Why is McCann paying for Jack Zisa to LIE to Republicans?

By Rubashov

Shame on John McCann.  He paid for a BCRO email last evening that linked President Donald Trump’s name to his without the permission of either the President or the Trump campaign.
 
If John McCann wants the President’s endorsement, he should ask for it, obtain it, and then publish the document.  Just putting the President’s name next to yours and calling it the “Trump-McCann Team” is dishonest, to say the least.  Don’t do that until you can produce a document showing the President’s support.
 
In March, BCRO Chairman Jack Zisa endorsed John McCann and handed him the county organization’s “line” without a vote of the elected members of the BCRO.  This was a shockingly corrupt and authoritarian act by Zisa.  It should have been addressed by the Chairman of the NJGOP, Doug Steinhardt.
 
Unfortunately, Steinhardt is an all-but-declared candidate for Governor, and Zisa is hosting an event for him in July.  Nevertheless, this latest act by Zisa – if left unaddressed – has broad implications for the presidential campaign.  Will other candidates, even more controversial than McCann, be permitted to link their names with that of the President, on the advice of some local GOP leader? 
 
What happens if a local GOP leader links the President’s name with a candidate and he turns out to be a KKK member?  Or on the sex offenders list?  Doesn’t the President’s campaign get to vet the candidate first?  Doesn’t a local candidate need permission before throwing Trump’s name around?
 
It all spells trouble to us.  Trouble for the President.  Trouble for the Party.  It’s up to the State NJGOP to do something about it.   
 
In yesterday’s BCRO email, paid for by John McCann, BCRO Chairman Jack Zisa makes statements indicating that he thinks his membership is either very stupid or has extremely short memories. 
 
Zisa writes that he has “worked tirelessly to unite our party, meeting early on with our candidates for U.S. Senate, CD5 and CD9, identifying common goals, imploring them to run their campaigns vigorously but professionally, and setting vital ground rules for all, the most important of which was there would be zero tolerance for any candidate who broke Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment ‘Thou shall not speak ill of thy fellow Republican.’”
 
Leaving aside the fact that Ronald Reagan didn’t follow his own “commandment”, pre-dating Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment were God’s Commandments and featuring rather prominently was the one about “bearing false witness”, about truthfulness, about not lying.  About not doing what Jack Zisa did in his statement above.
 
The Zisa family is a bi-partisan one.  Politics is the family business.  Political power is the source of much of the family’s income.  There is a long and sordid history of not only breaking Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment, but of actually helping Democrats to win. 
 
Zisa writes that he “would not hesitate to publicly call out any one of them (candidates) for a violation” of the commandment – the Reagan one, not the God one.  Well, we really don’t like having to tell old Jack this, but he’s a rascal, with less moral authority to call out a candidate on a “violation” than a pimp has to lecture on chastity.
 
The elected members of the Republican State Committee – on the other hand – do have a duty to uphold some standards in their county party.  As representatives of the entire party and defenders of the Republican “brand” they should intervene when a local party leader is being dishonest – whether that dishonesty is canceling a vote of the elected members or coming up with some horseshit like the above. 
 
All any organization has is its reputation.  Reputation is a confluence of individual morality, transparent adherence to a set of rules, and successful outcomes.  The BCRO kind of sucks at all three.  You must do better. 
 
The elected State Committee members should work with Chairman Steinhardt to make it better.  Maybe put the BCRO into receivership.  You can’t have your Republican organization in your largest county suck forever.  Not if you hope to win statewide again.
 
Receivership is the way forward.

Just to refresh your memory, in 2018 John McCann lost by the biggest margin in the history of New Jersey's 5th congressional district.  So why are Jack Zisa and his crew looking to repeat that performance and ensure that Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats keep the Congress? 

Maybe that's the point?

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.”
(Karl Marx, author and philosopher)

Did BCRO violate FEC rules?

By Rubashov

The Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) has sent out a number of potentially problematic election communications recently.  Several mass emails blasted out on behalf of the BCRO by members of its leadership failed to note who paid for them, in apparent violation of Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules.
 
The BCRO also sent out an expensive mass direct mail piece that appeared to suggest that the candidates on the BCRO “line” were part of a ticket sanctioned by President Donald Trump.  An operative with the President’s campaign denied this, stating that being on a local party ticket that is endorsing the President does not mean that the President is endorsing the other candidates on that ticket.  The endorsement goes up, not down, the ticket.
 
FEC rules on communications like this are very restrictive.  From the FEC website:
 
“A state or local party committee may prepare and distribute a slate card, sample ballot, palm card or other printed list naming candidates for any public office. The payments are not considered contributions or expenditures on behalf of any federal candidate listed, as long as the following conditions are met:
 
The list names at least three candidates running for election to any public office in the state in which the committee is organized.
 
The list is not distributed through broadcast stations, newspapers, magazines and similar types of public political advertising (for example billboards). Direct mail, however, is an acceptable method of distributing a slate card or sample ballot.
 
The content is limited to the identification of each candidate (pictures may be used), the office or position currently held, the office sought and party affiliation. Additional descriptions, designs, images and photographs must not provide supplemental biographical information, descriptions of candidates’ positions on the issues or statements of party philosophy. Certain voting information, however, may be given, such as time, place and instructions on voting a straight party ticket.”
 
Curiously, some of the BCRO email blasts contain appeals to Ronald Reagan’s so-called “11th Commandment” (“Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican”) and accusations that the candidates opposing the BCRO-endorsed John McCann for Congress were running “negative” campaigns.  Hypocritically, the authors of these emails failed to mention the BCRO’s own negative campaign on behalf of John McCann in 2018.
 
That was the year that Steve Lonegan, the father of the conservative movement in New Jersey, was on the receiving end of a campaign unprecedented in its level of sustained hatefulness.    That campaign caused many conservative donors to simply give up on New Jersey Republicans, to this day sending their money to candidates elsewhere.  This drain of conservative money to campaigns outside New Jersey affects the ability of state Republicans to secure and hold elected offices.  Bergen County has particularly suffered.
 
The political consultant brought in to run the campaign against Lonegan was a brilliant tactician named Kelley Rogers.  He came up with a series of fiercely negative campaign advertisements.  It is worth noting that John McCann’s consultant was not around to direct his 2020 primary campaign.  Last year, Kelley Rogers pleaded guilty in federal court.  Politico covered the story (09/18/19):
 
In one of the first Justice Department cases of its kind, Maryland political consultant Kelley Rogers pled guilty to wire fraud on Tuesday for operating multiple fraudulent political action committees that raised money from donors for conservative causes but kept much of the funds for Rogers and his associates.

Rogers’ arrest and indictment took place shortly after Politico and ProPublica investigated one of Rogers’ PACs, Conservative Majority Fund, which since 2012 has raised close to $10 million — mostly from small-dollar donors, many of them elderly -- while giving out just $48,400 to politicians.
 
The BCRO appears to have a love affair with John McCann, despite his history of campaign losses – including the biggest defeat in the history of CD05.  For his part, McCann exudes a quirky charm and a combativeness that often gets him into trouble…
 

THERE ARE NO STUPID QUESTIONS, ONLY STUPID POLITICIANS- Congressional candidate John McCann to a woman asking a question- that's a stupid question.

Nevertheless, the BCRO leadership’s faith in John McCann appears unshakeable.  Despite his historic loss in 2018, BCRO boss Jack Zisa awarded McCann the party “line” without a vote of his membership.  That is, of course, an entirely different discussion for another day.
 

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.”
(Karl Marx, author and philosopher)

McCann: After victory… radio silence?

The primary over, most winning campaigns are asking supporters and potential supporters for money – to retire their debts from the primary as well as looking forward to the General Election in November.  But not John McCann.

His campaign has been silent.  Despite the fact that the McCann campaign is deeply in debt. 

