Every time that someone reads the following, a puppy dies.
Just a few hours after Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ) announced his his plan to retire amidst a congressional ethics inquiry, state Sen. Donald Norcross (D), the brother of arguably the most powerful Democratic Party boss in the state, threw his hat in the ring as a likely successor.
“I am running for Congress because South Jersey needs someone who is going to stand up for us in Washington, D.C., as Rob Andrews has done for more than two decades,” Norcross said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
The Democratic state senator is the brother of one of New Jersey’s major party bosses, George Norcross, who Philadelphia magazine described as having “enormous political power.” The magazine noted that Norcross was able to escape a criminal investigation in the early 2000s.
Lawmakers are already coalescing around Norcross.
New Jersey Democrats are trying to make me give up.
EEEEwwww!!! “Coalescing,” eh? That sounds pretty…slimy.
Wikipedia:
Miscible. Hmmm…
Also from Wikipedia:
Sounds like PermaGov politics to me. Centrist DemRat liquidity and RatPub liquidity merge to form a homogeneous solution. The real solution? Every time?
Both sides are controlled by the same interests and both have “major party bosses” who mix and miscle over martinis and other lubricants to decide who’s going to slime up into the various catbird seats. When one slips off his perch because of too much slime…as appears to be currently the case w/Christie…why they just get together again and find someone else around whom they can “coalesce.”
It ain’t just Jersey, Booman.
It’s the American way.
Always remember Spiro Agnew.
And John-Boy Edwards as well.
And Bebe Rebozo and Lyndon Baines Johnson and Turdblossom Rove and…and the list just keeps getting longer and longer.
Slime is the word.
It’s the American way.
Bet on it.
AG
Whatever. There’s a difference between Bill Bradley and Bob Toricelli. There’s a difference between Rush Holt and Rob Andrews.
Don’t know either Holt or Andrews but I say “Amen” to that first sentence.
Holt is great; his website some years back read
“your rep actually is a rocket scientist”
http://holt.house.gov/
he has a PhD in physics and used to be asst dir of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
http://www.pppl.gov/
Also Bill Foster (IL-11 formerly IL-14) I had heard that Foster was a Blue Dog but his wikipedia page sounds like he is far more Liberal than Obama, opposing extension of the Bush tax cuts and co-sponsoring EFCA.
Interesting, I’ll take a look
wow! he is really something. Fermilab!
speaking of Illinois, did you ever hear the story about Senator Paul Simon and corruption: “Paul Simon once cut the tag off a mattress” – actually maybe more than once
My lunch friend, Jim, and I are thinking about his daughter, Sheila, now Lieutenant Governor. She seems like a straight shooter. I read that she is not going to run again. Probably is trying to distance herself from Quinn.
I’m starting to listen to my wife, i.e. women in politics have more cojones than men.
Yes, there is. Bradley was smart and…to all accounts…honest. He was also famous and rich, and he rode that fame and riches to the Senate. Good on him. Torricelli is just another NJ mob-influenced and supported slimeball.
So nu?
What happened when Bradley tried to bring that honesty to a higher position? All the fame, intelligence, wealth and good intentions in the world did him no good whatsoever. He was stonewalled. Too “liberal,” too intelligent and too honest. Fat boy Gore was propped up there instead, ready for a fall. And fall he did. When the election was stolen he passively took the dive. The rest is nasty history. Bradley’s resounding defeat was the beginning of the end for the American dream and the final chapter in the saga of the Democratic Party as a real force for liberal change. Bet on it.
Slimed.
AG
Ah! So he also wanted to “starve the beast”.
Yup. A major reason why he was non-personed by the DemRat faction of the PermaBeast.
Bet on it.
AG
This comment is actually worth two replies.
Remember Paul Hackett’s attempt to break the slime rule? An ex-marine who had been deployed in Iraq and an antiwar Democratic candidate for the Senate from Ohio in 2006, he was stonewalled by the Dem controllers (Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer particularly) and ultimately had to drop out of the race. He said;
He also said:
These are the people that you are supporting, Booman. The Permanent Government gatekeepers. And look at what is happening in this country as a result. The worm is turning as we speak. Watch.
WTFU.
AG
Using Hackett as evidence for your “permagov” riff is really stupid.
Hackett had no chance against DeWine. Zero, none, nada. That’s the only reason the DSCC looked for anyone else to run for that seat. Schumer would probably have preferred to welcome Hackett as a Senate colleague over Sherrod Brown. But it was either Brown and the possibility of winning control of the Senate or another term for DeWine and GOP control.
I have been hearing these same licks about antiwar candidates for decades.
“No chance.”
“Zero, none, nada.”
Why do they have “no chance?”?
Because the Permanent Government is committed to war. Militarily-enforced economic imperialism is the cash cow that has kept the military industrial complex and its affiliated financial, political, corporate and social systems afloat for all of these murderous years, from Korea on.
“McGovern had no chance.”
“Bradley had no chance.”
“Dean had no chance.”
“The Pauls have no chance.”
Etc., etc., etc.
And it’s true.
They haven’t.
Or at least they have not yet had a chance. The media non-persons them and the PermaWar money flows to their opponents. Duh!!! (That is so much less messy than the old ’60s bullet-to-the head routine, don’tcha know.)
But the worm is turning in this country. Bet on it.
Watch.
Maybe the PermaGov forces will win out again in 2016, but the simple fact is that they can no longer sustain a working economy in the face of growing opposition from the rest of the world. Military, moral and economic opposition. The game is grinding to a halt. Eventually the whole system will either break down or it will be reformed politically from within. Which one would you rather see? The alliance between anti-war, anti-one per center left, middle and right grows stronger by the day and it’s only 2014.
Watch.
2016 is going to be very interesting.
Bet on that as well.
Watch.
