Did McCann photo-shop picture with Trump?

For us, the candidacy of John McCann has been a bag of laughs.  So fond are we of poking fun at his haughty -- yet hapless -- way of stumbling forth, that a few of our contributors have seriously considered helping him in the primary.  That's how much we will hate to see him go.

So here's the latest.  Somewhere along the way, the McCann campaign procured a photograph that pictures "Stumbling John" and The Donald shaking hands.  The President appears just a bit too animated, while McCann looks as if he just came from the shower and forgot to dry his hair.  We don't know where the photo came from, or when, or even if it is real. 

What leads us to question it is the McCann campaign's habit of changing the background to the photograph to suit their mood.  Why anyone would take such an important campaign image and then screw with it is beyond us.

(SOURCE:  McCann for Congress website)

(SOURCE: McCann for Congress Facebook page)

So what's next?  McCann shaking Trump's hand in front of the Eiffel Tower?  Or the two of them at the Great Pyramid of Giza?  Maybe they will photo-shop them with lederhosen or sombreros?  Or in Turkish towels, fresh from a sauna?  There is no end to what the McCann campaign can do with this photograph... except bring back its original honesty, if indeed, it was there in the first place.

Yet another case of John McCann pissing down his own leg.  Or perhaps it was his campaign that pissed on his leg?  Either way, it left the candidate a bit... soggy.

Liberal Democrats rally around McCann's candidacy

After losing the coveted "Column One" position in Bergen County and filing a campaign receipts and expenditures report with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) in April that showed his campaign was deep in debt and not raising enough money to sustain itself, candidate John McCann apparently sent out an SOS to his friends and colleagues.  They responded in a big way.

A former Democrat candidate for Mayor of Bogota (Bergen County) stepped forward to accuse McCann's opponent of saying some pithy things about him a decade or so ago.  McCann's campaign neglected to fully vet this Democrat (who they, oddly enough, describe as a "Christian conservative"), who recently attacked the policies of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. 

This too is odd, coming from the McCann camp, which claims to be pro-Trump even as it puts forward "spokespersons" who are decidedly anti-Trump.  We get "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" thing, but McCann can only take this so far.

Shambling forward came the "Ghost of losing the Legislature past" -- that impresario of the brylcreem set -- Paulie "the hand" DiGaetano.  He reached out to the "mastermind" behind the Bridgegate scandal with the story about how McCann's opponent had said mean things about the guy who ran for Mayor as a Democrat.  Mind you, this is the same DiGaetano who Senator Kevin O'Toole (R-Bergen, Passaic, Essex, Morris) claimed had threatened him.  It was widely reported on. 

O'Toole claims former assemblyman DiGaetano once threatened his life

https://www.politico.com/states/.../otoole-digaetano-once-threatened-my-life-102642

Jun 9, 2016 - Paul DiGaetano, a once powerful Republican assemblyman and former gubernatorial candidate, is on the cusp of returning to an active role in New Jersey politics for the first time in a decade.

O'Toole Claims DiGaetano Threatened His Life | Observer

observer.com/2016/06/otoole-claims-digaetano-threatened-his-life/

Jun 9, 2016 - Soon-to-retire state Senator Kevin O'Toole (R-40) has made claims that former Assemblyman and gubernatorial candidate Paul DiGaetano threatened his life during a one-on-one conversation the two men had over ten years ago as DiGaetano was mounting his gubernatorial run. O'Toole spoke with ...

'I'll f---ing kill you!' Senator's chilling account of closed-door N.J. ...

www.nj.com/.../ill_f_-_-_-_ing_kill_you_senators_chilling_account_of_closed-door_...

Jun 10, 2016 - A sitting state senator says a candidate for governor demanded his endorsement, and threatened to kill him if he refused. ... all the key parties. O'Toole (R-Essex) says the threat was made in 2005 by Paul DiGaetano, then a leading Republican assemblyman dreaming about a long-shot bid for governor.

DiGaetano was in the middle of a campaign to be Bergen County GOP Chairman, so his opponent seized upon this to demand that he withdraw from the race:

After O'Toole Threat Claims, Yudin Wants DiGaetano to Leave BCRO ...

observer.com/.../after-otoole-threat-claims-yudin-wants-digaetano-to-leave-bcro-race/

Jun 9, 2016 - Current Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) Chairman Bob Yudin is calling for his competitor, former Assemblyman Paul DiGaetano, to step out of the race for the position in the county organization. Yudin's call comes after allegations that DiGaetano once threatened the life of LD40 state ...