According to the Federal Election Commission, as of May 16th, the McCann campaign had managed to raise just $61,155 in campaign contributions.  The rest of the campaign’s cash came from the candidate – who was convinced by his consultants to dump even more of his personal resources into the effort in the weeks and days leading up to the primary election.

So where is the effort to reach out to GOP donors who sat out this contentious primary?  And where is the effort to reach out to opponent Steve Lonegan and his donors?  After all, Lonegan was able to raise $429,803 in campaign contributions.  Even Jason Sarnoski – a Freeholder from Warren County who dropped out of the race – raised $75,998 before getting ending his campaign.

But rumors persist that many of McCann’s consultants and/or operatives were paid by sources outside his campaign.  This was a method used by former Essex County GOP boss Jim Treffinger in his abortive 2002 U.S. Senate race.  Treffinger’s race came to an end with his arrest and conviction on charges of political corruption.

That’s not the case with the Lonegan campaign.  Steve Lonegan’s General Consultants – former Ted Cruz political director Mark Campbell and Larry Weitzner (Jamestown Associates) – are clearly listed, as are a host of junior consultants, vendors, and operatives.  We are told that the law was followed in great detail.

One curious McCann connection that popped-up was with DC lobbyist Rosemary Becchi.  Becchi, who now resides in New Jersey, briefly considered challenging incumbent GOP Congressman Leonard Lance (NJ07).

Meanwhile, Democrat incumbent Congressman Josh Gottheimer had raised $4,444,660 by May 16th.  None of it loans from the candidate. 

With Democrat Gottheimer at +$4.4 million and McCann at -$260,000 is it any wonder that everyone who is anyone is downgrading this race, moving it off the board, and into the “safe Democrat” column.  Oh well… maybe next time?

Has the NJFPC lost its moral authority?

The New Jersey Family Policy Council (NJFPC) is a not-for-profit corporation organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRS Code.  The group is supposed to be educational, not political.  According to its public filings with the IRS, the NJFPC has been around since 1996.  It’s mission is to support traditional conservative religious values such as the right-to-life.

The NJFPC is run by Len Deo, who as President of the NJFPC received a salary of $103,225.00 in 2016.  William Horsey is the Chairman and Ray Velez is the Vice Chairman/Treasurer.  They, along with 8 trustees, are responsible for the actions of the NJFPC.  The NJFPC also operates a lobby organization called NJ Family First, but this organization does not appear to be genuinely independent, relying totally on the operations of its parent for its existence. 

According to the public records filed with the IRS, the NJFPC was recently operating in the red.  Salaries account for most of the NJFPC’s outflow.   Since 2014, financial contributions to the NJFPC have steeply declined. 

So where did they come up with the money to trash a pro-life, conservative candidate in a Republican Primary?

Just before the June 5th Republican primary, NJ Family First – a subsidiary of the New Jersey Family Policy Council – did something it has never done before.  It instructed Republican primary voters on how to vote, explicitly telling them to vote for one candidate and against another.

They had never done so against a Democrat.  Even the most liberal, far-left, anti-traditional values, pro-abortion Democrats have been spared this kind of treatment.  They saved this kind of trashing for a Republican.

And guess which Republican they attacked?

Yes, the NJFPC attacked the most consistently Pro-Life/Pro-Traditional Values Republican in New Jersey.  The conservative Republican who led the fight and who put the money together to defeat the 2007 ballot question to use taxpayer money to fund embryonic stem-cell research in New Jersey.  The conservative Republican who led the fight and who put the money together to defeat Garden State Equality’s same-sex marriage legislative push in 2009-10.  The conservative Republican who led the fight and who put the money together to stop the nomination of left-wing sexologist Janet Rosenzweig as the State’s Commissioner of the Department of Children and Families. 

The NJFPC chose to attack Steve Lonegan, a conservative Republican who was ENDORSED by the New Jersey Right to Life PAC, the National Right to Life PAC, United States Senator Ted Cruz, United States Senator Rand Paul, State Senator Mike Doherty, State Senator Gerry Cardinale, State Senator Joe Pennacchio, State Senator Steve Oroho, and every other Pro-Life Legislator in the State.

Why?  And from where did they get the money to pay for the attack?

The answer to that question might lay with who the NJFPC’s attack mailer asked voters to support:  Pro-abortion candidate John McCann.  Yes, the same John McCann who challenged Scott Garrett and Gerry Cardinale for the 5th District Congressional seat in 2002 on the grounds that they were “Pro-Life” and “too conservative.”

Just days before the NJFPC’s attack mailer hit, McCann was quoted in the Bergen Record (June 1, 2018):

“Lonegan is staunchly pro-life, and recently told an audience at the Knights of Columbus in Fair Lawn that he'd support every anti-abortion bill that came before him. He's tried to tag McCann as being pro-choice, but McCann says the label doesn't fit.  

‘I believe that life begins at conception,’ McCann said.

But when asked whether he would support any future bill to further limit abortion, McCann indicated he would not.

‘The law is what is,’ he said.”

John McCann has made so many contradictory  statements regarding traditional values, conservatives, abortion – even with regards to his own spouse (an OB-GYN physician).  McCann is clearly uncomfortable with the people who support groups like the NJFPC.  Year in and year out, the New Jersey Family Policy Council pleads for money from good traditional values conservatives.  Is this how NJFPC uses its good name?

How is the New Jersey Family Policy Council ever going to get its good name back?  Having seen its endorsement so obviously compromised – some would say “bought” – how can the NJFPC hold its head up to take a principled stand?  How can it ever be taken seriously again?

Was Lonegan’s defeat an inside job?

Well, at least Jay Webber won… and Seth Grossman.

Bob Hugin won’t totally have his way in wrapping the State’s Republican brand in a plain brown paper.  He’s going to have a Reagan conservative and an eccentric libertarian to provide some color to the package – not to mention the incumbents, starting with the staunchly Pro-Life Chris Smith. 

What Hugin won’t have is a genuine Trump-style populist bouncing around in the orchestra, stealing the stage of an election that he plainly believes he is paying for.  Like Grossman, Steve Lonegan is decidedly his own article, but enough in the Trump mold to easily wear the costume.

McCann you say?  The most baldly dishonest campaign in memory will now be set aside, and with it, all the Trumpian rhetoric.  No, John McCann was not endorsed by President Trump, even though his campaign communications led you to believe he was.  More on this later.

It is enough for now to compare the post-truth campaigning style of a certain southern political consultant to the rather insufficient counter-measures of the Lonegan team, whose messaging was done by a consultant shared with the Hugin team.  Although completely false, McCann’s consultant had the discipline to dominate his candidate, confine him to those tasks of which he was capable, and to run the kind of sharp, focused, MESSAGE-driven campaign that we don’t often see here in New Jersey. 

If McCann’s consultant survives the recent raid on his office by the FBI, the inquires by the United States Justice Department and such, he could become a formidable presence on the field in New Jersey.  It takes a certain toughness to come up with a message so at variance with a candidate, to bully the candidate into silence, and then to brazenly run with it to victory.

Unfortunately, now the candidate will think the victory his… he will start to talk again.  Like he did last week when, in an unguarded moment, he let slip his true feelings about abortion (he won’t vote for ANY Pro-Life legislation if elected to Congress) and guns (he opposes the NRA and supports universal background checks).  Did the New Jersey Family Policy Council know this when its (c)4 lobbying arm was induced into doing an openly political mailer that buttered the Pro-Choice candidate but trashed the Pro-Lifer?  Or did they know and did they not care?  More on this later.

Not to worry though.  John McCann has served his purpose.  The candidate with the money lost (and now that candidate is a wounded, angry animal, sitting on a million dollar war chest).  But John McCann is broke.  He has eaten his seed corn.  Don’t look for him to trouble Josh Gottheimer.  And there might even be a reward in it for him.  Another lucrative patronage job perhaps?  He might end up a judge.

