Moe Lane

I’m honestly flabbergasted: when the news came in on Saturday that the probably-won’t-be-indicted-for-anything-before-2013 Jon Corzine was still collecting cash for the President, I assumed that this no-doubt-grevious-oversight would be handled by, say, Monday morning.  After all, surely Corzine was radioactive after the suspicious collapse of his company MF Global?  Particularly since there’s now testimony contradicting Corzine’s about what happened to at least some of the 1.2 billion of customer money that went on walkabout during said collapse?  And yet… it’s Monday afternoon, and there’s no indication that the Obama campaign is worried about Saturday’s revelation; in fact, I’m not even entirely certain that they comprehend that this is a revelation at all.  After all: as somebody or other pointed out last weekend, they disclosed that they’re using Corzine to fundraise, right?  Surely that’s enough?

Spoiler warning: no, it’s not enough.  The entire point of transparency is to give campaigns negative feedback about doing stupid things like, say, using as a bundler a guy that a large swath of the country would like to see starring in a perp walk.  Particularly when said swath includes members of your own party…

…the Democrats are thinking about giving us another bite at that particular apple.  To summarize this… scheme:

• Jon Corzine resigns prior to January.
• Richard Codey becomes acting Governor (remember: no Lt. Gov before this election).
• Frank Lautenberg (currently 85 years old) resigns as Senator.
• Codey appoints Corzine Senator.

(H/T: The Campaign Spot)  Let me add the next step:

• Republicans pick up an unlooked-for Senate seat via a 2010 special election.

…which is probably not Corzine’s intent; but then, neither was losing the governor’s race.  As for this prospective race… a recent loser, a Democrat, and an incumbent in 2010.  That would be perfect, thanks.

Moe Lane

PS: I have no personal animus against Senator Lautenberg, but it’s not my fault that he’s in his mid-eighties and still decided to run for re-election in 2008.

Crossposted to RedState.

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers.

I can’t possibly imagine how this could have any negative consequences.

Corzine Staff Is Already Preparing To Take Over Bank Of America

Jon Corzine is definitely open to running Bank of America.

There haven’t been any formal talks between the outgoing New Jersey Governor and the board of Bank of America, according to news reports. Part of the reason for this might be that the chairman of the board, Walter Massey, is on vacation.

In fact, if Corzine needs help with filling the board of directors I understand that both Jim McGreevey and Eliot Spitzer are currently available. For that matter, starting next year so will be Ed Rendell, James [David - oops!] Paterson*, and probably Deval Patrick… wow. That’s a Rogue’s Gallery almost worthy of Batman.

Moe Lane

*The Democrats can either toss him in the primary, or we can toss him in the general. Whichever.

Crossposted to RedState.

I can’t help but notice that the number of votes he got was more than the margin of victory.

Oops?

Crossposted to RedState.

Via Libertarian Republican, who also has a mug shot) Remember: the Corzine campaign has no idea who this Jason Shih is. The quote is “…the campaign doesn’t know who he is.” So he has no connection at all with the campaign, right?

No connection whatsoever.

Shih also reportedly had 10 paychecks from the Middlesex County Democratic Committee in his possession. One paycheck for $1,500 was payable to Shih from the MCDC, according to reports.

“Mr. Shih stated the vehicle he was operating was rented for him by the ‘Corzine for Governor’ camp to distribute tickets and paychecks for the Middlesex County Democratic Committee,” stated Cece.

[snip]

Calls to Corzine’s campaign office and MCDC were not returned as of press time.

No. Really. Do tell.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

From Corzine +5 to Christie +2 in less than a week.  I’m not prepared to announce DOOM just quite yet, but it’s going to be a nail biter any which way.

Moe Lane

PS: Chris Christie for Governor.  Stay on target.

Crossposted to RedState.

47/41 Christie/Corzine, according to PPP.

If true… well, hell.

Moe Lane

PS: Chris Christie for Governor.

Crossposted to RedState.

…regarding the Jason Shih drug bust: the fact that a Jason Shih of Paramus was on the Democrats’ payroll in 2006 (H/T: JammieWearingFool).  Complete coincidence.  Couldn’t possibly be the same person.  There must be thousands of Jason Shihs in New Jersey.

Actually, no, deja vu isn’t really the right reaction to this.

Crossposted to RedState.

The Corzine campaign wants it made CLEAR that Jason Shih is in no way, shape, or form involved with the releection campaign; that Mr. Shih is certainly not an assistant campaign director or staffer for the campaign; that they have no idea who Mr. Shih would even is, let alone why he would claim such a status; or why he would claim that the car that he was driving at the time of his drug bust was rented by the campaign, or why there were tickets to an Obama rally and other campaign paraphernalia mixed in with the drug paraphernalia.

Understand?  They want it made CLEAR.

Crossposted to RedState.

…then for it again, and now against it…

Thursday, New York Times:

The Democratic governor, Jon S. Corzine, says he may revisit his plan to lease the New Jersey Turnpike to raise cash — a proposal that he abandoned last year in the face of intense opposition from lawmakers and voters.

Friday, Philly.com:

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine says he has no plans to increase tolls or lease toll roads.

(The New York Times is sticking with their version.)

Via Jim Geraghty, who also pointed out this report that Christie spent the day hammering this.  Which is smart of Christie: speaking as somebody who grew up in NJ, looking like you want to muck around with the toll roads situation is contraindicated.

Contraindicated.

Moe Lane

PS:  Chris Christie for Governor.

Crossposted to RedState.

And if you thought that yesterday’s semi-cryptic blog post from the former was just some prepare-the-Democrats-for-some-bad-news, and not an attempt to raise Republican hopes… well, you were right.

Chris Christie now leads Jon Corzine 42-38 in the race to be New Jersey’s next Governor, a slight increase from our poll two weeks that showed his advantage at 40-39.

In other words, the partisan Democratic polling firm is reporting that the race has shifted in Christie’s direction by three points, and now has a lead barely out of the MoE. Rasmussen likewise reports that Christie has increased his lead to 46/43, with Daggett at 7%, which is down four from last week.  But here’s what may be the important part of that report:

Christie leads by eight points among those who are certain they will show up and vote. A week ago, he was up by five among that group. Christie’s supporters are also less likely to say they might consider voting for someone else.

A week to go. Word is that Quinnipiac will have out something later this week; in the meantime, expect New Jersey to get inundated with even more campaign advertising and national scrutiny .

Moe Lane

PS: Christie for Governor.

Crossposted to RedState.

…may make for an interesting headline; but I have a possibly more accurate one.

Supporters face off

An hour before the debate, crowds of Christie and Daggett supporters faced off in front of the studios, yelling taunts from opposite sides of the street and separated by cars.

“Sinking ship! Sinking ship!” chanted the Daggett fans, a reference to Christie’s slippage in the polls.

“We can’t hear you! We can’t hear you!” answered the Christie squad, which outnumbered Daggett’s group about 4-to-1.

It’s “Jon Corzine can’t draw a crowd.”

Moe Lane

PS: Christie for Governor.

PPS: A comment from Democratic Christie supporter Councilwoman Tana Raymond, on Corzine’s ties to convicted Bergen County Democratic chair Joseph Ferriero:

“For years, Jon Corzine facilitated the corrupt leadership of Joseph Ferriero at the Bergen County Democratic Organization with hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial contributions. Even as Corzine preached ethics reform in public, his actions enabled the corrupt status quo and completely contradicted his words. It’s ridiculous for the governor to attempt to play off his financial contributions to Ferriero as something other than what they actually were – Corzine looking the other way in the face of corruption for his own political benefit.”