A McGREEVEY COMEBACK? (Plus, Woman Stoned to Death in Afghanistan)

This morning's Newark Star-Ledger reports on a new Zogby poll the paper headlines as a "shock": it shows that nearly half the residents of the Garden State would consider voting again for former N.J. Gov. Jim McGreevey for some other office, like Congress or the legislature (and 30% of those saying so were Republicans).

Just 6% said they would never vote for McGreevey because he is gay, while 43% said they would never vote for McGreevey, but for reasons other than his sexuality. The poll was conducted for New Jersey's gay rights lobby, Garden State Equality, which wanted to get a read on support for legalizing same-sex marriage (55% of Jerseyans are in favor). But the McGreevey question was tacked on (I'm told by a reliable source) not only to measure acceptance of an openly gay candidate -- the ostensible reason -- but also as a favor to McGreevey, who is considering another run for office.

It's encouraging that there is such apparent openness toward an openly gay candidate for public office in New Jersey. But I devoutly hope the gay community does not embrace the disgraced ex-governor as its poster boy. I spelled out the reasons why at the time of McGreevey's resignation last year in "McGreevey's Closet," a piece for the L.A. Weekly in which I explained how the governor's tortured double life led to him to the multiple misjudgments that made him the emblem of corruption and boodling in the Soprano State. It's worth remembering that McGreevey didn’t come out of his own volition — he was dragged out of the closet by a jilted extortionist who embodied the corruption scandals and ethical abuses that swirled around McGreevey’s tenure as governor.

When McGreevey gave his then-boyfriend, Golan Cipel, multiple jobs on the state payroll (and got him several other no-show jobs sweetly provided by McGreevey campaign contributors seeking favors), this was scandalously immoral — not because of the “consensual sexual relationship,” but because the governor stuck his hand in New Jersey taxpayers’ pockets to put his boyfriend on the public tit, betraying the fiduciary responsibilities that came with his oath of office. (You can read the background on McGreevey's multiple corruptions -- and the role his closet syndrome played in them -- by clicking here.)

After McGreevey's resignation, too many institutional gay leaders (like NGLTF's Matt Foreman) rushed to praise McGreevey for his "courage" and hail him as a gay hero. That's patent nonsense. A poll at the time showed the only 8% of New Jerseyans thought the guv's gay affair was the real reason for his resignation -- and they were right. If gay leaders give their imprimatur to a McGreevey political comeback, they'll be putting their stamp of approval on the ethical sewer that was the governor's political life. This will smack of elitism, and the right wing -- not just in Jersey but nationally --will have a field day painting gay Americans as willing to excuse corruption if it's done by "one of their own."

I wish McGreevey well in his personal life, but I hope he stays a thousand miles away from politics -- and that the gay movement keeps double that distance from a lousy governor whose conduct in office was a shameful example of deliberate ethical blindness on many fronts.

P.S. Two new McGreevey scandals are making news today. The subscribers-only insider's political newsletter New Jersey Politifax, edited by the sharp-eared Nick Acocella, reports this morning that McGreevey has been unceremoniously bounced from Wiener-Lesniak, the law firm of the ex-guv's longtime principal political supporter and mentor, Ray Lesniak--a powerful Democratic county boss, an influential State Senator, and a notorious political fixer. This is a big blow to any McGreevey comeback try. The reason McGreevey was dumped? He got caught in yet another smelly conflict of interest. The ex-guv was representing a $1.3 billion project for a 4.8 million-square-foot family entertainment, sports, retail, office and hotel complex to be built at the Jersey Meadowlands, baptized Xanadu. Environmentalists who are suing to stop the project accused McGreevey of an odiferous ethical conflict, saying he was making money from a company that won a lucrative deal from him while he was governor.

Indeed, then-Gov. McGreevey had personally picked Xanadu over five competitors, and signed the state's contract with his future employer. Furthermore, interim Gov. Richard Cody, who took over when McGreevey resigned, was about to issue stringent new ethics rules on what ex-governors could do after they left office -- rules provoked precisely by the McGreevey/Xanadu affair. Under the new rules, representing Xanadu would have been illegal for McGreevey. To save the lawfirm's "reputation," Boss Lesniak dumped his old friend and law partner. Friendship is one thing, money another in the Soprano State. Of course, Lesniak knew perfectly well that McGreevey was representing Xanadu -- he'd given him the lucrative assignment. Did I hear someone shout "hypocrisy" and "cover-up"?.....By the way, if you're seriously interested in New Jersey politics and want to subscribe to this pricey ($329/year) but indispensable weekly, e-mail New Jersey Politifax at [email protected]....

Also today, New Jersey Corrections Commissioner Devon Brown testified before a State Assembly committee that the McGreevey administration forced him to hire 14 "highly paid political cronies he says he has been forced to carry on his payroll at taxpayer expense - to the tune of $867,000 a year," reports NorthJersey.com., the website for a chain of dailies in the northern part of the state. "It was clear that many had been recommended by McGreevey....A call to McGreevey's transition office was not immediately returned." With all this, a McGreevey comeback is looking rather unlikely.

IN "DEMOCRATIC" AFGHANISTAN, WOMAN STONED TO DEATH: The next time you hear George Bush or a supporter of his military adventures prating about the great success the U.S. has had in bringing "democracy" to Afghanistan, refer them to this horrific story from Reuters' Alertnet , published today:

Bibi Amena, a 25-year-old woman in the Spingul valley in the northeastern province of Badakhshan, was condemned to be executed by village leaders. "Her crime was to be found in the company of a man she was not married to. After two days of investigation and community gatherings the Shura [community council] passed the verdict," Reuters reports. "The boy [she was found with] was given 40 lashes and the woman killed,' Mohammad Azim, one of Amena's paternal uncles, told IRIN. Everyone in the isolated, conservative village, including the woman's parents, said she deserved to be killed.

""She was stoned to death right here, we buried her up to the chest and then they stoned her, she died after two hours,' Azim continued nonchalantly, 'There were seventy people at the stoning. I watched for few minutes but then left.'...The new Afghanistan, which professes respect for the rule of law and women's rights are acknowledged, seems a long way from this village..." Indeed. You can read the entire, stomach-turning Reuters report by clicking here.