Rather than honest debate, Star-Ledger tries McCarthyism by slapping race card

By Scott St. Clair

The Star-Ledger hit a new low of innuendo and guilt-by-association smear tactics in editorially trying to link racists to the Republican Party.  You get an A+ in McCarthyism and dirty tricks, but an F in integrity and respect for any point of view other than your own.

The editorial’s subliminal message is that Republicans who disagree with the paper’s editorial board or President Obama on policy do so for racially-motivated reasons.

Why not consider that maybe, just maybe, those who disagree do so because the policies are horrible, not in the national interest and complete failures?

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When you hold election and nobody comes, what does that tell about you?

By Scott St. Clair

Scott St. Clair

The 2015 New Jersey primary election came and went without me. That’s right: I didn’t vote, so sue me.

I live in the 29^th Legislative District, which hasn’t supported anyone to the right of Henry Wallace or George McGovern since the Johnson administration – the ANDREW Johnson administration – so why bother? Additionally, there were no contested races – both the Republican and Democratic legislative nomination ballots featured candidates put up by the official party organizations and nobody else.

Since the last thing in the world I want to do is to further political party stranglehold control over the nominating process in New Jersey, I elected to pass. As P.J. O’Rourke entitled one of his books, “Don’t Vote It Only Encourages the Bastards.”

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Tom Brady and Richard Nixon: Gates of a Feather

By Scott St. Clair

It’s appropriate that the kerfuffle over Tom Brady’s flabby balls had the sobriquet “gate” appended to it since it shares a striking resemblance to the original, if you will, “gatescapade” that ultimately cost Richard Nixon the White House and a strong legacy in American History.

Deflategate and Watergate are more alike than they are different.

The Indianapolis Colts were to the New England Patriots what Sen. George McGovern was to Nixon during the 1972 presidential election campaign: total, complete and utter cannon fodder.

There was no way in hell Brady and his Pats were going to lose to the Colts, who more or less sat out the game anyway, in the same way that it was a foregone conclusion that McGovern would get annihilated by Nixon, New York Times film critic Pauline Kael’s reputed aphorism about knowing only one person who voted for him notwithstanding.

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Opinion: Governor Christie was right to veto gun magazine bill

By Scott St. Clair

Gov. Christie was absolutely correct in vetoing the Legislature’s magazine-limit bill, despite Sandy Hook-parent Hugo Rojas’ protestations to the contrary. The bill was not only trivial, but it was cynical to boot since it did nothing but regurgitate the long-standing agenda of gun control advocates in New Jersey without addressing what really was at the heart of the Newtown, CT tragedy: defenseless children and teachers left at the mercy of a deranged individual who should have been locked up.

If you want to solve problems, the first key is correctly identifying them, not trotting out tired, politically correct memes that pander to sentimentality. It’s obvious that a big problem at Sandy Hook – a problem lawmakers in New Jersey ignore and perpetuate today – is defenseless schools.

Another problem is the hands-off attitude taken by local and state officials and law enforcement against mentally ill people who, like Adam Lanza, have a long, documented and scary track record of violent behavior yet are allowed to walk the streets.

Ignoring the real problems in favor of political pandering is what the Legislature did with the magazine-limit bill. Gov. Christie was right to veto it, and Mr. Rojas’ is mistaken in his criticism.

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Cory Booker finally speaks out on critical issue facing the nation–his March Madness bracket picks

By Scott St. Clair

How special that The Star-Ledger has all the time in the world to grill Sen. Cory Booker on his NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket picks and hold him accountable for his “gut thing” upset prediction of Stephen F. Austin over VCU. After all, didn’t New Jersey voters elect him to waste his time and their money this way?

Booker thinks his job consists of sending out marginally obscene Twitter messages, regaling Senate colleagues with how he drove to Hawaii and now gracing us with his round ball wisdom.

Maybe he’s bucking to win Warren Buffett’s $1 billion prize for the perfect March Madness bracket? Hope he wins – and then retires.

On issues facing the nation, he’s MIA. War or peace, Ukraine, excessive federal spending, the National Debt, the mass exodus of people from New Jersey because the place is too damned burdened with taxes to be affordable – where is he?

And how about answering questions that stem from the state comptroller’s scathing report on rampant corruption under his nose and on his watch while he was mayor of Newark? When will The Star-Ledger find time to grill him on that?

On them all he’s nowhere, that’s where. Care to ask him?

Scott St. Clair is the Communications Director for Murray Sabrin for U.S. Senate 2014

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