So the money that would have been spent in the 5th fighting off the visceral attacks of a Lonegan candidacy will now be heading… where?  Which Democrat will be the beneficiary of yesterday… perhaps they will all share in a piece of it?

Among the other lessons learned…

The party potentates who opened the bottle  of a Tony Ghee candidacy did so before its time.  They gave the newcomer no time to breathe.  It’s a solid vintage that will hopefully be available again.

And speaking of which.  We learn from the former Wally Edge that Peter Murphy is about to assume the throne of the GOP in Passaic County – the place he occupied before a certain United States Attorney, named Chris Christie, sent him away.  It’s a bad business – especially for Bob Hugin, who has made political corruption his ONLY issue.  Lonegan’s polling showed Murphy’s support to be the strongest negative against McCann.  More than 80 percent of Republicans were less likely to vote for a candidate who had his support… that’s REPUBLICANS.  You would have hardly guessed it from Lonegan’s campaign communications, but there you have it.

Surprisingly enough, Lonegan did have coattails of a sort.  In Sussex County, Lonegan-backed challengers to two incumbent Freeholders annihilated the incumbents.  It is the first time in living memory that a ticket with two incumbents was defeated in Sussex County.

Dawn Fantasia is the principal at a charter school.  Josh Hertzberg is an administrator with the ILA union.  These are what Republican candidates look like in our populist era.  Fantasia supported Senator Steve Oroho’s negotiations over the refinancing of the Transportation Trust Fund.  She learned about it and patiently explained the details to others – and ended up cutting a radio spot to that end. People warned that it would hurt her politically, because the final deal raised the gas tax, while cutting or eliminating a host of taxes (including the estate tax) and providing property tax relief.  Another lesson learned?

John McCann injected himself into the Freeholder race, on behalf of the incumbents, who supported him.  He ran a radio spot that attacked Senator Oroho by name on the gas tax.  Former Congressman Scott Garrett came out in support of the incumbents and ran a robo-call on their behalf.  More lessons?

Lonegan won Sussex County, but by a much smaller margin – about 500 votes.  Why the difference?  Well, in Sussex, the Lonegan freeholder ticket had a strong message that they pursued relentlessly – and were quick and sharp with their counterattacks.  The Lonegan campaign itself lacked this, especially the quick counterpunches.  Fantasia and Hertzberg also had the full attentions of Kelly Hart, who had been “let go” by the Lonegan campaign in April.  She had been field director for Sussex County.

Curiously enough though, when the dust settles after the General Election, the only big changes to the line-up of elected officials in CD05 will be the election of Lonegan’s running mates in Sussex County.  Everyone else… McCann and all his running mates in Bergen and Passaic will have lost.

A few years ago, Ralph Nadar wrote a book called “Unstoppable” – in which he predicted the rise of populist movements on both the Left and the Right in response to the disconnect with the mainstream political parties.  He suggested that Left and Right reformers had much in common and therefore, the basis of a genuine “resistance” movement.

How will this translate with Dr. Murray Sabrin on the Libertarian Party ticket for U.S. Senate is anyone’s guess, but there are Libertarian candidates in Districts 5 and 11, and a Constitution party in District 3.  A Center-Left populist, Wendy Goetz, is also running in the 5th.

And finally, election night parties.  The people you meet at such things are not average Republican voters.  Many earn a living from politics – whether as a lobbyist or a vendor, a job holder or a consultant.  They are in the business of politics – even those that just secure from it a certain status, as a member of a local government perhaps, or a school board.

That is not the case with 99 percent of Republican voters.  All they get out of voting is the idea that they are checking the box for someone who thinks like they do.  Most have a general idea of what the Republican Party stands for and that they stand for that too.  That “general idea” is provided to them, largely, by the mainstream media.  And yes, it includes the points that Republicans are Pro-Life and pro-Second Amendment. 

New Jersey’s Republican political class needs to learn to live with this.  Bring to a close their 40 years war with Reagan and their contempt for our base.  Trying to pretend that you are something else or “a different kind of Republican” is not a message, it is a deflection.  For all his money spent on advertising, Bob Hugin was able to convince just 52 percent of Republicans in Sussex County to vote for him.  He will need to do a great deal better.

Let the political class make its money… but leave average GOP voters someone they can vote for.

Sadly, the party took a step back yesterday.  They took away someone who meant something to a great many average Republicans – and they did so by telling voters that McCann was just a newer Lonegan, only more conservative, and that Donald Trump endorsed him.  We all know that isn’t true. 

And on that note, we begin the General Election.

John McCann’s FAKE endorsements (starting with Trump)!

Over the weekend, many of you received a mailer from the campaign of congressional candidate John McCann.  The mailer was professionally designed and carried out by a well-known, national Democrat campaign consultant.

Democrats have been a feature of the McCann campaign.  John McCann was recruited from a Democrat office to run in the Republican primary for Congress.  McCann was a $151,000 a year (plus benefits) Bergen County patronage employee – working for a Democrat office holder in a Democrat-controlled county – when he was plucked from obscurity to challenge long time conservative Steve Lonegan. 

McCann, an attorney, had a deal with his Democrat employers that was so good that they allowed him to collect $498,000 in “fees” in one year – that’s in addition to his full-time salary (with benefits).  That’s right, he owes the Democrats a lot.

John McCann is the hand-picked candidate of a party boss who was convicted on public corruption charges and sent to prison.  McCann’s campaign chair is a liberal pro-abortion campaigner.  McCann’s campaign manager holds contracts from Democrat politicians. 

Photoshopped image of Trump?

The mailer used a controversial image of President Donald Trump.  The image is controversial, because it has been obviously photoshopped to suit the needs of the campaign. 

(SOURCE:  McCann for Congress website)

(SOURCE: McCann for Congress Facebook page)

Unwinding a Scam

This brings us back to the mailer the McCann campaign sent out over the weekend.  The mailer used the words, “Guess Who Is Endorsing John McCann?”

And then it used the same suspect photograph that had been clearly photoshopped above.  But this is a clear lie.  Donald Trump has not made an endorsement.

To make matters worse, on the reverse of the mailer, the McCann campaign listed several endorsements that also turned out to be lies.

Sussex County Freeholder Herb Yardley was listed and he felt so strongly about it that he paid for a call to Sussex County residents and a radio ad that set the record straight:

“This is Freeholder Herb Yardley.  Some of you may have received a mailer from candidate John McCann claiming that I endorsed him.  That is not true, I endorsed Steve Lonegan for Congress.

Now McCann is running a radio ad that lies about our Senator, Steve Oroho.  In fact Steve Oroho and Mike Doherty are the two most conservative Senators in New Jersey, according to the American Conservative Union.

On June 5th, say NO to John McCann’s lies.”

Former Congressman Scott Garrett also issued a statement claiming that Sussex County Freeholder Carl Lazzaro had also not endorsed John McCann, despite being listed as an endorsee on the McCann mailer.

See, this is how Democrats do it.  They lie.  With so many Democrats around him, McCann can’t help it.  He lies too.

UPDATE

We learned that Sussex County Freeholder Jonathan Rose did endorse John McCann for Congress, although he is not listed on the mailer.  The reason for that is probably a reluctance by McCann to list a public official who supports Governor Phil Murphy’s position on the legalization of marijuana.

That’s right, Jonathan Rose backs legalizing pot!  He says so here…

Hey, McCann is a liberal, but he’s not that liberal.  In supporting McCann, Freeholder Rose apparently takes a liberal stand on abortion and gun control.

Last Friday, candidate John McCann outed himself in an interview with the Bergen Record.  Here, read it for yourself…

Lonegan is staunchly pro-life, and recently told an audience at the Knights of Columbus in Fair Lawn that he'd support every anti-abortion bill that came before him. He's tried to tag McCann as being pro-choice, but McCann says the label doesn't fit.  

"I believe that life begins at conception," McCann said.

But when asked whether he would support any future bill to further limit abortion, McCann indicated he would not.

