BuzzMachine

The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

More McGreevey

24 comments on More McGreevey

More McGreevey

: I just spoke with a reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer about McGreevey’s speech as a moment in television (more on that shortly) and he said that when McGreevey announced he was gay, there was applause in the newspaper newsroom.

: Continue reading the NJ.com breaking news blog on McGreevey. It has news and lots of vox pop.

: UPDATE: Drudge says:

McGreevey’s office had called the FBI on Thursday and complained that lover had requested $5 million to quash the suit, which assistants to the governor saw as extortion…

24 responses to “More McGreevey”

  1. Sterling Avatar
    Sterling

    Interesting story about the Philly Inquirer.
    I’m not suggesting that it was everyone’s business that McG was gay, but when McGreevey tried to appoint Golan Cipel to a political post, MCGREEVEY made his homosexuality a viable news story. And yet none of the papers that cover NJ politics, including the Inquirer, reported on the true nature of the scandal or McGreevey’s true relationship to Cipel. They just let it slip by, even though their relationship was the source of the outrage in Trenton.
    So it’s really nice that the Inquirer staff was so proud of McGreevey’s newfound integrity. Maybe they should try to grow some of their own, now?

  2. karen Avatar
    karen

    The left wing media forced Jack Ryan to resign because he wanted to have sex with his own wife and she said no. Now, the left wingers are praising a guy who has humiliated two women publicly, been doing guys in bars and “on the cape” and paying them with tax dollars. He is not noble, he is a slimeball. The idea that anyone would believe a speech written by a PR guy is sad. The only reality he was running from was that he screwed around once too often and lets go to the video tape. If you feel sorry for him, you are a victim of a politically correct left wing media machine. Ask yourself: did you feel sorry for Jack Ryan.

  3. Ripclawe Avatar
    Ripclawe

    I guess I can skip the Inquirer for any in depth coverage of why he quit and the scandals surrounding the Governor.

  4. Toolbox Avatar
    Toolbox

    Interesting. So they applauded that he said those magic words, “I’m gay.” Or is there something I’m missing here, I thought he was resigning due to a scandal, not because of his sexual orientation.

  5. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Exactly, the whole statement was merely some dog and pony to announce that McGreevey was living a confused life and is now coming out as a gay American, all the while manipulating the coverage to talk about his “gayness” and courage for coming out. Instead of what the reporting should be about, this guys scandalous run as Governor. And with this little tidbit about the newsroom clapping when he said he was gay shows that with one paper he was succesful.

  6. John Avatar
    John

    While it sounds like the Philly Inquirer’s staff least are inclimed to applaud the courage of the admission over the reasons why McGreevey had to admit them in the first place, the basis of the story is another indictment of Democrats overall for not taking the war on terror seriously.
    In a state that was home to Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheik behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, along with others who were both in on the plot and sympathetic to bin Laden’s aims, for the governor of that state to appoint his lover as the head of the newly-created New Jersey Department of Homeland Security shows McGreevey didn’t consider the position any more important than some other politican naming some crony or lover to head the Department of Motor Vehicles or the Department of Parks and Recreation.
    McGreevey’s not the first politician to give someone a cushy, high-paying job because they’re getting good sex out of them on the side. But Sept. 11 was supposed to have changed everything, and here’s McGreevey, only a few months in office, showing that nothing had changed, at least in his mind. That’s the real scandal behind this, in terms of what consequences it could have for everyone down the line, and the one reporters at the Inquirer and other area papers and TV news outlets should be focusing on after the shock of McGreevey’s gay confession wears off in the next day or two.

  7. onecent Avatar
    onecent

    Applause in the newsroom? Of course, the numbskull dupes in the MSM will lap up his pre-emptive victim impact statement. I expect nothing less from dead tree journalism.
    Jeff, you would be doing a public service in linking the major paper’s spin on this story tomorrow. Someone needs to aggregate it in one place. Besides, we need the laughs.

  8. Sterling Avatar
    Sterling

    John – I don’t quite buy that theory. I didn’t vote for McGreevey – I even did some volunteer work for Schundler and I think I contributed to his campaign as well – but I don’t believe that McGreevey would have deliberately done anything as reckless or irresponsible as what you suggest. Every dept. in the state gov’t is at least partly staffed with patronage and nepotism hires.
    That’s not to say that McGreevey’s actions in appointing Golan weren’t illegal, but I doubt he believed they would compromise NJ security.

