"Stumbling John" McCann tries to b.s. the Sussex GOP

There is something strange about "Stumbling John" McCann and the shambolic sideshow he calls his campaign.  A few weeks ago, he visited Sussex County to attend a fundraiser hosted by the Skylands Victory PAC.  At that event, he stunned those present with a weird talk about how his wife -- an ob-gyn doctor in New York City -- did not perform "late-term abortions."  What???

Why would a candidate running in a Republican primary in Pro-Life Sussex County even bring that up?  But there he was, assuring everyone present of that distinction.  Did McCann take temporary leave of his senses, or did someone coach him to say it? 

Last night McCann was back in Sussex County, at the GOP county committee's final meeting of the year, and once again he couldn't keep it together.  In contrast to the others present, McCann attacked his fellow Republicans, played the arrogant  bully, and made a general nuisance of himself -- speaking so long that he had to be asked to stop.

And what did "Stumbling John" McCann talk about?  He talked about how great "Stumbling John" McCann was.  Hey, it's the holiday season and we all encounter buttholes like this at work parties and such, going on and on and on about their favorite subject... which is them.

McCann used the Sussex GOP to further embellish his tall tale about how he killed the Clinton Healthcare Plan.  Apparently forgetting what his own campaign biography states, McCann claimed to have been called on by the Wharton School to save healthcare.  That's not what he wrote in his bio.  Memo to McCann:  If you are going to b.s. -- at least be consistent.

The truth is a lot less than the story McCann makes from it.  McCann was a college intern in liberal Senator Arlen Specter's office.  At the direction of his superiors, John McCann claims to have made a graph.  That's right.  A graph.  And just like the typical self-important, overblown junior academic, he takes credit for the hard work of all those Senators and Congressman and Rush Limbaugh and talk radio and the medical professionals and all those thousands of conservative activists and all the reams of studies and research and opinion pieces and thousands of graphs of all those conservative and libertarian think tanks -- not to mention the Republican legal staffs of both the House and the Senate.  No mention of all them... it was "me" says McCann.  "Me and my graph... saved not just New Jersey... but America!"  Yeah, sounds like he gazed into that mirror a bit too long.

McCann followed up this hooey with the claim that, in 1995, he was the first to propose a 2% tax cap on property taxes in New Jersey.  McCann claims he got the idea from reading about Proposition 2 1/2 in Massachusetts and Proposition 13 in California.  Now here is where his b.s. breaks down entirely.

Leaving aside the fact that John McCann was never in a position to actually propose anything (he didn't hold the necessary public office), consider this...

Proposition 2 1/2 was passed in Massachusetts in 1980 and went into effect in 1982. 

Proposition 13 was passed in California in 1978 and went into effect immediately.

And John McCann wants us to believe that in all those years between 1978 and 1995, nobody (let's say that again) nobody had the idea to try it in New Jersey???

In fact, there were a plethora of newspaper stories discussing proposed caps in New Jersey as low as 1 1/2 percent nearly a decade before McCann claims to have thought of it.  There was even a ballot question on the issue in Bergen County. 

This guy is too sloppy, too angry and thin-skinned to be a real candidate.  That's why so many people think he's been put up by the Democrats to screw with the Republican primary.  As the Bergen County Record noted recently, McCann is the longtime right-hand man to Democrat Sheriff Michael Saudino. 

McCann's boss Saudino was on Hillary Clinton's Democrat ticket against the Republican ticket headed by Donald Trump in 2016.  The same ticket Josh Gottheimer was on.  That's too close for comfort in anyone's book.

McCann comments on Moore... after the race is over.

A profile of courage it isn't.  On the afternoon after the Alabama special election in which Republican Roy Moore was defeated, candidate John McCann issued a press release saying that candidates like Moore were "unacceptable." 

Hey, Stumbling John, the election is over.

And what does McCann mean by "unacceptable"?  Social conservatives?  Pro-lifers?  Born-again Christians?  Pro-Second Amendment?  Was McCann referring to the allegations by women against Moore?  He doesn't say.

What he does say is that it is "the loss of another seat in the United States Senate."  Another?  Is McCann referring to Al Franken, the Democrat Senator from Minnesota who recently resigned?  What is McCann referring to?

McCann has been trying to style himself a feminist -- and to contrast his feminism with what he claims is Lonegan's anti-feminism.  In a recent Politico column, McCann brought up his tax liens and suggested that they arose from his wife's medical practice and that Steve Lonegan was somehow an anti-feminist for raising the issue.  Someone looked into this and suggested to us that candidate McCann was being less than honest with Politico. 