"The law is what is," he said. 

Hey, that’s NOT Pro-Life.  That is pro-status quo, which equals, pro-abortion.

Now on guns:

Both candidates wrap themselves in the Second Amendment right to bear arms. McCann favors requiring universal background checks perspective gun buyers but Lonegan opposes them they would  just "add another layer of bureaucracy."

Ditto on the Second Amendment.

Here read the whole article for yourselves:

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/politics/2018/06/01/nj-election-2018-john-mccann-steve-lonegan-congress-candidates-play-trump-card-primary/659599002/

John McCann admits to The Record that he’s pro-abortion/anti-gun rights.

From our very first interview with congressional candidate John McCann, we found him to be a very different kind of Republican candidate.  Here are some curious FACTS about McCann:

John McCann was recruited from a Democrat office to run in the Republican primary for Congress.  That’s right, McCann was a $151,000 a year (plus benefits) Bergen County patronage employee – working for a Democrat office holder in a Democrat-controlled county – when he was plucked from obscurity to challenge long time conservative Steve Lonegan. 

McCann, an attorney, had a deal with his Democrat employers that was so good that they allowed him to collect $498,000 in “fees” in one year – that’s in addition to his full-time salary (with benefits).  That’s right, he owed the Democrats a lot.

John McCann is the hand-picked candidate of a party boss who was convicted on public corruption charges and sent to prison.  Read more on that here:

https://www.jerseyconservative.org/blog/2018/5/24/murphy-endorsement-of-mccann-endangers-hugin

John McCann’s political consultant is a Democrat who ran the campaigns of some of the most far-left candidates in his state’s history.  McCann’s campaign chair is a liberal pro-abortion acolyte of former Governor Christie Whitman.  McCann’s campaign manager holds contracts from Democrat politicians. 

Now comes the latest…

Since his campaign began, John McCann has flipped back and forth on where he stands on abortion and guns.  A long time pro-choicer on abortion and advocate for gun-control, McCann started his campaign embracing those positions in order to give his candidacy clear blue water between him and Lonegan.  He even argued that a Pro-Lifer/ Pro-Gun guy like Lonegan couldn’t win.

Then they did a poll…  McCann’s team sat their candidate down and told him to lie.  To his credit, he showed some reluctance in public… but his campaign communications and especially his campaign mail hasn’t.  It’s been a full on lie and a remarkably disciplined lie so far as the campaign is concerned.

But then you have the candidate.  He gets caught in these interviews, where he reverts to form – to the positions on Life and the Second Amendment that McCann has held all his life and that are dear to him.  A case in point, was Friday’s Bergen Record.  Here, read it for yourself…

Lonegan is staunchly pro-life, and recently told an audience at the Knights of Columbus in Fair Lawn that he'd support every anti-abortion bill that came before him. He's tried to tag McCann as being pro-choice, but McCann says the label doesn't fit.  

"I believe that life begins at conception," McCann said.

But when asked whether he would support any future bill to further limit abortion, McCann indicated he would not. 

"The law is what is," he said. 

Hey, that’s NOT Pro-Life.  That is pro-status quo, which equals, pro-abortion.

Now on guns:

Both candidates wrap themselves in the Second Amendment right to bear arms. McCann favors requiring universal background checks on perspective [sic] gun buyers but Lonegan opposes them they would  just "add another layer of bureaucracy."

Ditto on the Second Amendment.

Here read the whole article for yourselves:

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/politics/2018/06/01/nj-election-2018-john-mccann-steve-lonegan-congress-candidates-play-trump-card-primary/659599002/

Too bad the New Jersey Family Policy Council chose the day after this Bergen Record article hit to do an attack on Steve Lonegan and an endorsement of John McCann as a pro-lifer that clearly fell outside the group’s non-profit guidelines.  It looks like John McCann, the candidate, couldn’t help himself and ended up screwing the reputation of the NJFPC and its leadership.  Who ever sweet-talked the NJFPC into doing this has a lot to answer for.

John McCann’s financial disclosure leaves unanswered questions

Congressional candidate John McCann finally got around to filing his required personal financial disclosure statement with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives after his failure to do so on time was brought to the public’s attention by the New Jersey media. True to the halting and uncertain style of his campaign, McCann filed his twice… on the same day.

Of interest is the odd way in which he reported his own income.  First, McCann confused his reporting requirements with those of his spouse – and filed as if she were the candidate:

Later that same day, he filed his already late disclosure statement, only this time he included his income:

Hey Republicans!  Look how much John McCann made working for the Democrat Sheriff of Bergen County.  Doesn’t it make you a little queasy?

And what does “fees” mean?  How do you earn $498,545 in “fees” while working full-time on the Bergen County payroll?  Is this going to be one of those deals where this guy bills for more hours than there are in a day?

Under the source of income, McCann simply writes “Practice”.  What does that mean?  And is he even following the law?  The law and the instructions that accompany the financial statement are very clear on how to report income:

So what’s the deal?  Why has John McCann failed to fully disclose the source of nearly $700,000 in income?

And if “practice” refers to McCann’s law practice, why is it that earlier in the disclosure statement he reports its value as so little?

And why does he report that his law practice had no income?

None of it makes any sense, which is kind of the norm with John McCann.

The madness continues…

A reader reacts to John McCann

By Sam Adams

The young Republicans love affair with John McCann.

Seems the latte-sipping, basement dwellers over at the young Republicans are so desperate to become a political power in New Jersey, they backed John McCann.

Sadly though when researching McCann, I think they may have thought McCain was their guy. But hey that's alright, both democrats hiding in Republican clothing.

The problem though, this is do or die for the Young Republicans, and with the baggage McCann has, it will be a flaming wreck.

Let's see, flip flops on right to life issues.

Wasn't allowed to speak at a 2nd amendment rally because he wouldn't fill out a questionnaire.

Lawsuits.

Paying for endorsements.

Caught on tape admitting he has to lie. Yes caught on tape.

Sadly he isn't suited to be a dog catcher.

But thank God for Steve Lonegan. True conservative.

Lots of endorsements Record of lowering taxes Right to life.

Asked to speak at both Trump and 2nd amendment rallies.

Don't worry boys, Dunkin Doughnuts has a new latte coming out just for you.

McCan't again latte. Drink up.

FACT CHECK: McCann campaign spins tales about candidate’s past

John McCann has brought up that silly claim again.  About him and his chart and how it saved America.

He first did it last summer, while he was still directly employed by the Democrat Sheriff of Bergen County.  John McCann shopped around a tale about how he stopped HillaryCare and saved America.  Here is a transcript of a video recording of McCann telling his tall tale to the Sussex County Republican Committee on December 27, 2017. 

"I'm the only candidate with an actual proven record of doing things... I was gone (sic) to the United States Senate to take on the Clinton Health Care Plan.  I designed a chart, it was presented to the country, and the chart was credited -- by others, not by me -- with saving the United States from 16 years of government controlled healthcare." (Candidate John McCann, on video)

Many people familiar with the long battle to stop the Clinton Health Care Plan disputed John McCann's story.  They said they never heard of him and accused him of taking credit for the work of dozens of others.  They noted that there was a plethora of graphs and charts but that only one got national coverage.  It wasn't John McCann's.

The Clinton Health Care Plan began with a speech by President Bill Clinton in September 1993.  Legislation was introduced in November 1993.  Hearings were held and the debate went into 1994.  In January 1994, Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) unveiled his famous chart that detailed the bureaucratic morass that was the Clinton Health Care Plan.  As the legislation was amended, dozens of subsequent charts were built off this one, noting those changes and updates.

Earlier this year, we published a link to a C-Span video of the United States Senate Floor on January 27, 1994.  The video is 11 hours long and unedited.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?54084-1/senate-session

At two hours and thirty minutes (2:30) into it, Senator Specter speaks on the issue and appears with his famous chart.  About six minutes into his speech, he explains that staffer Sharon Helfant was responsible for creating it.  He goes on to explain how the Washington Post had a story a day earlier mentioning Helfant and her role in developing the chart.  Numerous national newspapers covered it, and in each story, Sharon Helfant is credited with creating the chart.  John McCann is not mentioned.