AG
Hackett isn’t/wasn’t “anti-war.” OTOH, Sherrod Brown did at least vote against the IWR.
There are plenty of examples of the DNC, DSCC, DCCC favoring neo-liberal, neo-conservative hacks — use any one of them to make your case. Not the one instance of the DSCC drafting a liberal over a political novice that couldn’t even beat the nutty Schmidt for a congressional seat.
As I said, your continued use of Hackett as an example is stupid.
Extremely stupid, considering Sherrod Brown in one of the best members of the Senate, if not the best.
Not good enough, though. Being “one of the best” in that parasite-filled septic tank is nothing to brag about. The time for compromise is just about over, Booman. This centrist stuff? It’s produced nothing but an ongoing, rapidly accelerating societal collapse. Radical change is what is needed.
Sherrod Brown?
An agent of radical change?
Championed by Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer?
Please.
I don’t think so.
AG
But as the conversation on TPM illustrated, not between those guys and Bob Norcross.
politicians are running for office?
I am genuinely confused. You get into politics to accumulate power, and be able to influence matters.
Now you are objecting to politicians running for office?
A mysterious attack of scruples, I would say. If you are going to follow politics, you expect that politicians will attempt to advance themselves. Yes, some are marginally more honest. But in following the careers of some like John Danforth, I have learned that supposed “statesmen” are just politicians. Danforth was someone who was supposed to be honest, moral and upright. He was also the sponsor of Clarence Thomas. He writes books about his great accomplishments, and he supports some of the slimiest scumbags in the right. He occasionally comes out and says how embarrassed he is about his party. That is just an act, however. He’s just another scum politician. None of them, not Obama, not Clinton, not Rush Holt, are not politicians. You have to expect them to act like politicians.
What you need to be asking is why is Andrews leaving?
Does it make any sense to you why he’s leaving?
There’s something there, BooMan.
Smoke – Wikipedia – Rob Andrews
Getting out while the focus is on Christie and the GOP looks like a good move by the Norcross faction of the NJ DEM party.
Yes, the Andrews ethics investigation, but timing might have to do with making sure the Christie researchers don’t uncover too much (my guess); hoping Norcross et al. don’t succeed in blocking a thorough investigation.
If anyone had the guts to run as the anti-Norcross (read big brother George) candidate, I would be totally on that train. The timing of Andrews announcement and the fact that all those endorsements came so quickly leads me to believe that the fix was in. Maybe not by the Deoncratic part as a whole, but by the South Jersey machine for sure.
Everyone on that endorsement list has revealed themselves to be owned by George Norcross. Every single one. That includes Cory Booker.
George Norcross is the big problem here. Yes corruption is everywhere, but if you cripple his power (no easy task) you put a major dent in it.
Interesting that Andrews had “empathy” for Christie’s problems on the day he announced his departure. Christie needs to go, but it would be a sad thing if he were ejected from office and the rest of the rotten edifice stayed in place.
Gird yourself for copious tears, Rooktoven. The whole house of shards will remain long after the fat man is finished singing. Bet on it.
AG
Basically what happens is that the system is so deeply corrupted that it becomes impossible to fix. Corruption becomes so ingrained that the corruption mindset firmly burrows into anyone involved. It would require the ENTIRE system to get flushed out at once and a way to keep private individuals from corrupting the new one right away. It’s not possible, absent extra-legal means.
Basically, situations where this kind of corruption happens is why people can be brought around to support strongmen if they try and keep the corruption limited to their own inner circle.
Yup.
AG
well that’s one view but I disagree; how does one bring about change? well, one issue is that the metaphors we use to describe the system should be constructive. The flushing metaphor suggests, i.e. a our gov as toilet? is our gov where we discard our waste? yes, for the Republican mindset, but not for most democrats. to explore the metaphor, who will flush it? does it require drano? or is it like the car’s cooling system? are we going to replace the fluids in our car? what would be a a good democratic metaphor for gov? I don’t know what I’d recommend, but I’m going to ponder that. [the family metaphors don’t work – are we the people children? do we elect our parents? I don’t think so; family metaphor promotes the powerlessness of the citizenry concept as well I would argue]
Its pretty clear considering the revelations of the past few weeks that New Jersey state gov IS in fact where that state deposits its waste.
well, not at all; that’s why I’ve written so much about Dawn Zimmer, Rush Holt and the impact of the citizens who want change – how did we manage to replace the previous mayors (a few of whom served jail time – and note, they did serve jail time) with Dawn Zimmer? work, keeping at it, not giving up, not throwing up our hands and saying it’s all rigged against us. These things are difficult, – to quote a colleague – “so work is bad?”
New Jersey STATE government is what I wrote.
In NJ the real estate developers are the equivalent of oil companies elsewhere; that’s where the $$ are. There was a great diary over at GOS the other day about how NJ politics is county based by someone who worked in Bergen County [and knows Loretta Weinberg, another NJ pol not to disparage] will try to find the link
The whole lot of the Democrats are trying to make me give up. Guess the Democratic consulting strategists told them to take a dive on the Senate. And not bother on the House. And pass every hare-brained GOP idea and never talk about reality.
OT: Meanwhile in Chicago, despite the prosecution failing to prove much beyond three guys standing around while two undercover cops pour gas into four beer bottles, stuffed rags in them, and put them in the bathroom so that they would not smell (and cause someone to find the “evidence” before the cops did), the judge denied a directed verdict that dismissed the charges that were not proven with totally bizarre reasoning.
Kevin Gosztola, Firedoglake: Judge Evokes Dystopian Scene of Terror, Declines to Acquit `NATO 3′ of Terrorism Charges
In other news, Clay Aiken is taking on Renee Ellmers for Congress NC-02.
thank you its a very good article
Signals To Profit