What if Menendez resigns?

It’s not considered likely that Senator Bob Menendez will resign as a result of the bi-partisan admonishment he received from the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics.  NJ and Washington Democrats have become a much more forgiving people since Senator Bob Torricelli was forced out of office after his admonishment 16 years ago.

As Bret Stephens wrote in a Trump bashing piece in the NY Times yesterday, America’s standards have declined over the years.   Menendez’s admonishment for trading the power of his office for luxury travel and massive campaign contributions will likely blow over as the Democrats and their media partners continue their mission to destroy the Trump presidency.

But what if the Russian collusion with the Senate Ethics Committee works and Menendez decides to take a job running Dr. Salomon Melgen’s port security business in the Dominican Republic while looking over his luxury villa?

If Menendez resigns, Governor Phil Murphy gets to appoint someone to fill the vacancy until January. That person would run in Menendez’s place for a six year term in the November election. Who would Murphy choose? Read the rest of this entry »

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FBI’s grab of Trump’s legal files sends a dangerous message

By Stuart J. Moskovitz, Esq.

Stuart J Moskovitz

Even if you don’t like Trump….

I’ve posted this in Monmouth County News because similar actions have happened not just in Washington, but right out of Red Bank and concerns everyone in this County who believes that a free society should remain so.

We are a divided country. We are a polarized country. That polarization is posing one of the most serious internal dangers to our nation and our notions of democracy.

Like every other attorney, I have told my clients that whatever they tell me is absolutely privileged under the doctrine of attorney-client privilege. That doctrine exists in every state. It exists in the federal system. It is close to sacrosanct. There are extremely few exceptions and they require overcoming the highest burdens imaginable to breach. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Right to Treatment Protects All of Us

Twenty years after the closing of Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital, thoughts on Parkland, Florida.

By Stuart J. Moskovitz

In 1966, Chief Judge Bazelon of the D.C. Appellate Court reviewed a lower court decision where the judge had said, “My jurisdiction is limited to determining whether [the patient] has recovered his sanity. I don’t think I have a right to consider whether he is getting enough treatment.”

Chief Judge Bazelon stated, “Absent treatment, the hospital is transformed into a penitentiary where one could be held indefinitely for no convicted offense.”

He then went on to note that in 1964 Congress had passed the Hospitalization of the Mentally Ill Act which provides, in part, “A person hospitalized in a public hospital for a mental illness shall, during his hospitalization, be entitled to medical and psychiatric care and treatment.”

He defined that requisite care by saying, “According to leading experts ‘psychiatric care and treatment’ includes not only the contacts with psychiatrists but also activities and contacts with the hospital staff designed to cure or improve the patient.”

Read the rest of this entry »

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Opinion: Two Wrongs Won’t Make It Right

Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff In politics, being seen to do something is almost as important as actually doing it. So it was perhaps inevitable that aggrieved blue-state leaders in California, New York, and now New Jersey would push half-baked ideas for thwarting or working around the recent federal tax bill’s “devilish” limitation on state and local tax (SALT)… Read the rest of this entry »

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Op-Ed: Jersey Politicians, Can You Hear Us Now?

Joseph Caruso It seems appropriate now, in the wake of the new federal tax law that New Jersey remember the immortal words of Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” The sentiment is directed at all the state politicians who are crying over the “unfairness” of the new federal tax-reform measure that caps… Read the rest of this entry »

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Will the Monmouth Dems Take Curley?

By Art Gallagher

Regardless of the outcome of Freeholder John Curley’s federal lawsuit to prevent the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders from Censuring him and to seal the investigative report into complaints of his harassment of County employees that he obviously believes will destroy his reputation, it is hard to imagine a scenario where Curley is nominated for reelection by the Monmouth GOP.

Curley’s term is up next year.  The Republican and Democrat Party nominees for the primary will be chosen by early April.

In his lawsuit, Curley alleges that the investigation and proposed censure is a “political hatchet job” by Freeholder Serena DiMaso.  The current mess does nothing for DiMaso politically.  Curley and DiMaso were successful running mates in 2012.  DiMaso is leaving the Board in January when she will be sworn into the State Assembly.  Nothing about this situation benefits DiMaso politically. Read the rest of this entry »

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Kneeling for the National Anthem Violates School Bullying Policies

By Tommy DeSeno

When NFL players break the nationwide community standard we codified on how to act during the National Anthem (and obscuring their cause in the process), they unfortunately influence the fecund minds of children who mimic them. So now we have children as young as eight disrespecting America’s flag at football games.

Students’ actions in and out of school today are judged against a school bullying policy. So worried a child may suffer the modern communicable disease called “triggering,” punishments are meted out for hurt feelings or perceived incivility toward another’s unknowable conscience or identity. Read the rest of this entry »

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O’Scanlon’s road map for Gov-elect Murphy’s success

Senator-elect Declan O’Scanlon

By Declan O’Scanlon Republicans must understand our role. It is our job to be skeptical, to challenge, to question, to offer alternatives to Gov.-elect Phil Murphy and his incoming administration. But, it is also our moral obligation to root for the administration’s success. To wish for or foment failure is to wish ill for all New… Read the rest of this entry »

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Gopal Beating Beck Was No Upset. It Was Gerrymandering and Camden Colonialism

By Tommy DeSeno

Election night we listened to pundit after pundit (some admitting they know little about the 11^th District) proclaim Vin Gopal’s victory over Senator Jen Beck was an “upset.”  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Every indicia of prognostication said Vin Gopal was the favorite, and it starts with the previous census.

I’ve lamented for some time that voting in “districted elections” is like not voting at all.  After each census, 10 political big shots, 5 from each party, meet in a hotel room and draw crazy lines that allow them to divvy up the state between the two parties.  Democrats having an advantage in this state, their “map” wins, by an 11^th man tiebreaker.  This is followed by us sheep doing our civic duty and voting even though the pols already stacked the demographic deck.  The winning party acts like it was political prowess that won them the election, when in fact the day was won in the hotel room where the map is drawn every 10 years.  This system is an inhibitor of democracy. Read the rest of this entry »

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Opinion: Elect Rob Acerra and Michael Whelan to Assembly in the 11th District

By Joe Hadden

These days it seems that in order to oppose someone politically, it is necessary to “ist” them. If they disagree with you they must be a fascist, communist, racist, sexist, socialist, etc. I don’t need to do that to voice my opposition to Assembly members Eric Houghtaling and Joann Downey. Demonizing them is not necessary.

Mr. Houghtaling and Ms. Downey are not evil, they’re just incompetent as elected representatives. They voted yes on a budget that took state aid away from many school districts in LD11, including Ocean Township. During the LD11 debate, Mr. Houghtaling was asked if New Jersey should become a Sanctuary State since his party’s candidate for Governor said it should. Mr. Houghtaling responded that he didn’t have an opinion on the issue. I dare say he might be the only person in New Jersey who doesn’t. He still hasn’t come up with an answer. Read the rest of this entry »

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