C-Span caught the whole thing and it is now part of history.  Numerous newspapers wrote about it.  The campaign of candidate John McCann has disputed that history.  Presumably with their candidate's approval, they issued a media statement that made this boast by the candidate:  "Yes, I authored the chart that killed Hillarycare."

The statement by John McCann's campaign continues:  "A conservative blogger made an accusation regarding my involvement in stopping Hillary Clinton’s healthcare proposal back in the early 90s when I was a fellow in former Senator Arlen Specter’s office (R-PA), insisting that I have overstated my role and plagiarized a graph used to stop Hillarycare.

The basis of these accusations stems from a CSPAN video in January 1994 where my boss at the time, former Senator Specter, credited Sharon Helfant (whom I never worked with) for creating a chart (I never saw) to help explain how bad Hillarycare was for American taxpayers."

The McCann campaign included a paragraph from the Congressional Record for August 10, 1994, at the tail end of the battle to stop the Clinton Health Care Plan.  By this time, it had been amended and re-amended.  The legislation went through more than 130 permutations and, in the end, was scrapped when the Democrats lost control of Congress in November 1994, and were unable to bring the bill up in 1995, as they had planned.  Here is that snippet from the Record:

Read it carefully.  "John McCann, an intern on my staff who helped me prepare the chart on the Mitchell health care bill."

Thousands of names of individuals and groups are read into the Congressional Record each year for everything from boy scout troops to the winners of fishing tournaments.  It is a  small favor, often bestowed by members of Congress.  Rarely does it become the centerpiece of someone's candidacy for Congress.

The McCann campaign also included a paragraph from a letter from Senator Specter's office to John McCann's professor at the Fels Center of Government, where he was a student:  "In the summer of 1994, the Senate rejected the Clinton proposal to take over one-seventh of the entire U.S. economy in large measure because of John McCann’s charts and graphs which clearly showed the flaws and weakness of the proposal."

Again, read it carefully:  "John McCann’s charts and graphs..." 

Plural.  As an intern, John McCann obviously worked on many updates and permutations of the original chart (which he now claims not to have seen, despite the news coverage of it, or Ms. Helfant, who he claims not to have known, despite her prominence on the Specter staff and her preeminence within that staff on matters related to health care). 

Of course, it is a grandiloquent letter of recommendation, which either means that Senator Specter's office was prone to that sort of thing or that they liked and appreciated John McCann's work as a college intern.  Neither alters the record, which is clear.

When he is not outright fibbing, John McCann is prone to puffing himself up to make himself look like more than he is.  Pity

Pro-Abortion all his career, McCann has been frightened into claiming he's Pro-Life

It is a testament to the power of ideas.  A recognition that the voter base of the Republican Party -- those loyal souls who come out in primaries -- are solidly conservative on SOCIAL issues, solidly PRO-LIFE.

Despite all the nonsense spouted by the GOP establishment about big tents and new technology it is MESSAGE that decides who self-describe as members of a party and who show up on election day.  And so long as the NJGOP uses the word "Republican" in its title, that message is a NATIONAL one.  It does not flow from 150 West State Street in Trenton, but rather it exists in the national ether -- in the brain impulses of every sentient being with a reaction, one way or the other, to the word "Republican". 

The job of state and local leaders is to find a way to sell it.  You don't get to remake the brand.

A case in point:  John McCann.

The cabal of local operators who were part of the deal that resulted in the McCann  candidacy were out and about last summer telling anyone who would listen that Steve Lonegan was TOO CONSERVATIVE.  In particular, they targeted those pesky social issues, like abortion, which they claimed were "holding us (the NJGOP) back" and preventing them from winning.

Look, the only Republican candidate to win statewide in New Jersey since 1997 was both solidly Pro-Life and Pro-Second Amendment.  Now we're not saying that Chris Christie wanted to be.  We're not saying that he liked it.  What we're saying is that he knew better than to not to be anything but a social conservative.  That is what "Republican" means, dummy.  You can't wash it off.

Argue until you are blue in the face but you are stuck with it.  All a Republican gets when he or she sucks up to the opposition or its allies is their justifiable contempt and the anger of people who would otherwise turnout out for you because they have been, once again, betrayed.  Keep doing what you are doing and you are on a one way course to extinction. 

So the people who brought you John McCann have put their candidate out there for nine months -- since before McCann left the employ of that pro-Sanctuary State darling, the Democrat Sheriff of Bergen County, the hand of hands... Mikey Saudino.  And in all that time, John McCann has preached a message of how "moderate" he was on abortion. 

Oh, he'd tell some crowds that he was "Pro-Choice" but most of the time he'd say things like how he was "personally opposed" to abortion and a "moderate" on "abortion rights".  After all, this is the same guy who predicated his 2002 campaign for Congress against conservatives Scott Garrett and Gerry Cardinale on his view that they were both "too conservative" on social issues to win a General Election.  McCann is the same candidate who called himself an "Arlen Specter Republican" a few years before Specter ended his career as an Obama Democrat.

Now, over the last ten days, voters in the 5th congressional district have been receiving mailers claiming that John McCann is a Pro-Life conservative.  And not only that, McCann now claims to believe that "life begins at conception". 

Yep, it is late in the campaign.  McCann wants to have a shot at winning.  McCann did a poll and it became obvious that not even having the party "line" in over 70% of the district was going to save him.  Social conservatism trumps county party lines.  Needs must.

Sure enough... the light bulb went on and with it the recognition that you need to be a social conservative to have a chance at attracting a great many Republican voters -- whether you are running in the primary or the General Election.  Take a look at these mailers...

Of course, this is John McCann and being who he is, he's not going to play it straight.  In McCann's not-quite-right brain, he probably believes that avoiding the word "Pro-Life" provides him with an out if he should win the primary and face Democrat Josh Gottheimer in November.

No.  It's not going to work that way.

First, McCann is a Republican.  For most people, that makes him Pro-Life whether he is or he isn't.  All he does by squawking about it is to piss-off people who might have voted for him because they are Pro-Life.

If you believe in abortion, a pro-abortion Democrat is always better than a pro-abortion Republican, because a pro-abortion Democrat votes for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker.  End of story.

Second, McCann is now on record as claiming that he believes a human life is ended if it is interfered with at any time from conception onwards.  For a start, he should check with his wife, an OB-GYN doctor in New York City, to see if any of the offices or hospitals she's been affiliated with hand-out the morning after pill.

How does he think he can walk that back? 

Will he tell voters that yes, he believes that human life begins at conception but that he also believes in women's rights to abortion?  That will make him a worse monster than any pro-abortion Democrat because at least they dispute that they are taking a life.  McCann will end up saying that it is human life but that he doesn't mind if it is being exterminated.  That's quite a place to be.

But these are the kinds of conundrums Republicans place themselves in when they refuse to live up to the values and principles of the political party to which they freely affiliate themselves.  Instead of honesty... you get people like John McCann.

The return of Dave Fanale and the anti-police wing of the GOP

We all remember the sorry episode of Dave Fanale.  He was an up-and-coming Sussex County politician in the orbit of Freeholder boss George Graham.  He was elected to the GOP county committee and to the Franklin Borough Council.  Some had him marked for bigger and better things.

And then it all started to come unraveled.  It turned out that Fanale didn't like law enforcement very much.  He had a problem with cops and started posting weird stuff on Facebook in this regard...

Yep, GOP Councilman Fanale posted a cartoon of a kid pissing on the thin blue line (representing the police) while giving them the finger.  The cartoon above was just one shot in a series of verbal and written attacks on the police.  Councilman Fanale's anti-police campaign got particularly disturbing, as it stretched on for months.

