Finger licking good?
By EditorOver the last two weeks, Politicker.com reporters from fifteen states filed over 2,000 stories from Denver and St. Paul. Our staff is taking a short break this weekend, and will return in full force on Monday.
One of our favorite convention moments was six-year-old Piper Palin fixing the hair of her baby brother. As always, thank you to our valued readers, one of whom pointed out the "more of the same" connection to Paul Wolfowitz, who served as President Bush's Deputy Secretary of Defense.
Enjoy the weekend.
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Read the expanded Wake Up Call, our summary of today’s news media coverage.
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OBAMA'S ELECTOR ― ELECTORAL COLLEGE
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Who Is Minding The Store?
While you were out takin'a break, and checking out who is cowlickin' whom it seems that the big political story here at home is that the federal fraud trial of former State Senator Wayne Bryant on fraud charges for ripping off the taxpayers to load his pockets, will be getting underway tomorrow.
Here's a link to the story the AP wrote about it, entitled "Ex-NJ politician headed to trial on fraud charges," by Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press Writer.
And here are the first few grafs:
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) -- A former New Jersey lawmaker with a national reputation for pushing welfare reform is facing charges of using his political clout to land no-work government jobs as a way to boost his income and increase his pension benefits - from $28,000 a year to $81,000.
Wayne R. Bryant is also accused of steering state money to one of his employers, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The Democrat could face several years in prison if convicted on all counts.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in federal court.
. . . .
Gee, I'm sure those Piper Palin stories are tons of fun to research and punch out there, though I would think anyone with kids might have to wrestle just a tiny bit with their conscience before submitting one.
But is that what we're going to be getting here at the expense of you dropping the ball altogether on real political stories and developments in New Jersey?
by Trochilus
Need Language?
Just in case you should decide that the opening of the federal fraud trial of the former Chairman of the New Jersey Senate Appropriations Committee is actually political news worth reporting on, you'll no doubt want to have a lead that differs just a bit from that in the AP story.
Here's some suggested language you can work with:
Wayne Bryant, a former New Jersey lawmaker with a reputation for questionable financial dealings, goes on trial today, charged with federal fraud.
Those questionable dealings go all the way back to the Florio Administration when, in 1992, Bryant was found guilty by the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee for at one point improperly entering into and failing to disclose a sweetheart lease deal to house state government offices in an office building he was part owner of located in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The building was called Woodcrest Pavillion.
In spite of that early finding of guilt, his fellow Democrats ignored the obvious, and Bryant has been elevated by Democrat leadership over the years, eventually taking over both key financial positions in the Senate -- Chairman of the Joint Appropriations, and Chairman of the Budget Oversight. It was during his tenure at these two positions that Bryant was able to maximize the number of personal relatives he could squeeze onto the state payroll, and obscenely pump up his own pension with a series of minimum work (e.g., reading newspapers) no-show jobs.
He was reportedly even able at one point to convince UMDNJ into hiring him as a lobbyist in order to lobby himself as the head of Appropriations for more money for the school!
by Trochilus