Senator Menendez to face retrial in corruption case

Dr. Salomon Melgen, left and Senator Robert Menendez

Federal prosecutors say they intend to retry U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez on political corruption charges. The trial of the New Jersey Democrat ended in a mistrial in November after jurors were unable to reach a verdict. The Department of Justice had been facing a deadline later this month to retry the case or drop the charges.… Read the rest of this entry »

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The sin of Joe Cryan’s tawdry emails

In a column posted on NJ.com yesterday,  Where is the sin in Cryan’s tawdry sex e-mails?, Star Ledger Editorial Board Editor Tom Moran argues that “the sin” is the “outrageous breach of privacy” that Cryan suffered as a result of the leaked emails.

Yes, Cryan, a Democrat from Union County, had sex with a lobbyist and tried to hide that fact for years. But we are talking about two consenting adults, neither of them married at the time. Where is the crime against humanity?

Anything goes if you’re an unmarried consenting adult and everything apparently did between Cryan and Karen Golding.  But what does it say about New Jersey that texting while driving is a crime, but fellatio while driving is not a sin?

We’ve evolved as a culture to the point that sexual acts are no longer sins or crimes, unless they involve children, money exchanging hands or the violation of a marriage vow or vow of celibacy.

Golding says that Cryan emailed her pornographic pictures from his government owned computers, but that is apparently OK, because, unlike his former office mate, former Assemblyman Neil Cohen, the pictures did not depict children.

Moran should have read beyond the tawdry emails. Golding provides evidence of possible perjury, abuse of power, judicial misconduct, and official misconduct by several in the Union County/Trenton government machine.  There is no apparent effort to investigate or prosecute these alleged crimes, but there is an announced investigation into who leaked the emails.

Evidently Cyran’s pride and privacy are more of a government priority than his actually working while on the government payroll as a Union County Under Sheriff or a State Legislator.

Cryan’s personal emailing activity from his government issue computers raises the question of how much political activity is done from those computers.  How much of his “work” as Democratric State Chairman was done while on the Union County Sheriff Office’s dime?  New Jersey residents deserve more investigating of Cryan and his protectors than Bob Ingle asking, “Where does he find the time?”

Don’t say, “Everybody does it” as a defense for using government equipment and offices to do personal and/or political business.  Everybody doesn’t do it.   I talk to many elected officials who won’t take my calls in their offices just in case the subject becomes political.  They call back from their personal cell or home phones.  Or they won’t meet me at their office, but at a restaurant accross the street.

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Spicuzzo Faces Corruption Charges

By Art Gallagher

Middlesex County Democratic Chairman and former Sheriff Joseph Spicuzzo turned himself into the State Police this morning to face charges of bribery and official misconduct, according to multiple news reports.

It is important to note that these are State charges.  New Jersey U.S Attorney Paul Fishman doesn’t think their is a culture of public corruption in New Jersey.

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