There was a huge backlash amongst the conservative, pro-police residents of Franklin... and Dave Fanale quit the Council.  For a time, Fanale moved in with Freeholder Jonathan Rose, another member of Freeholder boss George Graham's entourage. 

And now he's back. 

Among those present at Freeholder Jonathan Rose's fundraiser last month, was former Franklin Councilman Dave Fanale... the same controversial figure who resigned from the Council after leading his anti-police campaign.  Freeholder Rose shares a somewhat libertarian political philosophy with Fanale and the former Franklin Councilman is pushing for his re-election. 

At the same fundraising event for Freeholder Rose, attended by former Councilman Fanale, Rose formally threw his support to John McCann, formerly of the Democrat Bergen County Sheriff's office, and now a GOP candidate for Congress. 

Yes, that's Sheriff Michael Saudino -- the Bergen County Sheriff who was elected as a Republican, then switched to Democrat in order to destroy the Republican Party in that county, and then who ran for re-election on a ticket with Hillary Clinton and Josh Gottheimer. 

The Bergen Record has identified McCann as the "right hand man" to Democrat Sheriff Michael Saudino.  It was Saudino's feud with the Republican County Executive that undermined and ultimately lost Republicans control of Bergen County.  The coup de grace came when Saudino, a one-time Republican, joined Hillary Clinton and Josh Gottheimer on a ticket that crushed Republicans in Bergen County. 

John McCann remained Sheriff Saudino's consigliore through it all and ran for Congress (as a Republican) with Saudino's blessing and while still on the Democrat's payroll.  Sheriff Saudino has formally endorsed fellow Democrat Josh Gottheimer for re-election this year. 

The media has recently reported on 22 Bergen County police officers who claimed they were wrongly terminated or mistreated.  In a class action suit, the officers accuse Sheriff Saudino of demoting or firing qualified officers out of spite or for political retaliation.  Saudino, who supported Gottheimer for his stance on LGBT issues, is accused of allowing the "despicable and dehumanizing treatment" of a gay police officer.

A federal lawsuit filed last year contains the personal testimony of dozens of veteran law enforcement officers who fell victim to a power play by the Democrat Sheriff of Bergen County.  Here are a few of their stories:

"In 2014 my wife and I decided to have our 2nd child even though there were talks of merging The Bergen County Police with the Sheriff's Department.  we both agreed that we could afford to make this life changing decision based on the fact that the merger specifically stated there would be no layoffs, and no decrease in pay.

We had purchased a smaller home, which needed improvements... We are not going to be able to make these improvements or expand our home due to the impending layoff or pay decrease.  In fact we may lose our home if these changes take place.

My wife and I were discussing the possibility of having a third child as recently as February of this year.  However this will not happen now because of these layoffs."

***

"In 2015, I got engaged.  In 2016, I got married and purchased a home.  In 2017, I welcomed another child into my family... I have a wife and two children, ages 6 and 3 months.  Now with the threat of a potential layoff, not only will my life be affected, but my family will be negatively affected as well."

***

"I have been employed by Bergen County as a Police Officer since July, 2004.  I have recently re-financed my 30 year mortgage to a 15 year mortgage due to the promise that the Sheriff, County Executive, and Freeholder Board made that my job was safe when they merged us.  I am also the caregiver to my elderly parents... If I am demoted, I will not be able to afford the extra payments that a 15 year mortgage brings as well as care for my parents in a way that they deserve."

***

"I can personally say the moral and pride I had as a County Police Officer has been stripped away and this entire process has affected me personally.  I never knew what it was like to go to work and be unhappy.  I've always loved my career and the organization I worked for.  There are often times I get sick to my stomach thinking of how the politicians have destroyed this place and everything it represented.  My mind is consumed with thoughts of whether or not I will be able to retire..."

***

"I am a single father of two children.  I have full custody of my children... I had financial plans in place to send my oldest daughter who is currently in high school to attend specific colleges she had picked out.  With this demotion I will no longer be able to pay for my daughter's college education..."

***

"In August of 1996 I joined what I believed was a dedicated profession and well known department... I joined the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1982... I was activated in support of Operation Desert Shield/Storm... I retired with 20 years of service in 2003.

...I have made many life choices on the promises and assurance my family and I would be able to live without the threat of losing our home or not being able to afford the basic simple lifestyle we have had in our lives.  Upon the assurance of the County of Bergen, the politicians and the Bergen County Sheriff my family committed to providing an education for my son that now involves the payment of an incredible amount of education loans."

***

"I am currently a Police Officer with the Bergen County Sheriff's Department... I am also a United States Disabled Combat Veteran.  I served four and a half years with the 82nd Airborne Division, with a fifteen-month deployment to Iraq as an Infantryman... With the promise of job security, I continued my life as any other reasonable person would have.  I recently purchased a home and have plans to marry my longtime girlfriend, whom this layoff also affects tremendously..."

***

Rose-Fanale-McCann... It's amazing how these people found each other.  That you have, in the same room and supporting the same candidate, an avowed cop-hater and the guy who destroyed Bergen County's police department.  Small world.

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.

Candidates say the darndest things.

Here is candidate for Congress John McCann, explaining how it works to an enraptured audience of YR's and others...

Tony Ghee shows us how a Republican should behave

On the one hand, you have the campaign of John McCann, gleefully sharing every attack made by the Left on conservatives and his conservative opponent, Steve Lonegan.  While on the other, there stands Major Tony Ghee, United States Army.

Tony Ghee knows how to tell his friends from his enemies.  He is new to politics, but not so new that he's going to sit by and watch some scumbag liberals attack his Republican opponent's family.  Tony is a dad himself.

So Tony stepped up and stood with his opponent, conservative Assemblyman Jay Webber, against the attacks of leftist like Democrat State Senator Nellie Pou, who disgraced herself and her party.  Speaking of Pou, a supporter of Democrat congressional candidate Mikie Sherrill, here's what Tony Ghee had to say:

"Has our political discourse gotten so bad, that we need to drag the children of candidates into political statements about the critical issues impacting our community?"

"It’s 2018 and we should all be able to agree on three simple concepts:  political corruption is bad and should be repudiated by everyone, regardless of party; everyone deserves equal pay for equal work and government has a responsibility to ensure that; and the family of a candidate for public office is off limits, especially their children."

“This campaign should not be about scoring cheap political points, rather it should be about putting the people we are seeking to serve above partisan politics.  We need leaders who are dedicated to serving a cause greater than themselves or their party, because the issues at stake in this election are too great to be mired in soundbites and cheap petty politics. Senator Pou owes an immediate and unequivocal apology to the Webber’s for dragging their children into this campaign.”

Bravo, Major Ghee!

Meanwhile, back at the McCann campaign, one of his top supporters -- West Milford Republican Chair Matt Conlon -- actually sided with double-dipping Paterson Democrat Pou's attack on a Republican Assemblyman and his four daughters.  That is a real poor move by Conlon.

This is really unfortunate behavior for a local Republican leader.  Conlon is a bad role model.

We need more Republicans like Tony Ghee!

DiGaetano: Is CD05 a choice between two bigots and the PR Firm from Hell?

The battle to represent the 5th congressional district has turned into a real shit show since candidate John McCann lost the favored ballot position in Bergen County and then followed up that bad news with the announcement that his campaign was in deep in debt.  For his latest attack on opponent Steve Lonegan, McCann dug up a twelve years old allegation by a Democrat candidate for Mayor in Lonegan's hometown of Bogota.  The Democrat is an avowed supporter of President Barack Obama and, like McCann, has campaigned against the Trump tax cuts.

