The Ugly Truth About Cory Booker

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Olivia Nuzzi’s, The Ugly Truth About Cory Booker, New Jersey’s Golden Boy, at TheDailyBeast.com should be read by every New Jersey voter before election day on November 4th.  Please read it and share it widely.

Nuzzi, a Middletown native who interned for Vin Gopal’s 2011 Assembly race and wrote for MMM and the triCityNews before emerging as a nationally prominent political reporter, while helping to bring down Andrew Wiener along the way, has grown into a unique story teller with a commitment to telling the truth regardless of the political fallout.

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Christie: Federal Law Keeping RREM Applicants in Limbo

Pallone says legislation is not necessary, regulators can change the rules

Governor Chris Christie listens to a resident’s question in Belmar. March 25, 2014 MMM photo/Art Gallagher. Click for larger view.

Governor Chris Christie told the 650 people in attendance at his Town Hall Meeting in Belmar yesterday that he went to Washington last week to ask HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan to waive the rule that is keeping Sandy victims from rebuilding their homes while they are waiting to find out if they will be approved for Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation (RREM) grants of up to $150,000.

The RREM program will not reimburse homeowners for work done on their homes prior to their acceptance into the program.  Over 3000 people are on the RREM waiting list for the second round of HUD funding which is expected to be awarded late this spring. They are in limbo, living in temporary housing, paying rent and mortgages, while their ruined homes are dormant.

Christie said that Donovan told him he could not waive the rule because a specific federal law prohibits grants being used to pay for work performed prior to the federal approval being secured.

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Christie’s former running mate invokes Nixon in Bridgegate commentary

Former Assemblyman Rick Merkt is the first of Governor Chris Christie’s former allies and fair weather friends to prematurely dance on Christie’s political grave.

Assembly candidates Chris Christie and Rick Merkt examine the ballot in 1995

Merkt, who was Christie’s running mate for Assembly in 1995 and ran a lack luster primary campaign against Christie in 2009, compares the governor to disgraced former President Richard Nixon in a interview with former MMM contributor Olivia Nuzzi for New York Magazine.

“You know, reading the reports about the GW bridge fiasco, I recalled how similar the governor’s conduct during the re-election campaign was to that of President Nixon during his victorious re-election campaign in 1972,” he said. …

… He had no need to engage in an abuse of power to win re-election, and, in fact, he won by a landslide. But Nixon just couldn’t help himself; he did it anyway; he eventually got caught, and it cost him his office and political career. One might surmise that it was the arrogance of power that did him in, but I suspect it was really his control-freak nature and deep vindictiveness fundamental to his nature. …

Remind you of anyone we know? I doubt the comparison will long be lost on New Jersey Democrats, who already smell blood in the water. …

…. Merkt says several people he spoke with in Trenton agree with the predictions that this will be the end of the governor’s 2016 presidential bid. “Given his vindictive nature, I always sensed that Christie would implode at some point, but I did not foresee it happening so soon or over such a petty matter,” said Merkt. “By the way, my recollection is that Nixon crushed McGovern by a 60 percent to 38 percent margin, a margin virtually identical to Christie’s victory over Buono.  Funny how history repeats itself.”

Politicos with Christie envy might as well get their names in print over the next week or so.  I think Christie will land on his feet and end up being an even more respected leader before the dust is settled on Bridgegate.

Before long Christie will be compared more to Truman than Nixon.  Watch for a “the buck stops here” Town Hall Meeting in Fort Lee before the end of the month.

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Deplorable Conduct From The Lonegan Campaign

Rick Shaftan

UPDATE:  LONEGAN FIRES SHAFTAN

GOP nominee for U.S. Senate Steve Lonegan’s chief strategist, pollster and spokesman, Rick Shaftan gave a profanity laced interview to Talking Points Memo this afternoon wherein he suggested that New Jersey voters would elect Lonegan to the Senate next Wednesday over Newark Mayor Cory Booker because of Booker’s “odd” way of relating to LynsieLee, the Portland, Oregon stripper with whom Booker interacts on twitter.

