Rising polls boost Lonegan campaign in NJ Senate race against Booker. This is a special election to replace the late Frank Lautenberg, who held the job for nearly half his adult life. We haven’t had a non-Democrook US senator in NJ since Clifford Case in the 1970s. Even Taxachusetts had Scott Brown for a couple of years. Yikes. Please (sniff, sniff) stop us before we give another Democlown a lifetime job.
This post was last modified on March 13, 2021
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Having lived in NJ most of my life, I can attest to what a horror Lautenberg was as a Senator. He kept his seat largely because he pandered to the recipient class and senior citizens, promising to boost their Social Security and Medicare. Other than that, he was nothing more than another rubber stamp for whatever the DNC wanted. I doubt the man ever had an original thought. Only one I can think of that was nearly as bad as him was Bill Bradley, the former basketball player, who gave a free concert every time he was up for reelection, so he could get the youth vote.
I remember watching Bradley debate his first opponent for the senate, Geoff Bell, in 1976 I think. Bradley was pushing his proposal for solving the energy crisis by burning garbage for electricity. Bell, during his rebuttal, "slipped" and called Bradley "Mr. Garbage". Well, he said it was a slip but it pretty much describes every NJ US senator we've had during my lifetime.
And don't forget Harrison Williams, the only US senator snagged in ABSCAM. Umm, what party was he from again?
Yes, it was Geoff (or Jeff) Bell, a Jack Kemp-type Republican. I recall he closed the gap pretty well considering it started at about 70-20, as people started to actually pay attention to what they said and stood for.
I distinctly remember watching tv, and Bill Bradley was on. He started with a schpeel about how gov’t has gotten too big, and how important it is to cut its size. After that, every question by the reporter was answered with some form of “we need to have a gov program/agency/panel/commission to address that.” That’s when I realized that you can be a Rhodes scholar, and still be an idiot.
BTW, Clifford Case might have been a republican, technically, but in reality he was a bit to the left of Christie “witless” Whitman. Going into the 68 republican convention, the NJ delegation was going to vote for the “favorite son”, Clifford Case, as a homey gesture. Nelson Gross, the chairman of either the State Committee or the Bergen County Rep Committee, met them at the airport, and after that evening, they all decided to vote for Nixon on the first ballot. Clifford Case’s reaction was “I’ll get him for that”. Some months later, Nelson Gross was cooling his heels at Club Fed.
And Reagan said to never speak ill of another Repulican?
OMG!! You guys just stirred up some bad memories of life in New Jerkey. The only thing worse would have been to be from NYC.
Have a Taylor ham, egg, & cheese sandwich and don't worry about it. ;-)
Is it OK if I leave off the egg? I don't eat them. But, THC on a hard roll sounds soooo yummy!
Hey, this is Jersey. You do whatever you want.
Just for laughs, ask for taylor ham in NYC. You’d swear you’re in a SNL skit. You’ll be looking for John Belushi.
Sounds like I should jump off the freeway on my trip through Jersey next summer, just to get a Taylor Ham sammich. And I'll get with cheese AND egg.