Defending the indefensible
Count this voter as unhappy to see one of Teaneck's representatives in the State Assembly, Valerie Vainieri Huttle, making excuses for wasteful spending on pork barrel projects. In an article in today's Record, Huttle is dismissive of the U.S. Attorney's investigation into the Democrat-controlled State Legislature, implying that whatever transgressions are being committed are just business as usual and that her Republican counterparts did the very same when they were in the majority. "I don't think the Christmas tree was planted in 2004," she told the Record. Given the fiscal condition of the State of New Jersey and its all too numerous municipalities, I draw very little comfort from the fact that the Democratic majority's irresponsible use of our tax dollars has a strong precedent. Playing the partisan blame game when you yourself seem to recognize that there is a real mess to clean up is unconscionable, especially when you are a member of the majority who has the power to make changes.
Let's hope this quotation was plucked out of context and Huttle had a bit more to say, perhaps along the lines of, "I don't think the Christmas tree was planted in 2004, but that said, we Democrats bear a responsibility to protect the interests of the taxpayers against those among us who would exploit their position for personal gain. If re-elected, I pledge to act as the conscience of this legislature and stand up against any improper use of public funds."
posted by Teaneck Blog @ 11:00 AM
10 Comments:
Very interesting...The only thing you attribute to Huttle is "I don't think the Christmas tree was planted in 2004." Everything else is the Teaneck Blogger's interpretation of what Huttle
should have said including his non-quotation "quotation" begin with her "Christmas tree" and followed by the blogger's editorial on what she should have said according to him. Nice Spin.
Correct. What's your point?
Another typical liberal corrupt NJ democrat- blame the voters who keep putting these morons in office-
2:53
The point is....Ask her to elaborate on what she means by the statement rather than what you think she should mean by it..
PS> Two years ago when Rothman was running for the House he spoke at the Teaneck Library. He stated(I was there) "When I asked my colleagues in the House what did we do to them (Republicans) when we were in power? They said the same thing they're doing to us."
We have the best government money can buy.
Granted, the Democrats who've been lining up at the trough (and I don't believe Huttle is one of them) don't have much of a leg to stand on. And as everyone with half an upbringing knows, the excuse that "everybody does it" (or did it) doesn't cut it from an ethical and personal responsibility standpoint.
But while you rightfully "draw very little comfort from the fact that the Democratic majority's irresponsible use of our tax dollars has strong precedent," you might at least take pause at the possibility that there's some selective, partisan-based prosecution going on here.
Christie certainly needs to focus his efforts, and there may be something to the observation that Democrats have been more systemic in their pork barreling. On the other hand, you will notice that Christie is not one of the U.S. attorneys who was canned by Alberto Gonzalez's ultra-partisan Bushian Justice Department for lack of partisan prosecutorial zeal.
In this case, the motives of the prosecutor matter not a whit. There is no reason to assign Christie guilt by association and give the subjects of his investigation, those who are systematically abusing our trust and wasting our money, a free pass because we don't like the people with whom Christie associates.
If the U.S. Attorney's investigation of the Legislature is the product of partisanship, then we need a little more of that kind of partisanship and a little less of the kind Huttle appears to be covering for in today's paper. The former kind leads political parties to compete with one another to curb wrongdoing and to clean up the system. The latter kind just robs us blind.
I'm sorry, but justice selectively meted out is justice abused. And justice abused is no justice at all, but a far more perilous type of corruption. I'm not saying you have to buy into to that possibility, but I was hoping you'd pause long enough to consider it. If you had, I don't think you'd be saying that "the motives of the prosecutor matter not a whit."
The U.S. Attorney has limited investigative resources. If they are concentrated on one group, because they are the opposition, justice is not served. Ideally the resources should be concentrated on the most significant crimes.
Let's distinguish between the immediate targets of the investigation and the ultimate consequences of it. It appears that most of the consternation is over the former. But my interest as a citizen of the State of New Jersey and a taxpayer is the latter.
Party affiliations or personal preferences may cause some to feel that the investigation is being conducted unfairly (and they may be right about that), which is probably what motivated Huttle to make the comment she did. Given what has gone on in Trenton for so long, it is foolish to get upset about the means used to do it when the ends of repairing the system are so much more important to achieve. In a perfect world, an impartial U.S. Attorney would carefully probe misdeeds on all sides in the most evenhanded way possible. The situation right now is so far from perfect that I'm prepared to stomach a bit of bias if it means my tax dollars will no longer be diverted into the State Legislature Friends & Family Program. Is that so controversial?
This just shows that until serious cases can be proven not deals at the last minute. This we keep on happening. I don't care which party it is. I long ago stop caring about the parties in new jersey. We have a poor excuse of local, county & state government that won't make tough decisions (cut services, merge services, merge union contracts & reduce pay-bens). Until we have real change in Teaneck or other towns leaders then we are stuck on a glide path to becoming California. (poor schools, awful business environment, broken infrastructure)
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