Pallotta wins in CD05. Sussex County’s Kelly Hart does it again!

By Rubashov

It’s hard to win when the establishment sets its face against you. After his upset victory in the 2020 primary and his narrow defeat to Democrat incumbent Josh Gottheimer in the November election, you would think the party grandees would rally around Frank Pallotta, clear a path for him, and start him on his way for a 2022 re-match. That would have made sense.

But that’s not what happened. Instead, some party leaders nursed the wounds they had received in the primary, when Pallotta beat the Bergen County “line” for his upset win. Others were unhappy that Pallotta hadn’t gone with an “insider” consultant and had Sussex County’s Kelly Hart run his campaign. Many thought Pallotta too conservative – too honest and open about it. And for others, the Jersey operatives at the NRCC included, Pallotta just wasn’t one of the boys.

So, the establishment went out and recruited a very plausible candidate in Nick DiGregorio and raised a lot of money – that they spent on internecine battle to defeat another Republican, namely Frank Pallotta. How this made sense to them, we cannot figure out, but it did serve as an emotional balm to some and an economic benefit to others. We don’t think it did the party any good.

Nick proved to be a formidable candidate and a strong campaigner. He had a wonderful back story, but his establishment handlers suppressed his policy positions, not allowing him to communicate with conservative voters. They believed they would prevail using the blunt force of money, the party “line” in Bergen County, the Jersey operatives at the NRCC, and establishment muscle in Trenton. Nick pulled away endorsements that Frank had previously enjoyed – with a final blow delivered by a legislator yesterday, the day of the election!

The establishment had failed to learn the lesson from last year’s result in LD03. It was there that Steve Kush pulled an upset win by fashioning a campaign that went around establishment filters and engaged directly with the electorate. Of course, this doesn’t always work. It doesn’t work when the electorate is asleep. But the electorate isn’t asleep, is it? It is very, very agitated.

Kelly Hart fashioned a similar win yesterday in CD05, using grassroots networks the Trenton establishment, and especially the Trenton blogs, continue to discount. Strong showings by outsider candidates across New Jersey are an indication of an electorate that is wide awake and open to hearing a conservative message. Even in the CD03 primary, Steve Kush was able to take a very wounded candidate to a respectable showing.

“It is very reassuring that the conservative base wields so much muscle,” said Steve Lonegan, the father of the modern conservative movement in New Jersey, “This should be a wake-up call for the NJGOP establishment.”

Hopefully, the establishment accepts Frank Pallotta’s win and rallies behind him. Nick DiGregorio already has. Let’s hope others follow his good example. We hope to be hearing more from him.

In contrast, Matt Rooney at Save Jersey penned a particularly dickish attack on the Republican nominee – the day after the election. Why is Rooney acting the sore loser when he wasn’t supposed to have a side? Didn’t he hold himself out as someone impartial enough to moderate a debate between Nick and Frank? Apparently not.

For all those Trenton bullies who got owned yesterday.

Pro-abortion Bob Hugin takes sides in CD05. NJGOP backs DeGregorio.

By Rubashov

The NJGOP of Chairman Bob Hugin stepped into the GOP congressional primary in CD05 today. NJGOP executive director Tom Szymanski used the venue of Fox News no less to throw the NJGOP’s weight behind unfounded allegations that 2020 Republican nominee Frank Pallotta is the beneficiary of mailings from the campaign of Democrat Congressman Josh Gottheimer that attack Pallotta.

In a statement to Fox News, the NJGOP executive director said:

“The fact that Josh Gottheimer feels the need to spend tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, to try putting his thumb on the scale of the opposing party’s primary speaks volumes about how desperate he is given his track record of loyally supporting Joe Biden’s anti-energy and inflationary spending policies… No amount of meddling or money spent will save Gottheimer from the voters this November.”

Pallotta’s opponent in the GOP primary – newcomer Nick DeGregorio – has been pushing a line that suggests collusion between Republican Pallotta and Democrat Gottheimer but has offered no evidence.

Nick DeGregorio and NJGOP Chairman Bob Hugin share the same consultant, Checkmate Strategies’ Chris Russell. Tom Szymanski managed a congressional race in New York for Checkmate and Russell.

