Hypocrisy Asbury Park Press Style

In our recent interview, Middletown Mayor Gerry Scharfenberger mentioned that the township's revenue from newspaper recycling was down by $400,000 this year.

Maybe if the Asbury Park Press put out a better product we could lay off a few less people. If the Neptune Newsies would stop being such dolts, more people would buy the paper and put up with the inconvenience of recycling it. Middletown could then have its brush pick up or miniature golf and more people would read Marilyn Tuohy's ridiculous letters.

In an editorial headlined Abide by spirit of pay to play the APP joins the NJEA, the CWA and Trenton Democrats in chiding Governor Christie for the support he has received from the 501.c (4) group Reform New Jersey Now.

The Neptune Newsies should know that laws don't have spirits anymore than lawyers do. If New Jersey's pay to play campaign finance laws had a spirit it would be named Lucifer. The laws were designed by unions and other special interests and approved by Democrats so that they could get their message out to the public while keeping Republicans from doing the same.

The main stream newsies went along with this scheme, which has lead us into fiscal disaster, either because they liked the Democratic/union message, they were too lazy to figure it out, or because they just got duped like the rest of us. The problem with media being lazy or getting duped is that it is their job to inform the public.

Now that some Republicans have finally figured out the game, the Trenton Democrats and their media dolts want to change the game to keep their advantage.

The APP said in part:

Gov. Chris Christie apparently believes it's OK to sidestep a law if it's his ox that is being gored by it. Another name for that would be hypocrisy.

It's no secret the governor has close ties to Reform Jersey Now, a group run by assorted Republicans, including some of Christie's advisers, that seems to exist solely to support his agenda. There's nothing wrong with that, except it is an organization that tiptoes around the state's pay-to-play laws.

Contributors to Reform Jersey Now are not bound by the laws that ban those with state contracts worth more than $17,500 from donating more than $300 to statewide campaigns. As a 501(c)(4) organization, it is allowed to stay in the shadows. It is not required to let the world know who's ponying up the money to further its agenda and who might stand to benefit from promoting Christie's goals.

Governor Christie doesn't sidestep and Reform New Jersey Now doesn't tiptoe. The Democrats and their union friends designed the pay to play laws so that they would have the freedom to spend enough to keep New Jersey taxpayers in the ether. Now they feign offense that Republicans found the loophole and are driving, not sidestepping or tiptoeing, through it.

Many have heard Reform New Jersey's commercials in support of Christie's reform agenda. We've also heard the unions' commercials against Christie's reforms. Where is the editorial chiding the unions' efforts?

Charging Christie with hypocrisy is funny coming from the APP.

Back in January while Congressman Francis Pallone, Jr was busy pushing his government take over of America's best in the world health care system instead of doing his job of providing oversight of deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, there was big news that Phoney Palloney received $321,000 from health care providers, insurance companies and manufacturers. Phoney Palloney received more contributions from the health care industry than any other member of congress.

Here's what the Asbury Park Press had to say about that on January 19, the day that Christie was inaugurated Governor:

Strong arguments can be made for the need to regulate campaign contributions to remove the corrupting influence of money. But it would be unwise to use Rep. Frank Pallone's contributions from the health care industry to bolster the case.

Pallone, D-N.J., received $321,000 in campaign donations from the industry in the 2010 election cycle — more than any other member of the House, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That should come as little surprise given the central role Pallone has played in the House version of the health care bill as chairman of the health subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Committee chairs, regardless of party affiliation, typically are magnets for campaign cash from industries and interests they oversee.

In Pallone's case, at least, the money doesn't seem to have swayed his thinking. The House version of the bill, which has his fingerprints all over it, has been widely opposed by health insurers and other groups with a financial stake in health care reform. With Pallone, the strategy appears to be damage control. As Rutgers political scientist Ross Baker put it, while Pallone "won't carry their water," the industry believes its contributions "may reduce the level of hostility."

There is no shortage of examples of how campaign money corrupts. Pallone's largess from the health care industry would not appear to be one of them.

Can you believe that?

The APP believes the Phoney spin that Palloney's contributors are getting nothing for their money, so therefore it is OK that he takes it. Yet they write today as if Governor Christie is doing something untoward because those who support his agenda are using a legal mechanism to get their message out.

More on campaign finance and more on Phoney Palloney's ties to his contributors to follow. Since the Neptune Newsies are either too intellectually lazy or too intellectually dishonest to tell the real story, we'll do it for you.

Let's see if the APP lets the feed from this post go through to their website. If it does, there is hope for them.