Torricelli on budget items as lifesavers

So comparing Norcross to Mussolini now? Sheesh.

Just think of all the nameless victims airlifted to Cooper who owe Torricelli their lives. (not to mention Senator Byrd.) What a Self-aggrandizing twit!

"The result was the construction of a new emergency landing site at Cooper Hospital. A more immediate result was the rapid response to the Governor's accident." 

There's just one small problem with these two sentences in conjunction: The Governor wasn't flown to the hospital in a helicopter because of the high winds lashing New Jersey on Friday -- the same reason he was driving on the Garden State Parkway in the first place, rather than flying back to Drumthwacket. 

So, forgive me, Mr. Torricelli, but how exactly did the construction of a new emergency landing site at Cooper Hospital result in a rapid response to the Governor's accident? 

Beyond the obvious inanity of Mr. Torricelli's linkage above, though, this post is fascinating. According to Mr. Torricelli's account, George Norcross called (in fact, he was the "only one" to call) and asked for a federal appropriation to construct a helicopter landing pad at Cooper Hospital. Mr. Torricelli, by his own admission, could not "gather legislative support" -- i.e., he couldn't win approval for the appropriation in committee (where it would be examined, evaluated, and compared and contrasted to other potential uses of limited funds -- the very definition of a political exercise). So, instead, he went to see the chairman of the Senate appropriations committee, and asked that the line item be inserted without any legislative oversight. And Sen. Byrd accommodated him. 

Question: who got the contract to construct the new helipad at Cooper Hospital? Could it have been ... oh, say, JCA Associates, George Norcross' favorite Moorestown engineering firm? 

Perhaps some enterprising reporter would like to follow up on this. 

And it leaves one wondering ... perhaps I'm being a bit too Machiavellian, even for New Jersey (if that's possible), but could the real reason for this post, covered in typical Torricelli "look at me!" style, have been to point federal and state investigators to this one transaction? Is Mr. Torricelli secretly hoping to throw Mr. Norcross under the bus?

If I find myself agreeing w/ Pascoe again I think my head might explode.

But for now....the problem w/ earmarks isn't the "good" projects like a helicopter pad at a hospital...its the "bridge to nowhere" type line-items that get inserted the same way. But to stop the wasteful projects, the worthwile ones need to go through the open process too.

As for King George, his motives for helping Camden and Cooper Hospital I believe are largely pure, even if his methods tend to be Boss-style politics.

 I also find it troubling if Norcross was truly the only one calling....where were the City officials and State Representatives pushing for hometown projects? Why is GN the only one who seems to care?

...the legislative process. Ideally (I confess, I'm an idealist) every proposed expenditure should be in the actual bills long before they are voted on.

 There should be time for judgment and analysis to be applied AND the process should be transparent in real time...that means posted to the WWW so that anyone and everyone can scrutinize the details and feed back into the process.

Further, when the appropriation gets to the stage of being implemented every bid and every detail of the bid that can be legally released needs to be posted so that all and any interested parties can scrutinize it before a contract is procured/signed.

In other words, governance should be totally open, transparent and responsive to the broader community of it's constituents in real time on just about everything...not just in vague general terms on election day.

Obviously, there are military items that may not be so open; but there needs to be far more oversight than there is now....instead of punishing incompetence (that's a charitable adjective) when contracts "run over" the alloted funds, the miscreants are rewarded with more money to not finish the job.

I wonder how much less we would be spending if the money was spent the same way most people carefully spend their own money?

Too many contractors/vendors have been getting filthy rich sucking at the teat of government.

In many, if not all, cases these same entities that profit so much are big "contributors" to the campaigns of the folks appropriating the funds!

That's legalized bribery!

The morale of the story is, he who throws business to David Chang's concrete and helipad building company, often have fortuitious good luck in telling tall tales later.

WHEN WHEN is this man ever going to leave our lives. I wish he would run again just to get rid of him!

Why does this guy keep blogging here when he is so universally despised? Does he get up from the keyboard, put on his assless leather chaps, and submit himself to Mistress Broomhilda? Without a safe word?

im sure he has done more for his communit than any of you belly achers

Karlcat, NJ has some of the worst voters in America (and perhaps in American history). I think we surpassed Louisiana in corrupt officials. While he would have lost to Forrester, I think that has all blown over now, and the voters forget. If Bob the Torch ran again, I think he would win, I think NJ voters would vote for anyone with a D next to their name no matter how corrupt they may be.