 Of course, DiGaetano disputed Senator O'Toole's claims and even threatened to sue him.

Bergen GOP chairman sues O'Toole over death-threat claims - Politico

https://www.politico.com/.../bergen-gop-chairman-sues-otoole-over-death-threat-clai...

Jun 15, 2017 - Republican Sen. Kevin O'Toole claimed DiGaetano, now the GOP chairman in Bergen County, delivered a “threat of great bodily harm” during a one-on-one conversation more than a decade ago.

We haven't heard any news about the lawsuit, but it appears as though Paulie "D" learned a new trick, because he is pulling the same thing on McCann's opponent that was pulled on him.  Now it is DiGaetano who is making phone calls on behalf of McCann, urging that their opponent be made to drop out of the race for the Republican nomination for Congress in the 5th District. 

You couldn't make this silly shit up.  As a county chairman DiGaetano has been a disaster.  Now he is calling GOP leaders asking them to join him in demanding someone drop out for being accused of saying actually far less than what he was accused of saying -- only the guy DiGaetano wants to drop out was accused by a Democrat and DiGaetano was accused by a Republican. 

"Stumbling John" McCann and his followers are real pieces of work. 

Did McCann pay for an endorsement? Aide says, "yes".

John McCann's campaign did themselves a mischief again. 

This time by shopping around a story to the Washington Examiner about McCann's recent fundraiser with Sebastian Gorka, a former foreign policy advisor at the White House who was fired by the Trump administration after a few months on the job.  The Examiner story leads with the following headline: 

"Sebastian Gorka wades into New Jersey primary for another $5,000."

The article ends with:

"Before supporting McCann in New Jersey, (Gorka) looked west, endorsed Republican Danny Tarkanian in Nevada — then a candidate for Senate — and collected another $5,000 in “speaking fees.” Asked in February whether he sold his endorsement to Tarkanian, Gorka said it was an “honorarium” and added that an endorsement sale “would be illegal.” 

When reached for comment for this story, Gorka answered: “Get a life you hack. You’re not a journalist so I have nothing to say to you and I’m blocking this email.”

Brutal stuff... which led to this morning's Politico story in which McCann claims to deny everything his campaign told the Examiner:

MCCANCEL PAYMENT -  The Washington Examiner, a conservative publication,  reports  via an anonymous campaign aide that 5th District Congressional candidate John McCann paid former Trump adviser Rick Gorka, who endorsed him and raised money for him, $5,000. McCann denies this on Twitter. "This not true. FEC filings will show my campaign did not pay Gorka a penny. The statement by my aide is simply not true." I've been waiting for McCann's FEC report because Gorka has a history of being paid not for his endorsement but, ahem,  a "speaking fee."  Of course, McCann or Gorka could have headed off that Washington Examiner story that McCann says is false if either had answered my question about whether Gorka was being paid when I asked it two weeks ago.

The conduct of the McCann campaign has raised eyebrows before.  Some key consultants on the campaign have bragged to some very reputable people about what they were being paid by McCann -- and yet their names never appeared on the McCann campaign's disclosures to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).  Now we have this Gorka affair.

Well, they don't call him "Stumbling John" McCann for nothing.  Shambolic. 

McCann bashes Jewish veteran for standing up for faith

The campaign of "Stumbling John" McCann choose the start of Passover to launch a bitter personal attack on a leader of the Jewish community in Bergen County.  Under attack by McCann is former Bergen County GOP Chairman Bob Yudin.  McCann chose to include a nasty personal attack -- from the candidate -- on Yudin in his campaign's release.

Yudin's crime?  He dared to criticize candidate McCann's acceptance of an endorsement from a controversial figure named Sebastian Gorka.  Gorka was a foreign policy advisor in the White House before being fired by the Trump administration.  Gorka has also been the subject of a lot of media coverage over his connections to some rather icky people.

Yudin, who was born while the Nazis and Hitler were in power, fearlessly questioned the appropriateness of McCann's choice of Gorka -- both as an endorser and the featured speaker at a McCann fundraiser.  Politico (03.23.18) takes over from here:

The former chairman of Bergen County‘s Republican Party is slamming a congressional candidate for raising money with Sebastian Gorka, a one-time adviser to President Donald Trump who wore a medal associated with a Hungarian group that collaborated with Nazi Germany.

