Weirder and weirder

Weirder and weirder

: The McGreevey story is, of course, getting weirder and weirder; these stories always do. Earlier this week, there were rumors of a New Jersey professor who would come out as alleged gubernatorial misterstress Golan Cipel’s gay lover, wrecking his claim that he’s straight. Then, today, the Daily News printed a story about this professor. But it is riddled with so many clues that the guy’s missing a few coffee beans in the grinder that it’s more scandalous that the News printed the story at all. For example:

In a manic, disjointed interview, Miller said that Cipel had made a pillow-talk confession: He still carries a torch for McGreevey….

Miller also claimed to reporters that he is a CIA operative who takes pills doled out by the intelligence agency to make his skin darker so he can infiltrate unnamed groups….

Miller – who insisted on speaking Spanish because, he said, he hates the United States…

“Despite his problems, I’m going to go visit him,” said Miller, shirtless and wearing purple shorts….

The doctor said he was a happily married man with two children, when, at age 38, he acknowledged he was gay.

“One hundred thousand dollars worth of therapy later and I still don’t understand,” Miller said.

And from the Post:

Last night, with his house surrounded by reporters, Miller spoke to the throng in only blue shorts and white socks, his hair disheveled.

At times cursing and erratic, he alternatively told scribes he would talk to them in Hungarian, Spanish or Hebrew.

“He’s a little scattered,” a relative member said.

But I guess he’s news.

19 responses to “Weirder and weirder”

  1. rogozhin Avatar
    rogozhin

    Where in New Jersey is this wack-job a Professor?! Please tell me it’s Princeton…..

  2. rogozhin Avatar
    rogozhin

    DAMN! Montclair State… and he’s only an adjunct professor at that. Still, it’s kinda crazy that THIS is one of the learned, ivory-tower types that has taken it upon themselves to mold the minds of impressionable New Jerseyites.

  3. sheila Avatar

    A sympathetic interview with Cipel in Haaretz.

    “I was not, under any circumstances, responsible for internal security under the governor,” insists Cipel. “I was responsible for the relationship between the governor’s office and the attorney general who deals with the issue, and also the Department of Homeland Security. For example, when people wanted to arrange a meeting, I was supposed to arrange it. I did not participate in confidential meetings, nor did I receive classified documents. There was a woman in the office responsible for the war against terror and internal security. When I met her, I told her, in no uncertain terms, `I am not an expert. My job is to make your life easier.’ That’s also what I told the state attorney general and his deputy.

    What if he is straight? What if it a case of harrassment? What if the media bought into some bullshit story?

  4. alessandra Avatar

    From the same news source:
    Miller – who insisted on speaking Spanish because, he said, he hates the United States – told reporters he met Cipel in Israel through family friends and that he still had a soft spot for him.
    “Despite his problems, I’m going to go visit him,” said Miller, shirtless and wearing purple shorts.
    (—- :-))) it

  5. Franky Avatar

    I have no dog in this fight, but imagine if Cipel was drunk one night and had a one night stand with this wacko. The bar was dark, drinks were flowing so its only in the morning you realise that your one-night stand is a total wack-job.
    So you make your excuses, leave and forget it for the rest of your life.
    Then you become famous and this nutcase comes out of the woodwork to tell the world he still has a soft-spot for you hahahahahahahahaha
    your family and friends look at you: “you slept with that guy?” hahahahahahahaha
    God knows if I became famous there might be some similarly embarrassing people to come forward (although not quite as obviously insane).

  6. Kat Avatar

    What’s truly insane is that the media would give this lunatic the time of day in an attempt to smear Cipel.

  7. Sterling Avatar

    I’m not interested in Cipel’s romantic history as much as McGreevey’s. The problem is that if McGreevey makes a habit of putting his lovers in gov’t jobs, his ex’s will be extremely reluctant to come forward.
    I’m still amazed that I haven’t speculation in the media regarding who some of McGreevey’s ex’s might be.

  8. boatswain Avatar
    boatswain

    so the CIA employs people who hate the US so much that they refuse to speak English?
    The CIA needs gay college professors to take tanning pills so they can infiltrate the NJ department of Homeland defense?
    there is a 110K Homeland Security job in NJ for someone who sets appointments, doesnt require any expertise, and cannot be cleared for any confidential material? GO NJ… thats the way to spend tax payer dollars!