Shaftan implied that Booker is gay because he doesn’t relate to LyniseLee like a drunken frat boy might, with graphic descriptions of what he would like to do to her breasts.  And he thinks that is why New Jersey will elect Lonegan.

In a disingenuous comment to The Star Ledger,  Lonegan’s press contact, Will Gattenby , said Shaftan was not speaking for the campaign, yet attacked the TMP reporter published Shaftan’s comments.

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Nuzzi Accepts Morgan’s Apology Via Twitter

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Barbara Morgan, Anthony Weiner’s potty-mouthed hack, apologized in the press to Olivia Nuzzi for her vulgar rant over the Fordham junior’s New York Daily News spread.  Morgan said she thought she was off the record.

It was reported that Morgan said she called and emailed Nuzzi a personal apology.

Nuzzi wouldn’t confirm that she received the personal apology, but she took to twitter to announce her forgiveness.

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Weiner’s Potty-Mouthed Hack Rips Nuzzi

Potty-Mouthed Barbara Morgan, left. Anthony Weiner’s better side, right

Weiner for New York Mayor spokeswoman Barbara Morgan was more upset that Olivia Nuzzi wrote in her New York Daily News article that the Weiner campaign staff is inexperienced than she was about Nuzzi’s revelations that Weiner called his interns “Monica” and that much of his staff joined the campaign to curry favor with the candidate’s wife, Huma , who is on Hillary Clinton’s staff, rather than to get Weiner elected, according to a vulgarity laced rant at TalkingPointsMemo.

Which more than proved Nuzzi’s point about inexperience.

Morgan used language in reference to Nuzzi that Dan Jacobson wouldn’t print in the Tri CityNews and that, if uttered by a male spokesperson or Vice President of the United States, would cause more of an uproar than Eliot Spitzer’s socks.

Prior to joining the Weiner campaign, Morgan was the Director of Communications and Media Relations at the New Jersey Department of Education, a job she started in May of 2012 and is still listed as current on her LinkedIn profile.

MMM is not going to inquire with NJ DOE about Morgan’s departure.  We’re just glad she’s gone.

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Olivia Nuzzi’s first 15 minutes

I knew this woman was going places.

Former MMM columnist Oliva Nuzzi is on the front page of the New York Daily News today.

“Oh no, what did she do?” said both Dan Jacobson, who stole her away from MMM for $50 bucks, and Vin Gopal, for whom she had her first political internship in 2011, when I asked them if they’d seen it.

Nothing bad at all!  Actually its great for Olivia!  The Daily News saw her piece on NSFW about Anthony Weiner calling her “Monica” when she was his intern and paid her to write an article for them.

Olivia is smarter, funnier and better looking than most TV news personalities and pundits of any ideology or gender.   The Middletown native, now a junior at Fordham, has a lot more than 15 minutes of fame in her future.

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Weiner Called His Interns “Monica”

Early in his New York City mayoral campaign, former Congressman Anthony Weiner gathered his twenty interns into his private office for an introduction.

Olivia, not Monica, Nuzzi

“I always say that on every campaign, there are one or two volunteers who really make a difference,” he began. (There were roughly twenty of us in the room.) “So I just want to let you know that no task is too small, and the work you’re doing is important and it is appreciated.” He continued to speak for a few minutes, reiterating this point over and over.

“Okay!” Weiner said loudly, though not enthusiastically. “I’m going to go around the room now and ask you your name and a fact about yourself, and then I’m going to go back around and repeat your name to you.” A member of the campaign staff looked on, nervously. “I’m great at this,” Weiner said.

The Weiner proceeded to listen to the interns names and facts and then went back around the room and called the first tw0 women “Monica” and gave up.

