TRENTON, N.J. - Gov. James E. McGreevey will announce his resignation Thursday, a longtime friend and political adviser has told The Associated Press.
AP Photo
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was one of several advisers and staff members who met with McGreevey throughout the afternoon to discuss his political future.
"He's made up his mind," the source said, just before the governor was to attend an afternoon news conference.
McGreevey, a Democrat and former suburban mayor, took office 2 1/2 years ago, and despite inheriting a $5 billion budget deficit, he steadfastly refused to boost income taxes for most New Jerseyans, instead raising taxes on millionaires, casinos and cigarettes.
But he has been dogged by several scandals involving fund-raising.
Among those caught up in recent scandals were his first chief of staff and former counsel; a top Democratic fund-raiser and former high school classmate; and real estate developer Charles Kushner, McGreevey's biggest campaign contributor, who was charged with trying to thwart a federal campaign-finance investigation.
He would be the second governor to resign in weeks, following the resignation in June of Connecticut GOP Gov. John Rowland amid corruption investigations and threats of impeachment.
McGreevey rose from suburban mayor to state chief executive by his tenacious pursuit of party politics, maintaining a power base days after he narrowly lost to Republican Christie Whitman in 1997.
McGreevey never truly stopped that campaign until he won in November 2001, beating Republican Bret Schundler by 15 percentage points.
Born in Jersey City, McGreevey graduated from Columbia University in 1978. He earned a law degree from Georgetown University in 1981 and a master's degree in education from Harvard University a year later.
After briefly serving as a county prosecutor, McGreevey became a lobbyist for a pharmaceutical company, then a state government official. While in the Legislature, McGreevey voted for Gov. Jim Florio's $2.8 billion tax hike that prompted a voter rebellion against Democrats.
I was just listening to him address the press. He was engaged in an extramarital relationship with another man and now he's resigning.
Damn This was completely unexpected. I hope the next governor does a better job.
Just listened to it. He blamed his resignation on the fact that he was a gay American that engaged in extra marital affairs that hurt his family and thus he had to resign. No mention of the fund raising scandals. MacGreevy just set a precedent that being gay and having sex out side of marriage should make you resign while someone like Clinton set the precedent that as long as your straight and fucking around all's good with the world.
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Stravo wrote:Just listened to it. He blamed his resignation on the fact that he was a gay American that engaged in extra marital affairs that hurt his family and thus he had to resign. No mention of the fund raising scandals. MacGreevy just set a precedent that being gay and having sex out side of marriage should make you resign while someone like Clinton set the precedent that as long as your straight and fucking around all's good with the world.
What a fucking asshole! I hope the press doesn't take his bait, but I'm DAMN sure at least Faux News will!
Phil Skayhan wrote:Okay, this is coming out of nowhere for me! RedImp, Stravo, Dalton, was there anything in the wind leading up to this? Who broke the story???
Actually yeah, he'd been 'involved' in a few building political scandals (I think Stravo already mentioned the fund-raising scandals which involved both him and his biggest contributor,) he'd also hiked taxes recently (though it was aimed squarely at upper level) and that wasn't going over all that great, and his approval rating was low and getting lower.
As for him being a 'Gay American' I don't think anyone knew besides him, his lover, and the person blackmailing him, but I could be wrong.
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Stravo wrote:Just listened to it. He blamed his resignation on the fact that he was a gay American that engaged in extra marital affairs that hurt his family and thus he had to resign. No mention of the fund raising scandals. MacGreevy just set a precedent that being gay and having sex out side of marriage should make you resign while someone like Clinton set the precedent that as long as your straight and fucking around all's good with the world.
What a fucking asshole! I hope the press doesn't take his bait, but I'm DAMN sure at least Faux News will!
I would doubt it. For one thing, there have been lots of openly gay politicians, before, who haven't had to resign. I think that this one has as much to do with the fact that he had fucked up the state as it had to do with who he was fucking.
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His wife knew, and some others knew as I understand it.
Meanwhile, the person charging him with sexual harassment is his ex-boyfriend, which stinks like hell to me personally.
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Here's an article on a previous scandal, and this Golan Cipel character is the apparent "mistress" in this affair. Some people are already accusing Cipel of blackmail...
"I'm gay" is decidedly less harmful than "I'm a misappropriating, immoral bitch."
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Iceberg wrote:"I'm gay" is decidedly less harmful than "I'm a misappropriating, immoral bitch."
Except when dealing with fundies who cant understand most of the second sentence except to tut at the use of the word bitch.
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Iceberg wrote:"I'm gay" is decidedly less harmful than "I'm a misappropriating, immoral bitch."
Except when dealing with fundies who cant understand most of the second sentence except to tut at the use of the word bitch.