  9. onecent Avatar

    a CIA operative who takes pills doled out by the intelligence agency to make his skin darker so he can infiltrate unnamed groups…. shirtless and wearing purple shorts…..(on another occasion)Miller spoke to the throng in only blue shorts and white socks……At times cursing and erratic…..
    Bingo!
    Crazy man. Most likely a full blown manic.
    And more scary to ponder is that most likely the idiot journalist who first brought the professor to the public’s attention had to have suspected he was nuts. The real story here is about journalism and its sorry state.

  10. BigFire Avatar

    Re: onecent
    Nah, anything to deflect McGreevey is fair game.

  11. jeff Avatar

    Thank god this potboiler is unfolding while Days of Our Lives is preempted by the Olympics! As a homo, I have to conclude that Cipel is straight, or else very naive if he think any of his tricks can keep their mouths shut.

  12. tony Avatar

    i speak english because i hate the french

  13. The Lonewacko Blog Avatar

    “I did not participate in confidential meetings, nor did I receive classified documents.”
    That’s apparently because the DHS wouldn’t give him any. Assuming the DHS is telling the truth, then having access to classified docs should have been part of his job.
    Note that Cipel also was given reportedly three other cushy sinecures, so it doesn’t look like a smear to me.

  14. alessandra Avatar

    What’s truly insane is that the media would give this lunatic the time of day in an attempt to smear Cipel.
    Posted by Kat at August 19, 2004 02:45 PM
    ====================
    The homo lobby/media went wild. What is telling is that they edited out all the crazy “details” about the prof and left only his quotes that suggested Cipel was very gay and had had a homo affair with McGreevey.
    This was not the case in blogsphere. Which also says something about how blogging is becoming an important way to exchange information and comments that the “media” is now to incompetent/manipulative to do.
    Has anyone noticed that no one in the media has the guts to ask McGreevey to name his lover? Is that because we know how corageous and honest he is?

  15. alkali Avatar

    If Miller has full-blown mental illness, which doesn’t seem unlikely, the DN wasn’t doing him any favors either by publishing the story. Uncritically reporting the peculiar behavior of a person who is likely mentally ill is not unlike reporting that Michael J. Fox was seen walking unsteadily half a block from a bar: the report may not be untrue, but that doesn’t mean it’s fair.

  16. SteveMG Avatar

    Hmm, let’s not print the allegations of John O’Neill and the Swiftboat men against John Kerry but let’s print the allegations of this fine specimen.
    Journalistic standards? We don’t need no stinkin’ standards.
    Not to mix topics, but I find most of the allegations by the Swiftboat veterans against Kerry to be NOT credible. Or at least, as in Rashomon, people seeing the same things(s) differently.
    But we have seen over the years with the news cycle accelerated a growing willingness of the press to publish sensationalism and gossip with little effort to check things.
    However, in this Swifties vs. Kerry story, the reticence is truly puzzling. All of a sudden the press is worried about unfounded allegations? Or partisan-driven or motivated charges?
    Since when?
    SMG

  17. tom b Avatar

    Uh, Jeff j.
    Up your irony supplements. You really need the Daily News to tell you the subject of a news story is a goofus, when he’s happy to tell it himself?
    The tiny, erratic satellites of big news story are news stories, too. And they are often more interesting, and almost certainly more amusing, than the planets they orbit.
    On day one word is leaked that a professor is alleging his own affair with Cipel. This story is eminently true, a professor is alleging that very thing. On day two the Daily News plays deadpan stenographer to the (adjunct) professor’s space signals. You’d really rather they dumbed it down to the basement and informed us in a clinical sidebar that Professor Octagon is possibly reality deficient?

  18. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I like this snippet from an article in the NY Daily News from a few days ago under the byline of Nancy Dillon, Ralph R. Ortega, and Alison Gendar (link: http://www.nydailynews.com/08-18-2004/news/regional/story/223276p-191854c.html ); in reporting that a “mystery man” who was a professor from northern Jersey had come forward claiming to be Golan Cipel’s gay lover, which would obviously undermine Cipel’s insistence on being heterosexual, the journalists had this to report:
    “The governor’s office was taking the claim seriously enough to have private investigators vet the allegations as part of McGreevey’s efforts to repel a potential civil suit by Cipel, sources said yesterday.
    “‘There have been at least three people coming forward, and this person seems the most credible,’ a source familiar with the inquiry said.”
    So, according to the source, “. . . this person seems the most credible.” My, oh my; who is the source, who does he or she work for, and does this person actually occupy a position requiring independent judgment? A promotion is surely on the way!

  19. alessandra Avatar

    “‘There have been at least three people coming forward, and this person seems the most credible,’ a source familiar with the inquiry said.”
    ================
    If CIA purple shorts Miller is the most credible, I wish they would show us the other ones…
    Alessandra