NEW JERSEY SENATE PRIMARY: PASS THE POPCORN

Jersey mishmash

This has got to be one of the craziest contests in the country. The New Jersey GOP has been trying to find a challenger for popular progressive Frank Lautenberg all year. And everyone they come up with turns out to be a dud. After all the first and second tier candidates turned them down flat, they started rooting around for something to stick on the ballot. One of the early disasters was someone's chatty right-wing dentist, Joey Pennacchio, who turned out to be so extremist that he had taken out his crayons and written a kooky 94 page manifesto calling for the Nationalist Party to replace the GOP (which wasn't far right enough for him). It is, basically, a blueprint for a new American Nazi Party made up of the less mainstream two-thirds of the GOP and some Confederates who still hate the Republicans because Lincoln took away their great grandparents' slaves. He turned out to be a bit much even for the whackos and wingnuts who run the state Republican Party. So they moved on to a slick, drunken, sleazy-- and most important, wealthy-- New York nightclub owner (who claims he will move to New Jersey), Andy Unanue. After his trial records came to the public's attention he did move-- but to Colorado, where he went into hiding and eventually, withdrew from the race.

Part of the reason he withdrew was because the same party leaders who talked him into running and then introduced him to the public in glowing terms asked him to take a walk when they started reading more about him. John McCain had also read about him and he went berserk and demanded the Jersey GOP get someone in there who wouldn't depress Republican turnout. He then personally talked a biotech executive, John Crowley, into running. Like many Republican businessmen interested in politics, one doesn't have to scratch too deeply beneath the surface to see that Crowley has some serious ethics problems and many people predicted that he would soon join the other New Jersey rejects.

This morning PolitickerNJ is reporting that Crowley-- McCain or no McCain-- is out of the race already. And what's worse (for the GOP) is that Unanue is threatening to jump back in. I have a suggestion. Why don't the Republicans just get behind right-of-center Democrat Robert Andrews, who is challenging Lautenberg in the primary? He may not be as extremist as what they normally like but he has been a dependable rubber stamp for Bush on the war and on several other important GOP issues.

CONSERVATIVE, PRO-WAR NEW JERSEY DEMOCRAT TAKES ON SENATOR FRANK LAUTENBERG

In 3 days it will be the one year anniversary of my lunch with Frank Lautenberg. I'm quite certain that it had nothing whatsoever to do with me, but in the time since we met he's been the single most progressive member of the U.S. Although Durbin, Whitehouse and Menendez are close behind him, Frank ranks #1. Right wing media and simplistic media will tell you Obama is the most liberal (or Hillary is the most liberal, depending on who their target is) but ordered by their comprehensive voting scores from 2007-08, Frank gets a 99.38. For the sake of comparison, Barbara Boxer has a 97.09, John Kerry has a 94.57, and Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy and Russ Feingold are all clustered around 93. Frank is strong in every single area and is 100% on the 40-some-odd roll calls regarding Iraq since he was elected.

Today one of New Jersey's least progressive and most ambitious Democrats, Rep. Robert Andrews, announced he would challenge Senator Lautenberg in a primary. Still smarting from being bypassed when Jon Corzine was elected Governor and then appointed the far more progressive Menendez to his former Senate seat, Andrews is going up against much of the Democratic state establishment to make this bid.

The mere prospect of their battle has already exposed geographical and demographic rifts that party leaders have long tried to play down. Most of the party’s leaders in South Jersey, led by George E. Norcross III, a Commerce Bank executive, are supporting Mr. Andrews as an agent of change, while most of the party’s leaders in North Jersey, led by Mr. Corzine, are favoring Mr. Lautenberg’s bid for a fifth term.

Andrews is trying to play down the ideological differences between them but the fact of the matter is that if he replaces Lautenberg, the Senate will be a bit more conservative, especially on the war in Iraq where Andrews has been far more of a rubber stamp for the Bush-Cheney agenda than any other member of the New Jersey delegation. In fact on international and military matters in general, Andrews is often on the wrong side. His Iraq War voting record is abysmal. starting with 100% support for the 4 resolutions on October 10, 2002 authorizing Bush to launch an unprovoked attack against Iraq. Those 4 crucial votes alone, that saw Andrews cross part lines and vote with the GOP, should be enough to persuade progressives to flee from his campaign. Since then, he has frequently rubber stamped some of the worst aspects of the Bush Iraq agenda. And he's always so proud of himself for being a Benedict Arnold. After his disgraceful vote he wrote an OpEd urging war and joined Bush to celebrate: "Yesterday, I joined with President Bush and a bipartisan coalition of Senators and House members to announce that we have approved the final text of the Iraq Resolution… I am honored to have worked closely with the President to develop this bipartisan proposal because I believe that Saddam Hussein poses a very clear and present threat to the entire world." If nothing else, it shows him to have very poor judgment.

And aside from voting with Bush on Iraq again and again, Andrews is the New Jersey Democrat most eager to betray progressive values and idea on a wide range of issues. Recently (August 2, 2007) he voted with the Republicans against pharmaceutical reimportation (after taking over half a million dollars from Big Pharma and health care industries since coming to Congress). Earlier that summer (June 27, 2007) he abandoned Democrats to vote for anti-union legislation in trade agreements. The month before that he joined the Republicans to vote against abolishing defense contractor sweetheart deals for retiring military officers. One year ago supported Bush when Democrats tried rolling back tax cuts for the wealthiest 1%. In September, 2006 he joined the GOP to vote for the pointless and ineffective boondoggle border fence. In 2005 he voted for a Constitutional Amendment to prohibit flag burning. He also joined the GOP in 2005 to vote for their heinous lobbyist-written bankruptcy bill that penalizes working and middle class families while letting corporate criminals skip off scott free.

Robert Andrews would make a wretched replacement for Frank Lautenberg. If you have friend or family in New Jersey, please tell them. Juan Melli at Blue Jersey has a very detailed comparison of the two candidates based on issues. There are 7 Democratic congressmen from New Jersey and all six of Andrews' colleagues have endorsed Frank Lautenberg and have pledged to run on his line in the June 3rd primary. Frank Pallone, Donald Payne, Bill Pascrell, Steve Rothman, Rush Holt, and Albio Sires, none of whom are Republican shills like Andrews, made a joint statement he probably didn't want to hear: "Frank Lautenberg is New Jersey's senator and we stand with him. He delivers for New Jersey in the U.S. Senate and is invaluable to our state. That is why we will run in our home counties on the same line with Senator Lautenberg in the Democratic primary."