True, but given his policies I'm sure that a lot of fundies hated him, anyway. At least this way he can make it seem like it was out of concern for his family.
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Iceberg wrote:"I'm gay" is decidedly less harmful than "I'm a misappropriating, immoral bitch."
Except when dealing with fundies who cant understand most of the second sentence except to tut at the use of the word bitch.
It's not just about him being gay, he also cheated on his wife and his kids. He had an extramarital affair, one that if it got out, especially because it was a homosexual relationship, would rock his administration through the media channels.
The way I see it, his gay affair gave him a convenient ejector seat to get out of the governor's office before the corruption scandal hit him. If you resign because your personal indescretions have hurt your family and will impede your ability to govern, that's being brave and sacrificing your personal ambitions for the good of the state and your family. If you're impeached and thrown out because you're a fucking crook, well, you're just a fucking crook.
This corruption scandal was really closing in around his neck. IIRC, there were recordings of him actually talking to the people paying bribes. He was doomed, one way or another. Better this tabloid nonsense (I notice Fox News has been playing right into his hands with endless argle-bargle about his sexual orientation and nary a peep about his fundraising practices) than an actual crime.
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To be frank I wouldn't be too suprised if this long delayed resignation, along with letting a man of his choosing become govenor, was there to allow the party/people/mutants in New Jersey to start asking him to come back because it would be wrong to have him resign on account of his orientation. And if other parties/people/mutants try to stop it, they could pull a "You damn dirty HOMOPHOBE!" stunt, and build up a steam-roller, and maybe even keeping it going till re-election time comes around.
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RedImperator wrote:This corruption scandal was really closing in around his neck. IIRC, there were recordings of him actually talking to the people paying bribes. He was doomed, one way or another. Better this tabloid nonsense (I notice Fox News has been playing right into his hands with endless argle-bargle about his sexual orientation and nary a peep about his fundraising practices) than an actual crime.
Glenn Beck didn't miss it on his show today though.
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RedImperator wrote:The way I see it, his gay affair gave him a convenient ejector seat to get out of the governor's office before the corruption scandal hit him. If you resign because your personal indescretions have hurt your family and will impede your ability to govern, that's being brave and sacrificing your personal ambitions for the good of the state and your family. If you're impeached and thrown out because you're a fucking crook, well, you're just a fucking crook.
This corruption scandal was really closing in around his neck. IIRC, there were recordings of him actually talking to the people paying bribes. He was doomed, one way or another. Better this tabloid nonsense (I notice Fox News has been playing right into his hands with endless argle-bargle about his sexual orientation and nary a peep about his fundraising practices) than an actual crime.
That's because Faux News doesn't CARE about bad fundraising practices! Remember its masters: Cheney (and Halliburton), Shrub (and the Big Pharmas), both bitches (and Big Oil)! For them to point out some small politico's bad fundraising yet ignore Shrubby and Co.'s blatant bribery acceptance in direct contradiction to Freedom and Justice is the height of hypocrisy! Not that it ever stopped the fuckers before
And I'm still convinced Shrub let Micro$oft off the hook for a fee. Notice how quick the MS Vs DoJ case got thrown out after Mussolini^WBush took office?
More updates on the McGreevy scandal: apparently Governor Jim gave his boyfriend the job of state homeland security director despite having no experience in law enforcement, intelligence, or counter-terrorism. This wasn't enough--his boyfriend resigned that position and demanded millions of dollars in hush money, at which point McGreevy came out.
My guess is that the boyfriend blackmailed McGreevy into giving him a lucrative position in the state government (and I should be surprised, but I'm not, that the press didn't make a peep about an utterly unqualified poet being given a 6 figure state salary in the homeland security department). Nevertheless, if this is true (and since this story is coming from the McGreevy camp, I believe it), McGreevy needs to resign NOW, not in November. This is no different from a straight chief executive giving his mistress an important state job so his wife won't find out he's cheating. McGreevy should have picked his partner better, and when this asshole threatened to out him, he had no ethical choice other than to do nothing (or pay him off out of his own pockets, which aren't exactly shallow).
Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and, ultimately, deserves…We want and deserve tin-can architecture in a tinhorn culture. And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed.--Ada Louise Huxtable, "Farewell to Penn Station", New York Times editorial, 30 October 1963 X-Ray Blues
The really odd thing about this is that McGreevey isn't resigning now, he's resigning in TWO YEARS. Yes, he's still the governer of my fair state for the next two years. Can he even do that?
On a related note, maybe now Brett Schundler will have another go at the office. He's always struck me as being both a decent guy AND a republican, and it would be cool if he could take the state.
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This was completely unexpected. I hope the next governor does a better job.
very funny. Sad though that certain media sources are only focusing on the affair.