Both DeGregorio and Hugin come from the Pro-abortion wing of the Republican Party.

Hugin and DeGregorio share political consultants. The NJGOP's Szymanski worked for the same consultant.

Is Save Jersey’s Matt Rooney rewarding the candidate who pays him?

By Rubashov

In the 2021 Republican gubernatorial primary, Jack Ciattarelli’s campaign team did everything they could to make sure their candidate faced more than one traditional conservative in the primary. It was a good thing for Jack that they did, because Ciattarelli didn’t get a majority of the Republican votes in the primary. The majority was split between two traditional conservatives: Pastor Phil Rizzo and Hirsh Singh.

When they are able to, candidates always attempt to set the table in a way that best suits them and provides an advantage. It is usual and customary, as Congressional candidate Nick DeGregorio’s campaign team knows firsthand.

That hasn’t stopped said campaign from crying foul over a mailer sent out by the campaign of Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-05). DeGregorio’s campaign has invested heavily in paid advertising on the Save Jersey news blog, so it was no surprise to anyone that the blog’s editor/owner – the guy cashing those checks – was open to doing a hit on behalf of DeGregorio.

We’re not kidding about those advertisements. DeGregorio ads are all over Save Jersey. You can’t read a page of Save Jersey without needing to make your eyes jump over intrusive campaign ads stuck in the middle of columns to break up the flow. And it’s not just Nick. Other ads are there, all strangely the same, only the candidates’ pictures change – all posed like people who think they’re pretty. Very pretty.

Now are you ready for that hit? Here it comes…

Is Gottheimer opening his war chest to select his own GOP opponent?
May 7, 2022 - Matt Rooney
The GOP’s 2020 NJ-05 nominee (Frank Pallotta) is taking another bite at the apple in 2022, but despite having already done this once before, his fundraising has been abysmal. At the end of Q1, he had a little more than $80,000 cash on hand.
Three-term Democrat incumbent Josh Gottheimer had $13 million.
So it hardly needs to be said that eyebrows were raised this weekend when Republican voters opened their rain-soaked mailboxes and found a Gottheimer campaign mailer (see below) attacking Pallotta, declaring that the under-funded Pallotta is “too much like Trump” and citing a no-longer-current 2020 endorsement from the former president. Why would a Democrat want to tell Republican primary voters (who generally like President Trump) that his opponent is too Trumpy?
Is Gottheimer really opening up his ample war chest to soften up a possible November rival who doesn’t have the cash to respond?
Or is the Democrat congressman trying to “help” Republicans pick the candidate he prefers to face in November?

Of course, candidate Nick DeGregorio has an idea about what’s going on, and what with all those ads his campaign is paying for, Save Jersey is more than happy to turn the floor over to Nick – unquestioned and unabated:

“It is clear who Josh Gottheimer wants to win this Republican primary – and it’s not the guy who served his country in four tours overseas and is now calling on him and others to sell off their stock portfolios to clean up Washington,” said De Gregorio in a statement shared with Save Jersey.

Hold on there! Nick, we’re all very grateful for your service, but do you really have to use it so much? Are you the sort of guy who will buy his wife a bouquet of flowers tomorrow and then remind her about it for the next year? We don’t think so. We think you are better than that.

Most veterans we know – especially those who have seen combat – don’t like to go on and on about it. Hey, everyone is different. Maybe you find it cathartic to talk about your experiences. You have certainly made it the centerpiece of your campaign. Then again… maybe it’s not you. Maybe it’s your campaign – and the folks running your campaign have not served – so maybe they are doing a disservice to you? Just a thought.

“For years, Democrats like Josh Gottheimer talked ad nauseam about Russian interference in our elections. Now Josh, who consistently presents himself as a bipartisan, common sense Democrat who’s above the fray, is using liberal special interest money to wage his own Putin-style disinformation campaign to confuse Republican primary voters about who the true conservative leader in this race is. It’s dead wrong — and if Josh is the statesman he claims to be, he will immediately stop any spending in the CD5 Republican primary.”

“A Putin-style disinformation campaign”? In exactly what way, Nick? And why didn’t you ask that question, Matt?