“We all laughed nervously. Monica is an interesting intern name to pick out of the air. (Weiner’s wife, we should remember, works for Hillary Clinton.),” wrote former MMM columnist Olivia Nuzzi in a piece for her current gig at NSFWCorp.

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Nuzzi bursting the false equivalency bubble

Far be it from me to note the superficial and inconsequential, but when I see Fluke I think more “chaste librarian” than raging “slut.”

By Olivia Nuzzi

The Sandra Fluke-Rush Limbaugh drama has succeeded in sparking a national debate about false equivalency in the media. Of course, things like sexism and misogyny exist on both the right and left. But on which side is it worse? And on which side – if any – is it fundamental? 

In a piece posted here yesterday, Art Gallagher attacked “misogynists lefties” whom he admitted he had “never heard of” until The Daily Beast’s Kristen Powers brought them to his attention. Though, not knowing about these media figures didn’t stop Gallagher from blindly agreeing with Powers that they were “misogynists.” 

I have a big problem with anyone making a diagnosis from a distance. Is Rush Limbaugh a misogynist? I suppose to figure that out you’d have to talk to his mother and four wives. 

Does Rush Limbaugh say misogynistic things, and has he done so consistently throughout his career? From his claim that having “two or three abortions” is a part of a feminist “paying her dues” to his cracks about First Lady Michelle Obama’s figure, the evidence isn’t difficult to find. 

However, none of that means that Limbaugh is without insight. And liberals who nod in agreement with the establishment left – conceding that he’s a mere useless blowhard – are not doing themselves any favors. 

Limbaugh is right on occasion – there are indeed militant feminists, and what they espouse is arguably as harmful as Mel Gibson calling your daughter “sugar tits.” Admitting that doesn’t mean that I’m not a feminist, it means I’m not an ideological imbecile (though the readers on this website may disagree.) 

The assertion that “lefties” are never reprimanded for their sexist or racist remarks may read as accurate if you live in a bubble. Evidently, Gallagher’s bubble hasn’t yet been punctured by reality on this topic.

Last May, MSNBC host and converted-liberal, Ed Schultz, was suspended by the network after calling Laura Ingraham a “right wing slut” on his radio program. I condemned that statement, as did every one from Alyssa Rosenberg from the left-wing Think Progress, to the Women’s Media Center’s President Julie Burton, to Keith Olbermann – that’d be one of those “misogynists lefties” Gallagher had “never heard of.”

In 2008, the National Organization for Women (NOW) circulated a petition, protesting MSNBC host Chris Matthews’ “record of ‘overt sexism when discussing women.'” They based this claim on research conducted by the known-liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America. The left-leaning NOW denounced Matthews for “sexist comments” made about Hillary Clinton, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the female correspondents who he worked with at MSNBC.

Also in 2008, MSNBC suspended Tucker Carlson’s guest-host David Shuster for suggesting that the Clinton campaign had “pimped out” Chelsea Clinton. 

The late, great Christopher Hitchens was often the subject of liberal rage for his alleged sexism in the form of observations such as “Mrs. Clinton, looking like the dog being washed” and assessments of that same target as being “flagrant, hysterical, repetitive and pathological lying.” One of Hitchens’ later works, a Vanity Fair piece entitled “Why Women Aren’t Funny” saw him denounced as “sexist” by Mediaite’s Rachel Sklar and comedian Sarah Silverman. 

In 2010, liberal hero Michael Moore, along with noted feminist author Naomi Wolfe, was the subject of a left-wing protest labeled “Moore and Me.” After making comments deemed “insensitive” regarding rape allegations against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and offering to post his  $20,000 bail, Moore was declared a “rape apologist.” Also smeared with the label was Naomi Wolfe, who – along with Moore and a handful of others – refused to condemn and dismiss Assange by virtue of the unclear rape allegations made against him. 

And should you be under the impression that those on the left are only castigated when they’re criticizing fellow liberals, you’re mistaken.

