that might have been used in Cipel’s alleged extortion scheme

while a different NYTimes article says no such tapes exist. The pesky matter of Touro College keeps popping up, along with Kushner’s & Torricelli’s names,

Among the most perplexing developments is the unexplained appearance of Timothy Saia, a lawyer from Livingston, N.J., during the week before Mr. McGreevey stepped down. Mr. Saia arranged a meeting involving the lawyers and Mr. Lesniak, the governor’s confidant, in New York on Aug. 9, three days before Mr. McGreevey’s resignation. Then he delivered what he said was an 11th-hour offer from Mr. Cipel to drop the complaint in exchange for Mr. McGreevey’s approval of Touro College’s plan to open a New Jersey medical campus.

Mr. McGreevey’s lawyers said that Mr. Saia introduced himself as a friend of Mr. Cipel’s, and that they were astounded when he mentioned the college. Touro College is a favorite charity of Charles Kushner, a real estate developer and a major McGreevey campaign contributor, who once employed Mr. Cipel and was under investigation for hiring a prostitute to silence a witness in a fund-raising investigation.

. . . The college had also hired Mr. Cipel as a media consultant in 2003, and this summer, former Senator Robert G. Torricelli’s consulting firm unsuccessfully sought the administration’s backing for the medical school, according to the governor’s aides.

The Daily News has Golden Golan’s rise & fall: Pals tell of charismatic go-getter, but Tiger Hawk says The McGreevey story goes completely non-linear with the Daily News total lack of fact-checkers. Jim reminds us that Generalisimo Jim McGreevey is Still Governor, and suggests an MTV-reality show among other Job Prospects for Jim McGreevey. (Would the Daily News hire him as a fact-checker?) David Rebovich ponders the timing of the resignation:

But it’s hard to imagine that, when facing the impossible task of admitting his homosexuality to his parents and wife and then resigning the office he coveted for decades, McGreevey or anyone else would be thinking about his party and its candidates. But personal finances? That’s another matter. As long as McGreevey is governor, the state will pay for any legal fees he accrues in a job-related harassment case. The question of settlement money, especially that not ordered by a court, is more complicated.

Some folks suggested that McGreevey is staying in office until November 15th for two reasons. One is to have some time to put together a settlement package in the event he did face a sexual harassment suit. The other is to consider various financial opportunities, including possibly a book and movie deal and a speaking tour, that might sustain him until he finds permanent employment. As was widely reported, McGreevey does not have much money set aside and does not own any property.

What he does have is a lot of pride. McGreevey’s aides told reporters that he rejected a “buyout” package presumably offered by political bigwigs who want him to leave his office now. Instead, aides and allies insist that the Governor wants to use his remaining time as chief executive to leave behind a policy legacy of which he can be proud. He wants to assure that the new stem cell research center is a success, that the Highlands Preservation Act serves its intended purposes, and that legislation to establish a commission to work on a plan for a constitutional convention on property tax reform moves forward.

Wasn’t I predicting a movie deal the other day?