The Democrat claims Lonegan called him a bad word in a heated exchange more than a decade ago.  This has led the McCann campaign to label Lonegan as the "Roy Moore of New Jersey" -- a reference to Alabama Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore.   But apparently someone on the McCann campaign didn't think this through because McCann's big fundraiser was built around a guest speaker who was one of Moore's main allies, a guy named Sebastian Gorka.  Take a look at the video below and note the fellow with the beard standing directly behind Moore:

McCann's attacks are taking place while his former boss and department -- the Democrat Sheriff of Bergen County -- are being sued for laying-off and allegedly harassing police officers.  McCann was named by the Bergen Record as the Sheriff's "right hand man" and McCann openly takes credit for getting rid of the police.  We will let NJTV tell the rest of the story:

https://www.njtvonline.org/news/video/lawsuit-bergen-county-officials-ignored-gay-cops-harassment-allegations/

Andrew Kara was one of the dozens of Bergen County cops who lost their jobs followed the merger of the sheriff’s and county police forces that congressional candidate John McCann takes credit for making happen.

“Andrew was called a fag, a queer, a freak and a homo,” said Kara’s attorney, Matthew Peluso.

The abuse went on for years and, according to a suit, the County Executive Jim Tedesco, County Sheriff Michael Saudino and the county prosecutor, now state attorney general, Gurbir Grewal, ignored his complaints.

“Andrew reported this conduct up the chain of command and nothing ever happened,” Peluso said.

During this period, candidate John McCann was the lawyer for the Sheriff's office and the "right hand man" to Sheriff Saudino, according to the Bergen Record.

Peluso says the lawsuit is "about standing up for a gay officer who has been treated cruelly by his supposed colleagues and the county’s leadership structure."

The suit has 21 plaintiffs who allege a variety of harassment.  It calls for reinstatement of the officers, including Kara, back pay, as well as punitive damages for pain and suffering.

Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) Chairman Paulie "the hand" DiGaetano has written to all the other GOP county chairs of the 5th congressional district, threatening them and telling them to demand that any GOP candidate connected with bigotry be required to stand down.  Does this mean that DiGaetano intends to deliver the 5th District meekly into the hands of Democrat Josh Gottheimer? 

We certainly hope not.

Is DiGaetano -- the doyen of the brylcreem set -- forgetting the kind of pissbag Josh Gottheimer is?  Doesn't he know the record of Josh "the breath monster" Gottheimer?  Well thank goodness someone does and she has his number.  Her name is Rachel Maddow, perhaps you've heard of her?

Before getting elected to Congress in 2016, Josh Gottheimer followed his buddy Mark Penn, the Clintons' polling guy, to take over an international public relations/lobbying corporation called Burson-Marsteller.  These people are real turds. 

Hey, don't take our word for it.  Here's what MSNBC's Rachel Maddow had to say about the firm where Josh Gottheimer held the number two position as International Vice President (his buddy Mark Penn was International President):

Yep, Josh Gottheimer and his pal Mark Penn ran the "PR Firm from Hell"!  So now we know what kind of shithouse Paulie is shilling for.

Did DiGaetano forget his embrace of Roy Moore surrogate Gorka?

Are people simply more forgetful in Bergen County than elsewhere?

Last week, we had to remind Democrat Senator Loretta "Mother Roach" Weinberg that she was condemning a Republican town committeewoman for something Democrat Governor Phil Murphy did last year.  Of course, when Murphy used the "N" word (in this case "Nazi") he was using it to describe Republican President Donald Trump, so Weinberg wet herself with glee. 

Republicans can be trashed using any kind of language you want to use -- and that is acceptable to people like Mother Roach -- but don't you dare use it to describe a Democrat.  If you do, you will be called upon to resign!

Now anyone who has ever known or worked for Paulie "the hand" DiGaetano knows that he is anything but an angel -- and while he is not quite up there with a certain former Senate President, he is not without sin.  Who is? 

That's why it is so laughable when someone as oily as DiGaetano slimes up to the preacher's pulpit to deliver a lecture on morality.  Yes, on Sunday, the doyen of the brylcreem set reached out to the "mastermind" of BridgeGate and asked him to post a letter to his fellow chairmen in the 5th congressional district.

DiGaetano, who would regularly instruct his operatives to crawl into his opponents' underpants, wrote that he was morally outraged because the opponent of his hand-picked candidate for Congress had allegedly used some choice language to describe a former Democrat candidate and avowed Obama supporter.  And all this allegedly happened more than a decade ago!

Oh my, to be forgotten all those intervening years... What must have occurred to raise it to Paulie's consciousness again.  Ah yes, an election.   So this is less about moral outrage, than it is about the scumbaggery of contrived illusion. 

DiGaetano resorts to a strong arm tactic -- threatening the chairs that their careers will be smeared if they don't do as he asks.  This is a real dick of a move and Paulie plays it up with extreme dickery:

"All of us must be on record denouncing this hurtful and offensive statement or all of your years of collective service as leaders will be forever smeared." 

Really?  How many of these guys have denounced Trump or Christie or Bush or Whitman... or any of the other Republicans they were told they "must denounce" over the years.  This is an asshole Democrat tactic and typically the only person with an ethical skidmark in his shorts is the one demanding it.

But this is Paulie DiGaetano... so it gets better.

Paulie then goes on to write:  "The Republican Party cannot afford to nominate another Roy Moore." 

Again... Really?  Wasn't Sebastian Gorka a huge Roy Moore supporter and cheerleader?  If we're not mistaken, wasn't Gorka one of the crew Roy Moore kept up his bunghole for emergencies -- to defend him?  Wasn't Gorka with Roy Moore the night before the big election, rallying up the troops, telling them that Roy Moore couldn't lose?

And isn't this the same Sebastian Gorka that Paulie's man "Stumbling John" McCann brought up to do McCann's big fundraiser in Bergen County?  Didn't Paulie and all his acolytes take turns fanning Gorka's ass.  Didn't they all praise him as the brightest and the best?

Last we checked, didn't they give him a medal or something and make him horse of the year?

Did Paulie forget?  Is his memory convenient... or is it genuinely screwed?  Next time... before you go and play the part of a windy moralistic pissbag... think about what you did the week or two before.

Idiot.

Will investigation derail Eustace's appointment?

Word comes to us that the Doyen of the LGBT caucus -- Tim Eustace (AKA Brother Eustace, Major Eustace, the Kingfish, Great White...) -- shouldn't get too comfy in that new six-figure job of his.  Eustace's new job puts him in charge of water supplies in northern New Jersey. 

Eustace -- an ally of Sussex Democrats Kate Matteson and Gina Trish, and friend to Bergen politicos like Josh Gottheimer and John McCann -- was appointed by Governor Murphy as the deputy director of North Jersey District Water Supply Commission.  The appointment was considered by many as a "consolation prize" for his being blocked for the State Senate, after a vacancy opened.  Just why he was blocked is still unclear.

Sources confirm that multiple ethics violations are being prepared -- and perhaps a New Jersey Election Law Enforcement (NJELEC) violation as well.   Some of this appears to involve the former Assemblyman's use of money raised for his re-election campaign to send a staffer to Nepal with a stop-over in Dubai.  It appears that Eustace accompanied the staffer on the far-east excursion. 

Dinner in Dubai?
 
What's up with these Democrats?
 
Now take a look at this...

So let's get this straight.  Democrat Assemblyman Tim Eustace collects money from special interests, so that he and his legislative aide can fly around the world to do what?  You are a state legislator, not a congressman.  New Jersey doesn't have a foreign policy.

It looks like the former Democrat Assemblyman has some explaining to do. 

Are these Democrats aware that Nepal is one of the worst centers for human trafficking and modern slavery in the world?  While dining with some bigwigs there did they know that, according to the U.S. State Department, "the government of Nepal does not fully comply with minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking"?  Here is more, from Wikipedia:

"Human trafficking in Nepal is a growing criminal industry affecting multiple other countries beyond Nepal, primarily across Asia and the Middle East.   Nepal is mainly a source country for men, women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking... Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, second to drug dealing and tied with arms dealing."