And as for labeling yourself, “the true conservative leader” – Nick buddy, you were a no-show and totally dissed the state’s conservative leaders – grassroots activists, Second Amendment leaders, people like Steve Lonegan and Right-to-Life’s Marie Tasy – and in contrast came running when Pro-abortion leaders wanted you at an event.

Nick, until you take on the simple challenge of filling out the New Jersey Right to Life and National Rifle Association questionnaires, can you really, in all seriousness call yourself a “conservative”? Right now, at this moment, you’re an unknown when it comes to your position on many important issues. And that is why we are skeptical of you. Sorry, buddy.

“I also call on my opponent, Frank Pallotta, to immediately disavow Gottheimer’s attempt to put his thumb on the scale in this race.”

Nick, to disavow something is to “deny any responsibility or support for it”. That’s the definition. Why would anyone need to disavow something unless responsible in the first place? Nick, do you go about disavowing every crime that takes place in your neighborhood? Nick, are you disavowing the allegations of anti-Asian nonsense by a candidate on your ticket? Or the alleged anti-Asian campaign mailers your consultants cooked-up? Of course not, why would you?

Nick, are you are accusing both Congressman Gottheimer and your fellow Republican of a crime – because if your fellow Republican needed to disavow something, it would be because a federal crime had been committed. Is that what you are doing Nick? And you, Mr. Attorney/ Editor/ Owner, are you riding that horse too?

Nick, the only “thumb on the scale” in this race is the county party lines that are illegal everywhere else in America. The idea that any party organization gets to corrupt the official taxpayer-paid-for ballot by structuring that ballot by presenting a list of party “approved” candidates is Soviet in nature and would not be allowed in any United Nations sponsored election anywhere in the world. Nick, that’s Soviet, as in there’s your Russian connection for you.

Heck Nick, your current supporters appear to have tried to sell the line to your opponent – before you eventually got it. And why didn’t Matt cover that? Not cool to speak ill of another attorney?

Why didn't Save Jersey cover this?

Will Save Jersey disavow this??? LOL

Some possible explanations that should be explored by Save Jersey...

(1) Polling. This was a three-way primary until recently. A poll commissioned by one of those three candidates provided results that might account for why this is now a two-way primary:

IF THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY ELECTION FOR CONGRESS WERE HELD TODAY, FOR WHOM WOULD YOU VOTE?

FRANK PALLOTTA
Definitely 19.0
Probably 7.0

NICK DEGREGORIO
Definitely 8.0
Probably 2.5

FRED SCHNEIDERMAN
Definitely 2.0
Probably 1.2

Would it be unheard of to attack the candidate leading in the polls?

(2) Historically, Frank Pallotta is a self-funder. Congressman Gottheimer is aware of this, as is Nick DeGregorio’s campaign team. DeGregorio’s lead campaign consultant was Frank Pallotta’s lead consultant – not in the primary – but in his loss to Congressman Gottheimer. Might this be an attempt by Gottheimer to give Pallotta a taste of what’s to come, thereby inducing him to forgo a substantial investment?

For while Nick has shown some prowess as a fundraiser. To date, his fundraising would be more impressive in the context of a legislative race – not a race against someone with the resources of a Josh Gottheimer.

Frank Pallotta has never been a good fundraiser. But he’s been a good check-writer. And he does have the potential to drop a million dollars or more into this race. Perhaps that is the point of Gottheimer’s mailer?

We don’t know. Neither does Matt Rooney. So shame on him for suggesting something illegal. Frank Pallotta has done nothing to deserve such a disservice (unless you view not hiring the “right” consultant a capital offense).

“In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
George Orwell

Ryan Peters: Thumbs up to Mikie Sherrill. Thumbs down to Diane Allen.

By Rubashov

In a video paid for by Nick DeGregorio’s campaign for Congress, former Assemblyman Ryan Peters touts military experience as the preeminent qualification for public office. Peters, a former Navy SEAL, states: “There is simply no boardroom or classroom that tests you like a combat zone.”

Peters goes on to say, “You see things, and you’re put in situations… that test the core of who you are. Because ultimately… you will have to look into the eyes of our enemy and decide right then, right there, whether or not you have the strength to fight…”

The ancient Greeks might well agree with Peters. Military service and procreation were twin virtues revered by their civilization. Both were considered essential to the preservation of the city-state, and military service was compulsory. In Athens, for example, service was limited to a set period. In Sparta, it was for life.