“It’s absolutely despicable. It shows that I have to assume that John McCann approves of this man,” said Bob Yudin, who chaired the Bergen County GOP from 2008 to 2016 and backs McCann rival Steve Lonegan for the GOP nomination in the 5th Congressional District. “This man seems to have sympathy toward fascists and Nazis, and this act of accepting support from him disqualifies John McCann in all ways and manners from being my congressman.”

John McCann should know better.  He is a lawyer.  His wife is a doctor in New York City.  They should understand how sensitive a subject this is for those who suffered personal or community loss due to anti-Semitism.  To forget or ignore this and then try to score some cheap political points is revolting. 

Bob Yudin served his country in the U.S. Navy, as a Lt. j.g. Airborne Navigator during Vietnam.  He graduated from the United States Naval School of Justice.  He is a member of the VFW and the Jewish War Veterans.

Yudin is very proud of his work as a liaison to New Jersey’s Jewish Community and his work with Israel.  He served as Executive Director of the New Jersey-Israel Commission and led the group’s first Holocaust Education trip to Poland and Israel.  He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the North Jersey Jewish Federation and a member of the Leadership Council of the Republican Jewish Coalition.  Yudin also arranged for El-Al Airlines to operate direct flights from Newark Liberty International Airport to Israel.  He has assisted numerous Israeli businesses in starting locations in New Jersey.

What a guy for McCann to try to trash at the start of Passover.  But what can you say about "Stumbling John"?  McCann pissed the bed again!

If McCann's event was any smaller he could have held it in a restroom stall.

As he haplessly makes his way to the filing deadline, "Stumbling John" McCann held a hilariously under-attended fundraising event this evening.  To fill the room McCann resorted to bringing in a Democrat political consultant and managed to get just enough people for a seance.

Just who they were conjuring up is anyone's guess.  We believe it to be the ghost of Nelson Rockefeller.

Meanwhile, over at Steve Lonegan's campaign, they were basking in the aftermath of a very successful fundraiser headlined by national conservative Republican leader Steve Forbes.  Instead of sitting next to a Democrat and some guy who was fired by Trump, like McCann was, Steve Lonegan was standing with Steve Forbes and Senator Gerry Cardinale (R-39) -- and Lonegan's event was attended by over 100 major donors.

Poor "Stumbling John"... foiled again!

McCann dissing Jewish voters in CD05? What will NJGOP do?

Once again, "Stumbling John" McCann has pissed down his leg.  A liberal both by habit and instinct, McCann couldn't help but go overboard when trying to "improve" his conservative credentials.  So McCann brought in a controversial figure who has been linked in the media with some rather unsavory folks of the "blood and soil" variety.

This is what so-called GOP "moderates" do, like last year when they trashed a Sikh in race in Southern New Jersey.  Instead of winning on ideas -- and ideas are cross-cultural and colorblind -- they go with personalities, trying to turn a candidate into a celebrity, and when that fails, they go straight to what they think their party's base is really all about. And it isn't, but they don't know that.

Here is what was reported this morning in Politico, by Matt Freidman:

The former chairman of Bergen County‘s Republican Party is slamming a congressional candidate for raising money with Sebastian Gorka, a one-time adviser to President Donald Trump who wore a medal associated with a Hungarian group that collaborated with Nazi Germany.

“It’s absolutely despicable. It shows that I have to assume that John McCann approves of this man,” said Bob Yudin, who chaired the Bergen County GOP from 2008 to 2016 and backs McCann rival Steve Lonegan for the GOP nomination in the 5th Congressional District. “This man seems to have sympathy toward fascists and Nazis, and this act of accepting support from him disqualifies John McCann in all ways and manners from being my congressman.”

...The 5th District has approximately 67,000 Jewish residents, or just over 9 percent of its population, according to the Jewish Data Bank. That’s the second-largest Jewish population of New Jersey’s 12 congressional districts.

You can read the full column here:  https://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2018/03/23/mccann-slammed-over-ties-to-former-trump-adviser-gorka-325596

Gorka has been accused of selling his endorsement to candidates looking for readymade "Trump" cred.  The Washington Examiner reported (February 22, 2018):

Sebastian Gorka doesn’t want to talk about his special friendship with Danny Tarkanian, the insurgent Republican challenging incumbent Sen. Dean Heller in the Nevada GOP primary.