Candidate McCann's first IRS lien was filed September 8, 2011 for $17,704 against John McCann's legal practice (John McCann/Law Office of John McCann) and not his wife's medical practice (she is a doctor in New York City).  McCann's wife does not use his last name in connection with her practice.  This first lien appears to cover several quarterly tax periods beginning in 2010 and ending in March 2011. This lien in no way directly involved either his wife or her practice.

That lien was prepared by the IRS in Detroit, Michigan, for filing in Bergen County, New Jersey.  Separately, the IRS office in Baltimore, Maryland, also prepared a duplicate of this lien that was separately filed in Hillsborough County in Florida, where McCann owned property. This is done to ensure the debtor's judgment is paid if the real estate he owns is sold.  This tax lien was paid in December 2011 and released. 

The second lien -- for $118,295 -- was filed in February 2014 against both McCann and his wife.  This lien came was filed 2 1/2 years after the first, and doesn't impact on his earlier business lien.  Now, it has come to light that there are more liens, but that is for another day...

McCann's is a very strange candidacy.  It seems entirely spent on dishing out DCCC talking points on Republican Steve Lonegan.  When asked to comment on an actual issue -- like the Republican Tax Bill -- McCann clams up.  The best the New Jersey Herald could get from him is "noncommittal." 

Why?  Well remember where John McCann came from.  He put together his campaign for Congress while a political patronage employee for Democrat Sheriff Michael Saudino.  The Bergen Record said he was Saudino's "right-hand man."  Yes, this Michael Saudino...

That was posted just a few days ago, before McCann's latest round of DCCC talking points inspired attacks on Republican Steve Lonegan. 

Oh, and did we mention that John McCann is the lawyer for the NJ Sheriffs' Association?  You know, the same folks who put out a press release yesterday lauding Democrat Gottheimer and attacking the Trump administration.  And guess who was quoted?  Yep, McCann's boss...

“Last year, Bergen County taxpayers received more than $500,000 back from the federal government through the SCAAP program, and almost $7 million through a cooperative agreement with the federal government at our correctional facility in Hackensack. I applaud Congressman Gottheimer for fighting to make sure local law enforcement here in North Jersey has the resources needed to fulfill our mission, protect our communities, and save taxpayers money.”  said Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino. (InsiderNJ, December 13, 2017)

Like we've said before, John McCann's candidacy seems designed to screw up GOP chances in the 5th District.

McCann: "I got to stop drinking in the morning."

Yep, that is what John McCann said as he -- the candidate who hopes to take on Democrat Josh Gottheimer -- stumbled about, mistaking the Sheriff he had invited to his Saturday kick-off for a Democrat Mayor.  That was his excuse, "...drinking in the morning."  No kidding.  It is in his video, posted on YouTube, about twelve minutes into his speech.  Oh well, if you say so.

Candidate John McCann is a shambolic mess.

He had a member of the notorious Zisa family... yep, the liberal niece of far-left Democrat Loretta Weinberg's former running mate, up front, running the event for him.   Remarkable.

The Bergen Record correctly reported "scores" of supporters -- not the inflated numbers reported by the former house blog of the Christie for Governor campaign.  But then half of those were Democrats.  The candidate even acknowledged them as Democrats and told a shambling story about how he had apologized his "fault" for running a campaign critical of Democrats in 1995.  Wow, is that an asshole move or what?  You run at the height of Bill Clinton's madness and you apologize for calling out the Democrats?  Donna Brazile would make a better GOP candidate.  At least she's not afraid to call out the Clintons.

But it got worse.  McCann actually mocked people who get involved in politics because they believe in something.  He publically eschewed right wing and left wing -- instead he came up with a new way to describe people like him:  The Chicken Wing of the GOP.  And what does the Chicken Wing stand for?  It stands for getting paid.  It is no big deal for a member of the Chicken Wing of the GOP to be employed by a Democrat office-holder.  The Chicken Wing exists to make its members some dough and they don't let principles or things like party loyalty or right and wrong get in the way of that.  That's the GOP's Chicken Wing and every elected official -- other than the Democrats, of course -- present at Saturday's kick-off will be made to explain, at some strategic point in time, why he or she is down with the Chicken Wing.  Let's hope they don't choke on the bone.

