Does Corzine Really Not See The Irony?

Here's the headline from BusinessWeek:

Corzine Condemns ‘Too Damn High’ New Jersey Taxes as He Exits

...and here's the lede:

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, making his valedictory speech to lawmakers, said the most critical issue facing them and his successor boils down to this: “Everyone’s property taxes are too damn high.”

Super. Too bad he's about four years too late. He says other good things, too, that he should have been talking about for years. But keep going:

Corzine, 63, a Democrat with a Democrat-controlled Legislature, said his single term succeeded in adding children to the ranks of state-run health care programs and expanding access to preschool even as the U.S. suffered the worst recession since World War II.

Huh? In the same speech, he's going to say that our taxes are too high and that he's proud of the way he increased our fiscal obligations during a recession?

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Newsflash NJ Voters - Corzine wants you to know: Christie is fat.

I guess when your entire record as Governor of the most taxed state in the country with the third worst financial problems, you make the campaign about...your opponents weight.
From the New York Times:

It is about as subtle as a playground taunt: a television ad for Gov. Jon S. Corzine shows his challenger, Christopher J. Christie, stepping out of an S.U.V. in extreme slow motion, his extra girth moving, just as slowly, in several different directions at once.

In case viewers missed the point, a narrator snidely intones that Mr. Christie “threw his weight around” to avoid getting traffic tickets.

The truly sad part of this advertisement is that this is what our sitting Governor believes is relevant to running the state of New Jersey. He screams about Christie throwing his weight around and allegedly "influencing" a traffic ticket while hiding the fact that he has OUTRIGHT PAID OFF his girlfriend, he brother and others who could shed light on some serious breaches of ethics regarding backroom deals in negotiating union contracts. And after three years, he still refuses to come clean.

All while our great state continues to deteriorate. And his plan for the future? More of the same. The person who is throwing their weight around (and by weight I mean CASH, earned from Democratic Party affiliate Goldman Sachs) is Jon Corzine. And he is doing it to deflect attention from his record. And he believes the voters of New Jersey are too stupid to notice. He may be right.

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Let's investigate Goldman Sach's alumni conflict of interest Mr Corzine

As Jon Corzine continues his hypocritical accusations of Chris Christie, maybe it is time for a real account of the ties between Goldman Sachs alumni like Corzine and government influence. From this article in the Policy Examiner:

The Times points out that Goldman alums include:

Former treasury secretary Hank Paulson
Paulson's bailout chief Neel Kashkari
Interim Treasury investment officer Reuben Jeffrey
Key Treasury players Dan Jester, Steve Shafran, Edward C. Forst, and Robert K. Steel
Key New York Federal Reserve players Stephen Friedman (head of the New York Fed board of governors, who sat on Goldman's board and owned a substantial stake in Goldman while he was making official decisions - and see this), William C. Dudley (head of the New York Fed's unit that buys and sells government securities), and E. Gerald Corrigan (charged with convening a group to analyze risk on Wall Street)

Of course, the avalance of former Goldman alumni seemed to start with Jon Corzine. From this opinion piece in the Trentonian:

That $300 million-plus that Corzine left Goldman Sachs with and used to bankroll a mid-life-crisis career change to politics was “fattened” by IPOs, says Taibbi.

He says Goldman Sachs manipulated the price of IPO stock by encouraging “best clients” to get in early at low prices and clean up before the suckers were enticed in at higher prices, driving up Goldman Sach’s take. That tactic is called “laddering,” says Taibbi.

Then, before moving on to other alleged Goldman Sachs iniquities, the writer takes a parting pot shot at Corzine. “One of the truly comic moments in the history of America’s recent financial collapse came,” writes Taibbi, when Corzine insisted, “I’ve never even heard the term ‘laddering’ before.”

Jon Corzine. Ethically challenged. Mathmatically challenged. A weak Governor. Not quite the lion we were promised (not even a cowardly lion) rather a mouse with the political courage of an anonymous political staffer the media so adores.

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