Keith Olbermann has come under fire numerous times from the liberal and feminist establishments for his bombastic remarks about conservative women. In 2009, Olbermann was called out by the left-wing Air America’s editor of news and politics, Megan Carpentier, for “belittling” Malkin’s voice with his impersonation of her. Carpentier went on to suggest that Olbermann’s attack relied on “silly stereotypes” and “imagery that brings to mind victims of domestic violence.” 

This past November, Bill Maher – another one of those “misogynists lefties” Gallagher had “never heard of” – was scolded by feminists after he made a joke about the detention of CBS’s Lara Logan, wherein he suggested that America would be willing to send Elisabeth Hasselbeck to Egypt in exchange for the safe return of the foreign correspondent. 

The Sandra Fluke-Rush Limbaugh episode is a unique one, mainly because Sandra Fluke is not a public figure. Limbaugh did not simply take a one-shot at a commentator – he used his platform as the loudest voice in radio to verbally batter a civilian for days. 

Far be it from me to note the superficial and inconsequential, but when I see Fluke I think more “chaste librarian” than raging “slut.” Not to mention, Fluke’s testimony itself had nothing to do with sex. Which leads me to believe that Limbaugh didn’t even bother to listen to her speak – and perhaps he didn’t even bother to look at her. Had he done so, he would’ve witnessed a civil woman discuss a friend who paid, out of pocket, for the birth control pills she was prescribed to treat a medical condition. 

It’s true that both the liberal and conservative movements have leaders, followers and mouthpieces who often thoughtlessly employ incendiary rhetoric. But it’s also true that those with sharp tongues on both sides of the aisle face consequences. 

Unfortunately for ideologues, more people are governed by their sense of Right and Wrong than Right and Left. 

Olivia Nuzzi was briefly a MMM contributor until Dan Jacobson’s triCityNews lured her away with money and colorful language. We’re glad to have her back, even if only to set us straight.

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Christie and the Youth Vote

By Olivia Nuzzi

Beyond the question of “will he or won’t he?” a number of possibilities also hang in our polarized American air. One of those is the possibility that Governor Christie may be able to swiftly pick up the pieces of Rick Perry’s shattered opportunity to secure the youth vote. That elusive demographic is arguably what pushed President Obama over the river and through the woods and into the White House. Christie is now positioned to lure the kids to his side.

Before Rick Perry collapsed onto himself, he stumbled into the most brilliant vie for the affection of Generation: Everybody Gets a Trophy that the Republican party had ever seen. While it’s common wisdom that young people will always vote their conscience (more specifically, who they deem to be on the right side [the Left side] of the social issues track), it is rarely noted that conscience is precisely what a large percentage of 18-25ers lack. Being of the crop of ’93, I would know. 

Weeks prior to deserting his straight-talking, straight-shooting persona, Perry was on the path to kid-fueled victory with quips like “anybody that’s for the status quo with Social Security today is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids, and it’s not right.” Message: “they’re screwing you, and I’m here to make it stop. I understand you.”

While hope and change is good and fine, “I’m going to make sure you get what’s rightfully yours” is even better. Money talks, and Mr. Christie is anything but soft spoken. 

With it’s distrust of authority and ever-decreasing supply of patience for our current United State of Affairs, I sense parallels between the Tea Party and the youth that have rested largely ignored. The spirit that fuels a young person’s stomp in the face of perceived unfairness is the spirit that drives revolt against an institution. 

Spooked by the National stage, Perry lost his identity and promise in a few stuttered moments. This is unlikely to happen to Governor Christie, who is undeniably – regardless of what I think of him – a skilled, political force of nature. He possesses the power to harness the energy bubbling beneath the streets to blow Obama’s White House down. 

Olivia Nuzzi is a student from Middletown and an intern for the District 11 Democratic campaign. Her opinions are her own and not those of MoreMonmouthMusings or the District 11 Democratic campaign.  MMM welcomes her fair and biased contributions.

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