Phoebus: The Legislature's resident nutcase

Every now and then, the behavior of some politician reaches that special level where they go beyond simply being bad and end up somewhere around crazy. 

Who can forget Steve Lipski, standing on a balcony at a night club and literally pissing on the voters below?  Then there's Charles Mainor, a Democrat Assemblyman who told voters that he couldn't figure out how websites like "Big Bootie Freaks" made it on to his Facebook page.  On the national level, we've all heard of Anthony Weiner and Hillary Clinton. 

Well move over, because now there's Assemblywoman Gail Phoebus.

Phoebus forwarded emails that revealed a variety of questionable dealings, including compromising the Open Public Meetings Act.  She forwarded the emails from her personal email address, during a period of time when she was a member of the Sussex County Freeholder Board.  But that didn't stop Phoebus from claiming that the computer at her Assembly office had been "hacked" and that legislative aides were in on the "conspiracy."  Forget the fact that she didn't have a legislative office or a legislative computer or was even a member of the Legislature when she forwarded the emails. 

Phoebus would simply forward the sensitive emails to recipients asking what they thought or as parts of chains in response to routine questions, like a telephone number inquiry.  Suffice to say that Phoebus is something of an Internet moron.

Taking personal responsibility is not something Phoebus is comfortable with, so instead, she lied.  Even worse, she involved OLS -- the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services.  Her campaign claimed that OLS had conducted an FBI-style raid on her district office, seizing computers, naming suspects, and "locking down" her legislative office.  But none of it happened, none of it was true.  And when called on it, the campaign claimed it was "satire."

Let's place this into perspective.  Phoebus is not as crazy as Sussex County can get, like the candidate for Sheriff who ended up arrested for conspiring with other cannibals.  Or the candidate for Freeholder who tried to hire a hit man.  Phoebus isn't that kind of howl-at-the-moon crazy.  She's just the kind of crazy who believes that if you imagine something, and then repeat it often enough, that makes it true.  That's a far cry from writing recipes where the main course is your next-door neighbor.

And to be fair to Phoebus, this isn't the only push back her campaign is making, now that she has been cut from the GOP ticket and replaced by former Labor Commissioner Hal Wirths.  Facing a team with more than $250,000 in its coffers, Phoebus has mustered $15,000.  So she's resorted to a, shall we say, "unique" style of campaigning.  This is what her campaign was pushing last week:

Yes, those are what you think they are.  Like we said, some crazy stuff.  Bat-shit crazy!

All this so Phoebus can sign-off on a liberal judge?

As a young married man, just starting a family, Steve Oroho got involved in public policy by going to March for Life walks and as a numbers-cruncher for W. R. Grace and Company -- who fed those numbers into something called the Grace Commission, set up President Ronald Reagan to find ways to make government run efficiently.  Steve's son was Senator Bob Littell's paper boy, and it was through him that he met Bob and became the Senator's campaign treasurer.

Alison Littell McHose urged Steve to get involved in local government in Franklin Borough.  He started with the economic development committee and then was elected to borough council.  He helped the town manage its debt and brought in new procedures to monitor spending.  Steve was elected to the freeholder board in 2004, where he worked with Hal Wirths and Gary Chiusano to overhaul Sussex County's budget process and establish fiscal restraint.

In 2007, he stood for State Senate after Senator Bob Littell became too ill to run for re-election.   Steve was the underdog.  Nobody in Trenton thought he could win and none of the usual sources of fundraising were open to him.  But Steve had been asked by leaders in the Sussex County community to run anyway, to try to keep the Senate seat in Sussex County.  His opponent was a Morris County resident and Morris County was crowded with Senate seats. Sussex County only had one. 

So Steve put his own money up.  It was a hardship for him and his growing family, but he did it anyway, because he listened and understood that Sussex County needed its own Senator.  That counties without proper representation become orphans in Trenton and got short shrift.  Running with an all-Sussex team of Alison Littell McHose, Gary Chiusano, Hal Wirths, and Jeff Parrott -- Steve and the whole team won. 

Since then, Steve has served Sussex County, Northwest New Jersey, and the 24th Legislative District.  Whenever a Republican candidate has needed resources, Steve has been there, putting his hand in his pocket or raising it.  Whenever the county GOP was broke and needed money, Steve has seen them through.  When the state party and Republican legislative candidates needed money, Steve has given it or raised it for them.  Conservative organizations have turned to Steve and he has never let them down.  Christian charities, places where young women can have their babies instead of being financially pressed into abortion, have turned to Steve -- and he has never turned them away. 