But are Peters’ views relevant today? Is combat vet Tammy Duckworth more qualified to be President than was someone like Ronald Reagan? Peters appears to think so. Duckworth, an Army Lt. Colonel, lost both her legs to combat. She is currently the United States Senator from Illinois and a decidedly liberal Democrat. Is Peters suggesting that we ignore her positions on issues and vote for her based on her unquestionable military experience?

Should we have cast our votes for, say, John Kerry (Navy Lieutenant, winner of the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts) over George W. Bush? Peters seems to say “yes”.

The only Republican in the Legislature to vote for Democrat Governor Jim Florio's gun ban was a United States Marine (a Captain). Should Republicans have voted for him based on his military experience? Or should they have taken his anti-Second Amendment position into account?

The video features a clip of DeGregorio, a candidate for Congress in the 5th District, complaining that his Republican primary opponents have questioned his experience. Nick, who reached the rank of Major in the Marine Corps, is running a campaign largely based on his military service. On his campaign website, there are many paragraphs about what Nick did in the military, but there’s nothing about what he’d do in Congress. No issues page. No policies.

Nick compounded this by refusing to share his views with a panel of statewide conservative leaders that included Mayor Steve Lonegan; Marie Tasy (New Jersey Right to Life); Alex Roubian (2nd Amendment Society); Rev. Greg Quinlan (Center for Garden State Families); John Robert Carman (NJ Constitutional Republicans); and Josh Aikens (AriseNJ). Every other candidate for the GOP nomination in the 5th District participated, as did every candidate in the neighboring 7th District – including elected officials like Senator Tom Kean Jr. and Assemblyman Erik Peterson. Perhaps Nick hasn’t fully formed views on issues like taxation and abortion and the Second Amendment?

Whatever the reason for Nick’s reticence to share his ideas on issues, it does raise perfectly reasonable questions about what those ideas might be – or whether Nick has any ideas at all. In the video, Peters suggest anyone who questions a former combat veteran and candidate for public office should face cancellation for daring to do so. Peters states, “So, for any guy who puts on a suit, sits in an office, and says those who chose to put on a uniform and face down the barrel of a gun, that they don’t have experience – you sir, have no business representing anybody in Congress.”

This is quite an extreme statement and a species of that faux moral outrage one generally associates with the Left. Of course, all citizens – suit-wearing or not – have not only the right but the duty to question the experience of those who wish to represent them in Congress. To suggest that questioning certain people should result in the questioner being cancelled is irresponsible and absurd.

We wonder if Republicans will face the same admonishments from Democrats when Senator Duckworth runs for President in 2024? And we can’t help but wonder who Assemblyman Peters would have voted for last year, if Phil Murphy had run with Mikie Sherrill (retired Navy Lt. Commander and a combat helicopter pilot) against a Quaker pacifist like Diane Allen?

If we place the romance and emotional rhetoric to one side, it is clear to see there are many kinds of experiences that could be helpful in Congress. Having gone through a pandemic, perhaps a candidate with a medical background might be helpful? A career in medical research might even be more helpful. Would Peters suggest cancelling such a candidate if they dared ask Nick where he stood on the issues?

Experience should be the beginning of a candidate's story. It should not be a candidate's entire story.

This is not to place blame on Ryan and Nick alone, because they have not embraced this criterion on their own. They are victims of the political campaign industry’s consultant class. America might not manufacture anything anymore, but politics and government affairs and lobbying has never been bigger.

Today’s political consultants don’t think of a public servant or a statesman when they think of a candidate – they think of a Facebook celebrity. And that is what they seek to manufacture. A nice, plausible face with a good back story that produces the mandatory emotional “likes”. Candidates are admonished not to think or tell anybody where they stand on issues. In place of genuine thought, there is a script. Human concern is carefully choreographed. Image is all.

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

…

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

(Excerpts from “The Hollow Men”
by Thomas Stearns Eliot)

We disagree with these political consultants. We believe that issues matter to people. Issues motivate individual people to vote. Not categories designed by algorithms. Issues have meaning to people.