Like the noisy guy at the end of the bar, candidate McCann rambled on and on bragging that he invented health care or some shit like that and that he was the founder of the property tax cap -- even though he wasn't around when it was passed, had nothing to do with it, and none of the legislators who actually passed it even remotely remember his name in connection with it.  In what became an extended rant encompassing a lot of unconnected thoughts, McCann claimed that there is no difference between the family values of a Roman Catholic and an Islamic fundamentalist.  Has he never heard of honor killings, arranged marriages, or child brides?  Yeah, those are "family values" in some places.  Hey, in Mecca, you can get your head cut off for being gay -- in Vatican City... no.

But it is all the same to John McCann who is perhaps the most well-educated idiot running for office who we have ever had the delight to cover.  This isn't the shallow end of the pool we're talking about here -- this is sitting in a bowl of your own piss and calling it the shallow end of the pool.  You see, ideas don't matter to John McCann.  Differences in ideology or theology or party loyalty don't matter to John McCann -- only the scam matters, the deal, the money.

Which brings us to his campaign's lack of it, money.  As the Record put it:  "Gottheimer, a former Clinton political aide from Wyckoff, spent $4.7 million to unseat Garrett. Garrett spent $4.3 million.  'If you’re running for Congress in the 5th District, you have to raise $2 million at a minimum,' said Dr. Benjamin Dworkin, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider College.  Dworkin said the 5th was one of only four congressional districts nationwide which switched from Republican to Democrat in 2016.   McCann said Saturday he has yet to raise any money."

Why would he?  McCann's candidacy seems to be designed by the Democrats and run by the Democrats to do nothing but screw up the Republican primary.

How so?  Remember the Democrats' reaction to Steve Lonegan's announcement?  They attacked him from the DCCC in Washington, DC, and from Gottheimer's home base in Wyckoff and they have kept on attacking him -- in emails, press releases, fundraising letters.  That's what you do when you face an opponent you are afraid of. 

And what do the Democrats make of John McCann?  Not a word.  Not even a barely suppressed yawn.  Why should they?  As the Record noted in its opening line:  "John McCann, the attorney and longtime right-hand man to Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino." 

That's Michael Saudino -- the Democrat Sheriff of Bergen County.  McCann is his right-hand man.  He is one of them.

The mad, mad world of Dem expat John McCann

Last week, Jersey Conservative criticized candidate John McCann for not having a Facebook page.  So he got one in a hurry.  "In a hurry" being the operative phrase.

The problem when you react is that you often get things wrong.  Like this screw up:  "About:  John J. McCann is the only candidate with a proven track record of lowering taxes for New Jersey's 5th congressional district."

Now that's a lie.  McCann has never held office in New Jersey's 5th congressional district.  He was never in a position to have a track record of anything. 

Then there is McCann's crazy biography.

McCann begins by bragging about being from Massachusetts but claims to have moved to New Jersey because he likes it here -- except that he still has a place in New England.  We're told he's a Patriots fan. 

Then he writes that his mentor is disgraced Senator Arlen Specter -- a Democrat, who turned Republican, then turned back to Democrat after cutting a deal with President Obama, who was then dumped out of office in a Democrat primary.  Oh yea, he's also the moron who came up with the science-defying "magic bullet" theory in the investigation of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. 

McCann's big claim to fame was -- so he writes -- making up the chart that Democrat-turned Republican-turned Democrat Specter used to explain Hillary Care.  Specter would later side with Bill Clinton when he got caught having that canoodle with a young intern.  And this is the guy McCann tells us he's taking after?

In his biography that he wrote and posted on his Facebook page, John McCann explains to us that he worked for the Democrat Sheriff of Bergen County for six years.  How's that?  Yep, McCann held a patronage job courtesy of a Democrat Party elected official.  No wonder many observers believe he was recruited by the Democrats to screw the GOP's chances of re-taking the 5th congressional district.

He also writes that he currently works for the bi-partisan Sheriffs Association in New Jersey.  Yep, the same crew that has been criticized for their double-dipping and pension schemes.  Award-winning reporter Mark Lagerkvist has written extensively about how property taxpayers are being ripped-off.  In a recent NJ Spotlight report, Lagerkvist noted: " All told, the sheriffs on this list pull down about $3.3 million a year in public pay — $2.1 million in county salaries plus $1.2 million from state pensions." 

And get a load of this -- the top two rip-offs are elected Democrats from the 5th congressional district:

 1. Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino (D)

$267,987 – $138,000 salary + $129,987 pension as an Emerson Borough police retiree

2. Passaic County Sheriff Richard H. Berdnik (D)

$253,957 – $151,887 salary + $102,070 pension as a Clifton police retiree

What is John McCann doing shilling for these guys?  And how can he claim to be a tax saver when he represents tax rip-offs?

This is all self-inflicted.  He wrote this b.s. himself so he owns it.