Down and down we go…

Down and down we go…

: Golan Cipel is looking so bad he’ll make McGreevey look good. The latest:

A man who said New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey sexually harassed him was pushing for a cash settlement of up to $50 million before the governor decided to announce he is homosexual and had an extramarital affair, sources said.

Golan Cipel’s demands also included a last-minute push to have McGreevey’s administration approve development plans for a private medical college in the state, two senior members of the administration said Saturday. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity….

The school’s board members include Charles Kushner, a real estate developer who gave millions to Jewish organizations and politicians, including Mr. McGreevey and former U.S. senator Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.).

: Cipel says he never did it with the gayGuv and that he’s straight.

7 responses to “Down and down we go…”

  1. Dexter Westbrook Avatar
    Dexter Westbrook

    I wouldn’t believe the description of McGreevey’s administration flacks about what Cipel was demanding. It’s self-serving.
    I also wouldn’t believe any statements the guy’s lawyers made on his behalf. In cases like this, lawyers are sent out to lie for you.
    Besides, is anyone so stupid to ask someone who is not personally wealthy for a $50 million blackmail payoff?

  2. button Avatar

    Jeff, I hope you realize that some of McG’s statement is classic FBI cant– it’s their ‘partyline,’ so to speak– the part about rendering him vulnerable to blackmail and extortion, etc.
    The FBI these days has a lot of terrorism concerns on their minds. NJ has 2 sizable Arab communities (Jersey City and Paterson) which they have to worry about terrorists infiltrating. So, it’s understandable that they would pressure McG to resign over this. But it’s still a lame excuse, however convenient it may be to the FBI.

  3. Joe Baby Avatar
    Joe Baby

    If those sources are within the guv’s office, or with the NJ Dems, they are unreliable at the moment.

  4. Sterling Avatar

    This Kushner/Torricelli thing with Cipel is really interesting. They’re both connected to Touro College, which is hoping to get funding from NJ to build a medical school. Cipel apparently named the school in one of his follow-up negotiation letters, as a beneficiary to his settlement. The demand is the sort of thing somebody might do if he really believed he was in the right, and wanted to do something to both impress and infuriate Kushner in one stroke. Don’t forget that Kushner is a key player in all this, though he’s keeping his head way down – I have to wonder if the relationship between Cipel and Kushner hasn’t been more durable than the one between Cipel and McGreevey.
    The Torricelli thing is probably a coincidence, much as it pains me to admit it. Torricelli has a way of smashing into scandals in a way that seems almost impossible to believe – Google [“David Chang” Toricelli “7-11”] if you want examples of this – but this Touro thing is almost too much.
    As for Golan’s claims that he was not McGreevey’s lover, that seems like a stretch to me, but I wasn’t in the room. I’d be very surprised if McGreevey didn’t have some kind of evidence for it.

  5. Ross Avatar

    Hiring an Israeli for state security? Who turns out to be a con-man with links to big-money Jew supporters? This is the bigger scandal

  6. Michele Avatar

    No, the bigger scandal is how McGreevey hired an unqualified individual to head the most important agency in NJ, and by doing so placed NJ and NY citizens in harms way.
    Actually, the even bigger scandal is that the party bosses have circled the wagons yet again, showing their interest is not the citizens of NJ or their safety, but rather the protection of their own interests at all costs! How many more scandals will it take for the citizens of that great state to get rid of the riff raff and clean house in Trenton?
    Now that’s the real travesty!

  7. jeremy in NYC Avatar
    jeremy in NYC

    “big-money Jew supporters”?!