Take these folks in this video, for example. Are they “Soft Democrats” or “Swing” or any one of the other descriptors designed to make it easier to sell some technological shortcut to figuring out what is on people’s minds (short of having a discussion with them). To us, they appear unique, individual, and motivated by an issue that concerns them. Of course, we could be wrong. Watch the video. You describe them. Are they Republicans?

How would the sacred algorithms describe them?

“In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
George Orwell

Weiner lawyer: The party “line” is for sale in Bergen County

By Rubashov

Does the Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) sell its party line in GOP primaries? Apparently, top Bergen County GOP operative Matthew Gilson thinks so. In a 2020 text exchange with congressional candidate Frank Pallotta, Gilson said as much. Here is what he wrote:

"Buy the line... Either give the money now or don't cry to me when u didn't get the line... I negotiated to give u the line if u gave money... All we can do is tell you how to get the line..."

Gilson, an advisor to the congressional campaign of Nick DeGregorio, was recently made a partner at the Weiner Law Group. Two weeks ago, the Weiner firm announced:

Weiner Law Group LLP is proud to announce that Matthew E. Gilson has been named a Partner of the firm.

While Matthew concentrates his practice primarily in redevelopment, land use and municipal law, he also serves as counsel in a variety of roles to municipalities and public entities. Additionally, he serves as the election law attorney handling disputed elections and ballot issues and has been recognized by several publications for his role in the political arena.

The Weiner law firm – formerly Weiner Lesniak – was prominently mentioned in a Sunday “Watchdog” exposé that appeared in Gannett publications throughout northern New Jersey, including the Bergen Record and New Jersey Herald. The article was investigated by an impressive line-up of New Jersey political writers – Ashley Balcerzak, Dustin Racioppi, and Charlie Stile – and titled, “FBI raided home of political operative for info on murder-for-hire and dark money, docs show.”

The article notes: “That federal investigators are being assisted by a veteran operative who has intimate knowledge of the below-the-radar world of political campaign financing has set the tightknit world of New Jersey politics on edge.

And details in the 2019 search warrant are likely to heighten the anxiety. The document indicates that investigators were not only looking into the murder-for-hire scheme, but also the flood of largely-unregulated political cash that flowed through a constellation of accounts linked to 44-year-old Caddle when he was working for influential Democratic state Sen. Ray Lesniak of Union County.”

The article contains this interesting tidbit…

In addition to murder-for-hire evidence, during the 2019 raid on Caddle’s home federal authorities wanted “documents, records, correspondence, memoranda, and notes” since 2013 related to Lesniak’s former law firm, Weiner Lesniak, his gubernatorial and campaign accounts, and a handful of independent political groups linked to Lesniak.

…Lesniak’s former law partner, Paul Weiner, declined to comment on authorities seeking information between the firm and Caddle.

Federal authorities also were looking for records tied to nearly two dozen campaign funds and political party accounts, two unions, a town department of finance, Caddle’s consulting firms and more. They demanded information from Caddle about a Harrison-based treasurer named Gianni Donates, who formed a majority of the super PACs and nonprofits linked to Caddle, and his tax preparation firm, ATG.

There are a lot of investigative journalists from a lot of media outlets working on this story so, as always, stay tuned…

“In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
George Orwell

Why did Nick DeGregorio refuse to take questions from conservative leaders?

By Rubashov

Some people seem to have been talked into thinking they’re entitled. That they don’t need to answer questions because they have the inside track.

Enter Nick DeGregorio. Nick is a young man in a hurry to make his mark in the world. There’s nothing wrong with this. Personal ambition is a necessary feature to political office.

But personal ambition is a poor reason for holding office. Simply “getting ahead” or “moving up the ladder” is an empty motion. A candidate needs to ask himself – and needs to be asked – to define his intentions. Why do you want to hold office and what will you do with it if you get there?

Nick got involved in politics as an acolyte of fellow Marine, Bob Hugin. Nick’s campaign is using the same punchline Hugin used in his failed 2018 bid for the United States Senate: Vote for me, I’m a Marine. It’s easy to see why, they both hired the same political insider to guide them.

Asking for someone’s vote based on your military service isn’t a bad approach, just a shallow one. Hey, running for Congress isn’t the same as running for Post Commander of the local VFW. There’s a bit more to it than your method of service. And using this approach, shouldn’t we all be voting for Mikie Sherrill?