  9. Kat Avatar
    Kat

    Poor Mrs. McGreevey–it must make her feel horrid to know that not only did the scum cheat on her, but he has lived a lie all these years and used an innocent woman to live that lie. What a lowlife!! I suppose his coming out is supposed to make him some sort of hero for the Left. He’s a cheating scum. Period!

  10. Sandy P Avatar
    Sandy P

    And the first wife didn’t tell her…..

  11. Sterling Avatar
    Sterling

    Kat – Mrs. McGreevey was in on it the whole time. She was his beard, and she knew it. As I suggested on Memefirst (http://www.memefirst.com/000655.html), she might even have gotten pregnant early in 2001 primarily to prevent the GOP challenger from dumping a little October surprise on her husband.
    In February 2002, when McGreevey broke his thigh-bone in a room at Congress Hall in Cape May while in the company of his boyfriend, Dina McGreevey rushed down to the hotel from Central NJ. She needed to be there to cover his story when the ambulance arrived. (Picture the governor of NJ with a broken femur, stewing in a hotel room for several hours waiting for his wife to arrive before he can get medical treatment.) I’m not sure if she had to come from Woodbridge or from Drumthwacket, but either way it’s AT LEAST two hours by car.

  12. David Avatar
    David

    How the hell can someone be so so STUPID…if he did give jobs to his lover when he wasn’t qualified (i’ll give him the benefit of the doubt right now) I hope he does some time in the slammer. Who knows maybe he can find the third Mrs. McGreevey.

  13. Kat Avatar
    Kat

    Broke his thigh bone in a room?? He’s too young for osteoporosis. That must have been some wild time. What’d he do, take a run at a rump, and hit the bed post?
    http://www.app.com/app2001/story/0,21133,656898,00.html
    (Israeli military expert and journalist Yossi Melman said the letter “more than exaggerates” Cipel’s experience and capabilities in the Israeli Defense Force.
    “The state of New Jersey’s application (to the immigration service) in particular struck me as full of chutzpah,” Melman said. “It is rather surprising that the governor went out of his way by using the pretext that his Israeli friend is a terrorist expert in order to accommodate him. I find it especially troubling to use the horrible events of 9/11 as a justification for the nomination of Golan Cipel to a highly important security position which he was not qualified for.”)
    Lying came easy to the guy.

  14. John Avatar
    John

    Sterling —
    I’m not sure what you’re referring to when you say you don’t believe about what McGreevey would do. It terms of the homeland security issue — according to the Associated Press story sent out before the resignation, he did it:
    Cipel, an Israeli citizen, was hired by McGreevey for the $110,000-a-year security post in the governor’s office, even though he was ineligible for a federal security clearance. Cipel’s appointment as personal homeland security adviser to the governor created a firestorm of criticism, with Republicans and newspaper editorials questioning McGreevey’s judgment.
    Now, while in the wake of the Amiri”>http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=223006&contrassID=2&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y”>Amiri Baraka-New Jersey poet laureate scandal after the World Trade Center attack it’s nice to see that McGreevey was trying to bolster better relations with at least some small portion of the Jewish community, the fact is that of all the possible places in the New Jersey state government he could have found to put Cipel, McGreevey chose the state’s new homeland security department, no doubt because they was a new pot of money coming from the federal government in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, and he could put Cipel into a newly-created position that wouldn’t require displacing or passing someone else for the $110,000 salary.
    Gender doesn’t matter here; what does is the governor’s lack of seriousness in dealing with the war on terror based on how he viewed thew homeland security issue in the aftermath of 9/11 (and don’t forget McGreevey had to run the final seven weeks of his campaign in the wake of the attacks just across the river — unlike some governor from a state thousands of miles away, there’s no way he could have been unaware of the consequences of a lack of homeland security in the future. But he still saw the new department as a patronage mill anyway).

  15. Barry D Avatar
    Barry D

    Who applauded when McGreevey announced he appointed an incomptent for the position of homeland security/terrorist advisor?

  16. Kat Avatar
    Kat

    He only came clean(out of the closet) because he is about to be sued for harassment by Cipel. He thinks this will bring him sympathy. It worked in Canada–Sven Robinson stole a 65,000 dollar ring ,cried a bit, kissed his lover, and got away scot free–no jail time for Svennie.