When Americans for Prosperity (AFP) put up a candidate for Governor, Steve Oroho incurred the wrath of Chris Christie but Steve would not go against AFP's candidate.  And when that man said that he would be a candidate for the United States Senate against Cory Booker, Steve was among the first to rally to his side.

As Senator, Steve has worked with conservative think tanks to fashion model conservative legislation.  Steve serves as chairman of the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and he's carried legislation for the NRA and other Second Amendment groups.  He is the prime sponsor of the Pro-Life community's most important piece of legislation.  He has championed the cause of religious liberty and traditional values. 

The business community -- small and large -- has relied on Steve Oroho to protect them from big government and over-regulation.  And he has protected both the job creators and the taxpayers.  Against great odds and with both chambers controlled by the Democrats, Steve has the best record of passing tax cuts in Trenton.  In fact, the Star-Ledger tracked the legislative success of legislators and found that of the top ten, only one was a Republican -- Steve Oroho.

It's true that Steve Oroho doesn't sound like Donald Trump.  He doesn't talk trash about those he disagrees with.  Instead, Steve engages in a policy discussion with them.  He comes armed with facts not curse words.  He is patient, courteous, and kind to those with whom he disagrees.  And that's why he gets other legislators, even Democrats, to see his way.

In 2011, the Tea Party got mad at Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose because she wouldn't support a liberal for the Republican nomination for United States Senate.  That liberal was Dick LaRossa, a former State Senator who the NRA had walked away from in 1996.  The Tea Party had been sweet-talked by Dick.  They liked Dick and thought he was the next big thing.  That all came to nothing.  So, seeking revenge, the Tea Party ran two candidates in District 24 against McHose and Gary Chiusano.  One Tea Party candidate got 5 percent of the vote.  The other got 2 percent.

Now they want to do it again.  And it's all over the appointment of a liberal judge to the Superior Court.  Senator Steve Oroho won't do it.  But a Senator Gail Phoebus would. 

The Tea Party has chosen as its issue the gas tax portion of the tax restructuring package.  The one tax in a five-tax-cuts package.  They have been attacking Steve Oroho for weeks using the most graphic violent and pornographic language.  The vicious rumors have been spread by people who once turned to him in their need.  Why do some people feel the need to damage someone they called "friend" and spread filth just because they disagree over a single policy?  These are people who claim to believe in God -- but what Creator would license this type of behavior towards that which is His?

We don't believe that the Tea Party will be any more successful this time than it was in 2011.  But one day, Steve Oroho will leave the scene.  And who will fill his shoes?  Then the Tea Party will be singing a different tune:

Tea Party aims at Oroho... hits Garrett

The Skylands Tea Party claims to be conservative -- and yet, while the most conservative Congressman to represent New Jersey in decades is fighting for his political life, they have been focused on attacking a conservative Republican legislator.  That's become the role of the Tea Party.  They don't care about defeating Democrats because in a General Election setting, they're a joke.

Remember this Tea Party candidate:

And she's right... she is them. 

Yep, Republicans should have taken the United States Senate in 2010.  Instead, it took Republicans three election cycles to capture the Senate.  In 2010, the GOP was poised to capture both Houses of Congress like they had in 1994, but nobody had factored in the Tea Party (which didn't exist in 1994).  The deftness with which the Tea Party regularly shit the bed allowed the Democrats to hang on in 2010 and 2012 -- losing only in 2014, but setting them up for a comeback this November.

And they are doing it in Northwest New Jersey, where solid-conservative Congressman Scott Garrett is in a dogfight with Clintonista Josh Gottheimer.  The election is a month away and what is the Tea Party doing?  They are trying to screw a conservative legislator who believes debt needs to be addressed and  who successfully negotiated the largest tax cut legislation in New Jersey history.  They say it isn't the way they wanted it to be and so it's "let's kill our fellow conservative!"

When Tea Party Assemblyperson Gail Phoebus addresses a Tea Party rally in two weeks time, it will not be to help Scott Garrett or even to beat liberal Democrat Gottheimer, it will be to screw the Republican legislator she shares an office with -- the guy who endorsed her and helped her win an election less than a year ago. 

Yeah, these people do have darn short memories.  The operating principle of the Tea Party is to talk bad about liberals and Democrats but keep the screwings within the family. 