"Trafficking victims often are taken to locations within Nepal, often from rural areas to the urban centers. Mainly young girls and women are trafficked for sexual exploitation in places such as cabin/dance restaurants, massage parlors, and other places within tourism sector... Within Nepal, labor trafficking is also common: victims often end up in carpet and garment factories, embroidering sweatshops, brick-kilns, and others." 

"The trafficking of girls from Nepal into India for forced prostitution is perhaps one of the busiest slave trafficking routes anywhere in the world, with estimated 5,000-10,000 Nepali women and girls trafficked to India each year.   An estimated 100,000-200,000 Nepali trafficked persons are in India.   Nepali girls are especially desirable as prostitutes in India because they are considered more attractive due to their lighter skin color, and because Nepali virgins are believed to be able to cure AIDS.   Victims are also trafficked for labor in circuses, agriculture, and other manufacturing sectors.   The 1850 kilometers of open, porous border between Nepal and India make trafficking simple and difficult to catch.   In addition, there is no immigration control for Nepalese migrating to India or Indians coming in Nepal under the 1950 Peace and Friendship Treaty between India and Nepal.   In addition to being a destination, India is also a transit country for Nepalese and Bangladeshi women trafficked to Pakistan, Western Asia, and the Middle East and for women trafficked from the Russian Federation to Thailand."  

"Victims, especially girls and women, are trafficked to Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Russia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states.   Experts believe China is also becoming an emerging hub for Nepali victims.   Many victims who end up overseas are passed through India first before their final destinations... Girls are sold to brothels at prices ranging from 50,000 to 70,000 Indian rupees.   The younger the girl, the higher the price she will be sold for.   Once sold, the girls are property of the brothel owner until they can pay back the amount that was paid for them... One study reported that girls were forced to serve an average of 14 clients per day, with a minimum of three and a maximum of 40 men."

It is a very sad thing to see members of New Jersey's political class -- rich, liberal, and fortunate-to-have-been-born-in-America -- turn a blind eye to their impoverished sisters overseas.  Very sad indeed.

Will Carlos Rendo call on Trump to resign over remarks?

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").  He recently attacked the policies of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. 

Now Carlos Rendo, a once and perhaps future statewide candidate in New Jersey, has stepped forward to call McCann's opponent a "homophobe".

Really?  Because that is a curious jibe to throw at someone.  Does Mr. Rendo even know what it means?  Is all homophobia "irrational"?  If someone was molested by an authority figure, as a child or adolescent, and the resulting trauma produced a certain "guarded" nature, would Mr. Rendo taunt that person with the word "homophobe"?

We can't speak for Mr. Rendo, but there are a great many men out there for whom the idea of having sex with another man is very off-putting, scary even.  Are these men "homophobes"?  There are a great many women of a similar mindset when it comes to other women.  Are they "homophobes" too?

We have news for Mr. Rendo.  Depending on the scale of their fears, and how one defines it, there are a lot of "homophobes" in both political parties (although they may be a bit more closeted if they are active Democrats). 

We were taught to tolerate. And so, with the best "live and let live" intentions, we tolerated.  Then we were told that mere "toleration" was not enough.  We must "celebrate" -- which is more than live and let live, it's kind of joining in.  So we did, but only in a happy clappy sort of way.  Now when people like Mr. Rendo start throwing around words like "homophobe" at what level are they expecting us to participate?  How far are we to go to prove that we are without "sin" or the version of what goes for "sin" today?

Not only that, but Mr. Rendo requires that we reach back in time to atone for the words and attitudes said and unsaid (for if Mr. Rendo believes in a god -- whether of the New Age or Tradition -- that being sees both what is said and unsaid, so both must be addressed).  For if not, Carlos Rendo -- "Judge" Rendo as he sets himself up to be -- will pronounce sentence, and that sentence is a word that he will seek to make you wear.

Being tagged a "racist" or a "homophobe" is nearly as bad as being called a "sexual predator" or "molester"... except that the latter have the benefit of the judicial process, while the former have some moe like Judge Rendo passing sentence on Twitter.  People lose employment and are harmed by such "sentences".  Take care.

Actually, what Mr. Rendo (and Mr. DiGaetano and Mr. Olmo and Mr. Kulmala) are engaging in is something called "virtue signaling" --  they are making a fashion statement.  You see, fashion changes.  A decade or so ago, they might very well have been the ones making the less than kind remarks about men who have sex with other men.  But fashions change, so today they are making less than kind remarks about men who are afraid of men who have sex with other men. 

Wait a decade or so and it will all change again.  Round and round we go... tis a dance to the music of time.

Finally... and this is the most humorous bit of all... these idiots are members of the party of Donald Trump.  Their man, "Stumbling John" McCann, is running on a line that directly references that old "pussy-grabber" himself, the Commander-in-Chief, the 45th President of these United States, Donald Trump.  How can Mr. Rendo reference a remark someone allegedly made a dozen years ago, but then demand that the voters ignore the dozens upon dozens of remarks Donald Trump has made during the same time period? 

Haven't  the Democrats already labeled Trump a "homophobe" and "racist" and "sexual predator"?  And you want to label someone on less? 

Is Mr. Rendo in desperate need of a change of party form?  Because it is plainly evident that he cannot attack McCann's opponent and remain a loyal supporter to his President, Donald Trump.  We fear that Rendo can no longer swim in the party of Trump and that he must take to purer (or more rigorously fashionable) waters.

Yes, a change of party is essential.  Sad to say it, but it looks like Rendo is either going to choose to be a hypocrite or change his party.

Is the darling of LGBT Democrats helping McCann?

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. 

Now liberal Democrat Assemblyman Tim Eustace (D-38) -- described by some as one half of the New Jersey Legislature's LGBT caucus -- shuffles up and gets into the act of defending McCann by attacking his opponent in the June 5th Republican primary.  It is important to remember that it was Assemblyman Eustace -- affectionately known by some as "Brother Eustace" (or, as "Major Eustace" by others -- on account of his dashing, British-officer mustache) -- who led the early skirmishes in 2016 against then incumbent Congressman Scott Garrett, who went on to be defeated by Josh Gottheimer in the 5th District.

During one of his recent re-election efforts, it emerged that Brother Eustace had an unresolved issue.  A check of the incumbent Assemblyman's name on the New Jersey Court's public ACMS website, indicated that there were are two "active" (at the time) judgments against a Timothy J. Eustace:

A search of the details reveals that two civil cases filed in Bergen County are connected with these judgments.  They are dockets DC-624821-89 and DC-625025-89.  These cases refer to civil actions taken by the Leonard Shaw Bail Bond Agency against Timothy J. Eustace of 453 Golf Ave., Maywood, NJ 07607. 

453 Golf Ave., Maywood, NJ 07607, is the same address used by Assemblyman and candidate Timothy J. Eustace.  Could the Timothy J. Eustace with the two outstanding judgments be Assemblyman Timothy J. Eustace?

Who is the other party in the case?  Who or what is the Leonard Shaw Bail Bond Agency?  Well, they are now known as Kirk Shaw Bail Bonds.  The company website advertises that they are "directly across from the Bergen County Jail" and have "24-hour service."  Here is a look at their website:

http://www.kirkshawbailbonds.com/

Who uses a bail bond company?  To explain that, here is a video by a well-known New Jersey attorney:

So what we have here are two outstanding judgments against a Timothy J. Eustace, by a bail bond company.  These relate back to two civil cases in which, apparently, Timothy J. Eustace owed something to the bail bond company.  This could relate back to a criminal case, for which the bail was needed.

Now it is important to understand that these court records are maintained by the same entity that has taken it upon itself to dictate the education funding formula in New Jersey.  These people are idiots, so there is every possibility that the Court's records -- just like the Court's judgments -- are full of crap. 

Of course, Assemblyman Timothy J. Eustace of 453 Golf Ave., Maywood, NJ 07607, can probably set the record straight.  So, Brother Eustace, if you would like to, we'd be happy to.