Asked at CPAC whether he sold Tarkanian his endorsement, the former White House strategist bristles. “No, because that would be illegal,” Gorka tells me in his English accent, taking care to emphasize each word. “I was given an honorarium.”

As the Washington Examiner first reported, the timeline of payments and speeches and endorsements is as follows: Gorka endorsed Tarkanian on stage in Nevada on Dec. 20. Disclosures filed with the Federal Electoral Commission show that the candidate paid the speaker $5,000 the day before.

The campaign later confirmed the payment and claimed it’s not unusual for politicians to pay speaking fees to their endorsers. But a search through FEC records shows the opposite. In the last three election cycles, only two candidates ever made such payments.

Asked if it is normal for him to get paid for speaking gigs with politicians, Gorka guffaws: “Me getting speaking fees? Every week, yes.”

You can read the full column here: 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/sebastian-gorka-denies-selling-danny-tarkanian-his-endorsement-for-5-000

McCann's event with Sabastian Gorka is March 28th.

The NJGOP is trying to expand its base along the lines of demographics.  We don't know what demographic group they are shooting for with someone like Gorka, but we advise them to take the path of ideas.  Ideas are open to everyone. 

McCann brings in speaker fired by Trump

"Stumbling John" McCann has done it again.  On the same day that President Trump fires his Secretary of State, the McCann campaign announced that it was bringing in a former White House appointee who was also fired by Trump. 

That's right.  On August 25, 2017, McCann's guy's White House tenure ended, one week after Steve Bannon's departure.  McCann's guy stated that he had resigned because White House officials were "undermining" the Make America Great Again platform, but the White House disputed his claim that he resigned and confirmed he was no longer employed there and did not have further access to the White House grounds.  Sounds like Trump canned him.

But it's typical of "Stumbling John" McCann and his campaign to think that bringing in a guy who was fired by Trump will get you support from Trump voters.   Of course, someone like McCann has to work real hard to act like he's a Republican, because he was working for Bergen County's Democrat Sheriff just last year.

McCann pocketed $167,000.00 a year to work for the Democrat Sheriff of Bergen County.  McCann held this patronage appointment because he had helped the Democrat Sheriff turn Bergen County into a one-party county belonging to the Democrat Party.

The Democrat Sheriff that John McCann worked for ran for re-election in 2016 on a ticket headed by Hillary Clinton for President and Josh Gottheimer for Congress.  So now we know where John McCann is coming from.

"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.

Pro-abort McCann attacks Cruz endorsement of Lonegan

Self-described "Arlen Specter Republican" John McCann has attacked conservative Steve Lonegan for picking-up the endorsement of United States Senator Ted Cruz. 

Through an anonymous "spokesperson", McCann -- who the Bergen Record calls "the right hand man" of Democrat Sheriff Michael Saudino of Bergen County -- said that Lonegan was "out of touch" by accepting the endorsement of Senator Cruz. 

So let's see.  John McCann's model of a Republican office-holder is Arlen Specter, a RINO so extraordinary that he finally switched parties to Democrat because he believed he had become so distasteful to Republican primary voters.  A big government liberal who never met an abortion clinic that he didn't want to fund.

In contrast, Steve Lonegan has the strong support of one of the nation's top conservative leaders, Senator Ted Cruz.  The American Conservative Union rated Ted Cruz as voting the conservative position 100 percent of the time.  The National Taxpayers Union gave Cruz a 95 percent rating, while the Club for Growth rated Cruz at 96 percent.

When Arlen Specter was a Republican, before he embraced his "inner Obama" and became a Democrat in name as well as in practice, he didn't make it above 50 percent and some years flirted with zero.  This is who John McCann is modeling himself on.

You have to ask yourself... Don't we already have a liberal holding the seat?  And then the penny drops... McCann is a Democrat patronage employee put up by the Democrats to trash the Republican primary.  He isn't real.  Just a tool... for the Democrats.

The facts here are plain.  The Democrats (McCann included) know and respect the fundraising prowess of Senator Ted Cruz.  They know he will raise a half-million to a million dollars for the Republican in the race, Steve Lonegan.  They know that there are more than 2,000 Cruz donors who reside in New Jersey.

By attacking Ted Cruz, the spokesperson for "Stumbling John" McCann shows just how clearly out of touch he is.