  17. notthisgirl Avatar
    notthisgirl

    Sooooooo, do you think that we can get him to resign by September 3 so we, the people of New Jersey can decide who should take his place?

  18. Sterling Avatar
    Sterling

    I don’t question that he did it, John. I just don’t believe that it’s a sign of not taking security seriously.
    I’ve seen McGreevey in action on any number of issues. His performance may not be show-stopping, but it’s not for lack of focus or seriousness.

  19. Kat Avatar
    Kat

    Well, I guess if you think working in public relations and television news makes one a terrorist expert, then I guess it’s a sign of taking security seriously on Mcreevey’s part as those are Cipel’s credentials– and not caring that this guy knew squat about security–especially just weeks after 911.

  20. John Avatar
    John

    Sterling —
    I won’t deny he had focus and seriousness, at least in terms of his own political advancement. It just amazes me that in the wake of Sept. 11, a politician operating in such close proximity to Ground Zero — and one who not only had voters in the state (including Jeff) reminded every day of Ground Zero because their jobs or offices were gone or they couldn’t take their PATH train to work, but who had to run for election when Sept. 11 was all anyone could talk about — that person could turn around less than a year later and see homeland security funding as just another way to create a make-work job at a six-figure salary for his other significant other.
    To me, it would have been like George W. Bush turning around and appointing Katherine Harris Department of Homeland Security Director after that agency was created. That would have shown a complete lack of seriousness about the terrorism issue, and given the past history of terror cells operating within New Jersey, McGreevey’s actions here should be denounced not because of the sex of his lover, but because of the lack of qualification of his lover in what could be a job involving the life or death of New Jersey residents.

  21. Sterling Avatar
    Sterling

    John – I understand what you’re saying, but as far as I’m concerned it makes no difference where Cipel was dumped in the bureaucracy. If you’ve watched the Sopranos you’re familiar with the concept of “no work” and “no show” jobs – just because there are phantoms on the payroll doesn’t mean that the actual employees are any less efficient.
    I suppose that’s very cynical, but when you appreciate that toll-takers on the Parkway and Turnpike can easily make $60,000+ a year, you come to understand that the individual details of corruption, nepotism and cronyism are less important than the intent of it. It just doesn’t matter WHERE they put him, it’s THAT they put him on the public teat in the first place.

  22. John Avatar
    John

    Sterling —
    I guess I have a hard time getting into what was going on in McGreevey’s head here. While the press never outed him as gay, the fact was that given the importance of homeland security in the year following the Sept. 11 attacks, the governor showed either an amazing amount of hubris and/or stupidity in putting someone who clearly had no qualifications for the job into a position that was of concern to the general population. The press was going to cover a scandal like that, even if they danced around the edges on why he gave Cipel the job.
    If he had shuffled Cipel off into a make-work job in a normal bureaucratic state agency, I wouldn’t have been as outraged now and the media wouldn’t have cared two years ago, since politicians do that for their favorites all the time, whether or not there’s a sexual relationship involved. But the timing of when he did it and the location of the state right next door to the WTC site is what makes me say he treated New Jersey’s new homeland security department as just another place to pad payroll, as if its mission was no more important than filling the cracks in the concrete on U.S. 130 after the spring thaw. There may be some “make work” hires there, but if they don’t do their job, the consequences are probably a few lost hubcaps.
    If McGreevey was truly stupid, then his action might not show a lack of seriousness about fighting terrorism. But he’s not a dummy, and the move indicates a belief that a homeland security agency is just another place to distrubte cash to your cronies or lovers. If he ever does run for office again, if I were the Republicans or his primary opponent, that’s the angle I would attack him from, not his sexual orientation.

  23. James Avatar
    James

    does anyone know why Cipel is suing him all of a sudden?

  24. dave Hume Avatar
    dave Hume

    SEE?\\Cipel met Gov when he was mayor 1995. this is MOSSAD op. intel op.
    Nitzan said he has known Cipel for years, since he was a teen activist of the Labor Party youth movement and parliamentary assistant to former Labor Party legislator Avi Yehezkel.
    “He met this governor during his campaign,” Nitzan told The Soon after, Cipel was in New Jersey, squeezed tightly under the umbrella of McGreevey, where he would remain until their falling-out.
    Cipel