August 13, 2004
BE THANKFUL FOR THE SMALL THINGS...:
The man who toppled a governor: A casual introduction in Israel 4 years ago would prove to be McGreevey's undoing (JOSH MARGOLIN AND MARK MUELLER, August 13, 2004, Newark Star-Ledger)
The seeds for Gov. James E. McGreevey's stunning announcement yesterday that he is gay and that he will resign in November were planted four years ago at an elegant political reception in Israel.It was at a performing arts center in Rishon Lezion, a middle-class enclave outside Tel Aviv, that McGreevey was introduced to Golan Cipel, a spokesman for the local mayor and a former information officer for the Israeli consulate in New York.
Six months after that chance encounter in March 2000, Cipel left for New Jersey to work on the Woodbridge mayor's campaign for governor. McGreevey helped him find a car, a job and an apartment a tenth of a mile from the Woodbridge townhouse he shared with his wife.
The Israeli national would go on to play a controversial role in McGreevey's political life over the next two years, first as the newly elected governor's homeland security adviser, drawing widespread criticism for his inexperience, and then as a "special counsel" with ill-defined responsibilities and a $110,000 annual salary.
...like their not defininf those "responsibilities." Posted by Orrin Judd at August 13, 2004 1:51 PM
Ah, well, one of our Republican legislators was caught grabbing the crotch of an undercover agent at a notorious public toilet.
He didn't resign, most likely will be re-elected -- if he'd waiting a week to be caught, he wouldn't have had any Democratic opposition, now he has 2 unknowns.
I haven't heard the GOP moralizers, of whom we have a surfeit, howling for his scalp.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at August 13, 2004 10:12 PMAre your Hawaiian Republican legislators as liberal as our Vermont Republicans?
Posted by: Jason Johnson at August 14, 2004 12:26 AM