Nick has every right to run, but as we learned from Bob Hugin’s 2018 campaign, being a Marine doesn’t make you a conservative. Hugin launched his campaign by trashing much of what traditional conservatives hold dear (before reminding them that he was, indeed, a Marine).

In contrast, Nick is taking the silent approach. On his campaign website, we are treated to many paragraphs about what he did in the military, but there’s nothing there about what he’d do in Congress. No issues page. No policies.

In fairness, Nick does notice some of the problems facing voters today. His website devotes a single paragraph to those details:

“Taxes are out of control. Businesses and jobs are fleeing, taking our neighbors with them. Our classrooms—once safe places for our children to learn to think for themselves—are now devolving into testing grounds for radical political ideology. And behind it all are the career politicians and insiders, who are too busy serving themselves in Washington to care about the mess they have created for the rest of us here at home.”

No ideas or solutions. No platform or policy page on his campaign website.

Nick sounds the way he does because behind Nick are those career political “insiders” that his website claims “are too busy serving themselves… to care about the mess they have created for the rest of us.” Nick’s campaign has identified the problem… and the problem is Nick’s campaign.

But Nick shouldn’t be singled out. His campaign is not unique. Most political campaigns today begin by hiring a “career insider” to fashion prose about how other “career insiders” represent a threat to the way of life of average voters. And we’re not arguing they don’t, we’re just pointing out the hypocrisy of the exercise.

There are some “career insiders” who appreciate policy and some who don’t. Those who don’t generally push the “I’m just here to win” mantra. That’s because policy is hard work. Specifically, taking a policy and turning it into a winning message is hard work. Much easier to maintain a policy-free-zone and tell voters what they want to hear, spinning and zipping until you cross the finish line. But that is no way to build a party. A party is constructed of planks and platforms – which is just another way of saying issues and policies.

And so, it was notable when Nick DeGregorio turned down an invitation to share his views with a panel of statewide conservative leaders that included Mayor Steve Lonegan; Marie Tasy (New Jersey Right to Life); Alex Roubian (2nd Amendment Society); Rev. Greg Quinlan (Center for Garden State Families); John Robert Carman (NJ Constitutional Republicans); and Josh Aikens (AriseNJ). Every other candidate for the GOP nomination in the 5th District participated, as did every candidate in the neighboring 7th District – including elected officials like Senator Tom Kean Jr. and Assemblyman Erik Peterson. Perhaps Nick hasn’t fully formed views on issues like taxation and abortion and the Second Amendment? More likely, it’s because the “career insider” running Nick’s campaign wants to get though the primary using little more than the word “Marine” so that he can define Nick in a way that will appeal to some mythological entity known as the “soft Democrat”.

Of course, this is an act of deception. It is the opposite of leadership.

It takes personal courage to serve in wartime. It takes moral courage to adopt policy positions and believe in them enough to want to sell them. And just as personal courage moves the ball forward in war, moral courage moves us forward as a nation.

Ronald Reagan is mentioned on Nick’s campaign website: “Together, we can – and will – win the battle of ideas and ensure, as President Reagan said, that America remains a shining city upon a hill for generations to come.” How can one not mention ideas when discussing Ronald Reagan? Even on a website without ideas.

Ronald Reagan was no Marine. But Ronald Reagan had ideas and convictions that he fought for. He had the moral courage it took to move America forward. No “career insider” ever got him to hide his light under a basket. And forget wimpy appeals to “soft” Democrats – Reagan converted a generation of Reagan Democrats to his way of thinking. He won and moved the policy ball forward. We need more candidates with Reagan's kind of courage.

President Reagan on how to deliver a message.

Why is Trump-hater Alan Steinberg backing Republican Nick DeGregorio?

By Rubashov

Be careful Republicans!

After pissing on every Republican in America for the last five years, Whitman Republican (or more precisely, former Republican) Alan Steinberg is now trying to anoint candidates for next year’s Republican congressional primaries. Steinberg has called Republicans every foul word he could muster – from “fascists” to “racists” – and followed up those insults by publicly excusing the worst excesses of the Democrat Party.