Tea partier Phoebus, a sort-of unofficial editor over at the NJ Herald, has been lobbying local mayors to screw her fellow Republicans.  Taking her advice, Franklin Mayor Nick Giordano threatened to recall and then run against Senator Oroho -- although he quickly denied doing so.  Not so with Vernon Mayor Harry Shortway, who formally endorsed liberal Democrat and former Clinton apparatchik Josh Gottheimer for Congress against conservative incumbent Garrett.  This is what happens when you save the screwings for fellow conservatives and Republicans. 

Now are you happy, Gail?

Why does the Tea Party focus all its hatred on fellow Republicans?  Because that is all they are capable of.  The Tea Party has never been known to do a Democrat any harm in New Jersey.  What they can do is shit up a primary and, if lucky enough to win, nominate a candidate so bad that even in Northwest New Jersey a Democrat can beat him.  What kind of candidate? 

This is a recent post from a Tea Party candidate who challenged Congressman Garrett in a primary and claimed that one vote he disagreed with made Garrett "a liberal":

Because of limped dicked conservatives we got the present problem and nobody is willing to vote for liars and thieves in different suits. So our representatives don't get to expand and we remain screwed...... Money whores fucking the working guy.

Yes, that is how they talk. 

The great problem with the Tea Party is that they lack humanity, humility, and common decency.  Like fascists, they treat those they disagree with like pests to be exterminated, not like people with a different point of view. 

Memo to Bill Spadea and others... your armbands are showing.

Phoebus: Democrats "celebrate" death

Whether it is an act of love or lust or a combination of both, when a woman has sexual congress with a man and the outcome is pregnancy, what is growing within her is a part of life. Some say it is an unborn child, others call it a fetus.  Whatever it is, when you abort it, you end a story.  You end the she or he who might have been.  That much is certain.

We all know women who have faced this crossroads.  Who had to choose.  It is not a light decision.  It is not a happy time. 

Now come the Democrats.  Senator Loretta "Mother Roach" Weinberg and Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, who should know better.  They proposed a resolution "celebrating" this unhappy time. 

We get it.  There are some who are so proud that they cannot admit to an unhappiness -- it might bring with it doubt.  And so they tell themselves that "this is a good thing" and that they are glad for it.  They place what they've done on an alter and worship it.  For them it becomes "the sacrament of abortion."  For them, doubt must be shouted away and dissenters heckled down.

The Democrats' resolution used the opportunity presented by the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade to "recognize and celebrate the importance of continued access to reproductive health care for women."  Ah, those euphemisms!  It reminds us of the time a groups of lawyers, bureaucrats, and politicians gathered on the outskirts of a capital to work out another "euphemism."  Can you guess which one?

Let's cut the euphemisms, Roe v. Wade isn't about "reproductive health care" -- as everyone knows, it is about abortion.  Roe v. Wade legalized abortion.

Addressing her colleagues, Assemblywoman Gail Phoebus (R-Sussex, Warren, Morris) nailed it:

“Let’s be real. Roe v. Wade isn’t about women’s health care issues. To sit here and have the Legislature celebrate 58 million abortions since 1973 is abhorrent. Apparently gone are the days of claiming that ‘no one is pro-abortion,’ but only pro-choice. If we looked, I think we would find far more women who regret having abortions and have a more difficult task finding women who regret choosing life.

The reality is the decision legalized the aborting of unborn children.  Roe v. Wade redefined what a person is in the same vein as another low-point for our Supreme Court and our nation, the Dred Scott Decision.

“Our nation’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence, is clear:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

“By serving in this legislative body, we are representatives of the people and we govern with their consent.  I take my duty seriously to protect the rights of all – born and unborn.”

Of course, the Democrats would rather ignore these words.  Too old-fashioned.  They have a new operating principle.  Or is it?  In many ways, what they are striving for, are a set of old 1930's sci-fi imaginings.  The total control, erotic nanny state as imagined by Aldous Huxley in 1931 is a very different totalitarian vision than the one conjured by George Orwell more than a decade later.  But both picked up the direction in which we -- with the help of Mother Roach and her sidekick, Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle -- are continuing down the path today.  So for your edification, we present this film adaptation of the novel, "Brave New World." 

Enjoy and remember, whether you are a Republican from Westfield or a Bergen County Democrat, you too can "be allowed to go back to your erotic training class and play 'hunt the zipper'."  Don't ask what it means, watch the movie.