Steinberg’s sudden interest in directing support within the NJGOP to candidates for Congress in next year’s GOP congressional primaries is worrisome. Especially so when you remember that Steinberg’s mentor – former GOP Governor Christie Whitman – has already released a statement endorsing two Democrat incumbents (Josh Gottheimer in CD05 and Andy Kim in CD03) for re-election.

Writing in yesterday’s edition of InsiderNJ, Steinberg spent more than 1,000 words in a panegyric to a little-known, first-time candidate for Congress by the name of Nick DeGregorio. The photograph of DeGregorio that Steinberg chose to grace his sales pitch resembles that of a youngish monk from the 15th century.

Of course, Steinberg could not begin promoting his Republican offering without first offering up some praise before his Democrat masters – predicting the election of Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia and an upturn in President Joe Biden’s polling numbers. This is something Democrat pollster (and Gottheimer pal) Mark Penn seems skeptical about, as this short interview makes clear…

Across America, Democrat poll numbers are crashing (especially over COVID). Why not New Jersey?

We were especially amused at these lines by Alan Steinberg: “Biden’s actions regarding Afghanistan will be a definite political popularity asset for him. Botched withdrawal or not, Biden will be recognized as the president who got us out of that quagmire, saving America thousands of lives, billions of dollars, and reversing the extraordinarily foolish Afghanistan policies of both his Republican and Democratic predecessors.”

Yes, this from a member of the administration that sold us the “Weapons of Mass Destruction” lie and expanded our military involvement throughout the Middle East. A NeoCon, Steinberg boisterously supported the expansion of the Security State – with its spying on American citizens and its use of the Espionage Act against whistleblowers. Too bad it took you two decades, trillions spent, and a million or so dead to change your mind.

Alan Steinberg proceeds to try to sell us on his protégé, Nick DeGregorio, calling DeGregorio a “growing formidable challenge” to Josh Gottheimer in CD05. Okay, but the latest information out of the Federal Elections Commission shows DeGregorio with zero dollars on-hand and Gottheimer with more than $11 million. Steinberg goes on to anoint DeGregorio “the current frontrunner for the 2022 Republican Congressional nomination in the Fifth District.” Based on?

Well, like Bob Hugin (who apparently DeGregorio models himself after), DeGregorio was an officer in the Marine Corps. If memory serves, Steinberg said that would be the clincher for Guy Gregg too. He also touts DeGregorio’s “academic credentials” and his Wall Street experience.

Hey, all of that is good, but what’s going on in DeGregorio’s brain is what matters. What is the young man thinking about? What are his policies (we certainly hope he doesn’t share in Alan Steinberg’s enthusiasms)? What does he really believe when he stops pretending, when he puts away the script and stops being a candidate? Is he the kind of man who can be on the level with those he wishes to impose himself on? In short, is he honest? Time will tell.

Alan Steinberg was well-cared for by the NJGOP. The party got him jobs in the administrations of Governor Whitman and President George W. Bush. Fat paying jobs. And he rewarded them by flipping out when conservatives took charge, calling them names like “racists” and “fascists” – eventually quitting the GOP.

Steinberg closed his promotional piece for DeGregorio with this bit of ridiculousness:

“I also have seen more enthusiasm for Nick De Gregorio among both rank-and-file Republicans and leaders than virtually any other Republican Congressional challenger over the past four decades. He is indeed a phenomenon.”

After all his years of hating Republicans and calling conservatives every filthy name he could come up with, we doubt if any self-respecting “rank-and-file Republican” would take the time to piss on him. Alan Steinberg is as welcome in conservative circles as a skunk on a wedding night.

Nick DeGregorio picked one hell of a spokesman for a Republican primary. Good luck.

Political Greatness
By Percy Bysshe Shelley

Nor happiness, nor majesty, nor fame,
Nor peace, nor strength, nor skill in arms or arts,
Shepherd those herds whom tyranny makes tame;
Verse echoes not one beating of their hearts,
History is but the shadow of their shame;
Art veils her glass, or from the pageant starts,
As to oblivion their blind millions fleet,
Staining that heaven with obscene imagery
Of their own likeness. What are numbers knit
By force or custom? Man, who man would be,
Must rule the empire of himself; in it
Must be supreme, establishing his throne
On vanquished will, quelling the anarchy
Of hopes and fears, being himself alone.