Snowed By a Flack - Torricelli Apologist

Snowed By a Flack
Torricelli Apologist
by Ted Lang

August 14, 2002

Columnist Ted Lang New Jersey Senator Robert G. Torricelli (D) took bribes of cash, a Rolex watch, jewelry, hand-made suits, antiques, etc., adding up to just under $200 thousand. The statutory thresholds for the three categories of federal law that apply are $50 and $250. Torricelli deliberately and with premeditation accepted these bribes and then failed to report them as required by law.

Obviously, New Jersey's senior senator, a key player in the Democratic Party's fund raising efforts, will be vital to the presidential campaigns of fellow Senators John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. It is for this reason that Democrat James Traficant is in jail and why Torricelli is not.

There is little media competition in New Jersey - the newspapers and the state's TV station are all biased favoring Democrats. Morris County in Northern New Jersey is generally associated with northeast liberalism, but is in fact a strong enclave of Republican conservatism. New Jersey's left-leaning liberal news-reporting monopoly targets this foreign outpost for destruction. The Gannett-swallowed Morris County Daily Record, formerly a conservative newspaper, was acquired when its former owners sold out to focus on their current publication effort, New Jersey Monthly magazine.

Prior to the June primaries, the FBI raided the office of Essex County Executive James Treffinger, considered the shoo-in Republican challenger to Torricelli. Attacking Republicans with a column entitled "'Rats' can sometimes aid the cause of justice," the Daily Record's Opinion Editor, Fred Snowflack, tried to make the case that Republicans were "rats" for being judgmental towards Torricelli for his alleged transgressions even though a Clinton appointee had "exonerated" him. Treffinger withdrew from the primary and healthcare businessman Doug Forrester won the election and is Torricelli's challenger.

Needless to say, Snowflack and the Daily Record are doing damage control for Torricelli. Here is Snowflack's rendition of reality, citing recent poll results as opposed to common sense: "According to the Quinnipiac University poll, each candidate drew the support of 37 percent of those polled. Nineteen percent were undecided, and the rest - about 7 percent - didn't seem to care. The results were interpreted as a setback for the senator, who led Forrester by 8 percentage points in June."

Why is Snowflack concentrating on poll numbers this early? He continues: "But were the results really that bad for Torricelli? The poll followed by about a week the senator's highly publicized reprimand. That action and all the subplots were played out for voters."

Check out Snowflack's rationalization: "The senator's bizarre lack of judgment was front and center. Here is a guy who risked his entire career for what? A television set? Jewelry? How ridiculous."

Taking bribes is a "lack of judgment?" And what precisely is "ridiculous?" Is it Torricelli's actions that are ridiculous, his foolishness in accepting bribes or his "bizarre" lapse of memory in reporting these as required by law? What Snowflack wants judged as ridiculous is anyone who sees wrongdoing on the part of his liberal senator.

Snowflack continues his blizzard: "Then, we saw Torricelli rush to the floor of the Senate and do two things: accept his punishment but deny that he did anything wrong." Amazing! What precisely was his punishment? Has anyone as yet figured this out so that they can share that horror with the rest of us? And how many other senators were in the senate chamber when Torricelli "rushed to the floor to accept his punishment?" I heard there were only three other senators there at the time.

As Snowflack covered for Torricelli, surprisingly the State's largest liberal paper, the Newark Star-Ledger, editorialized as follows on the same day: "After the Senate concluded that he did receive secret gifts from a wealthy donor, despite his table-thumping denials, he issued a fake apology that included no admission of wrongdoing. He is continuing to stonewall by refusing to ask the Senate ethics committee to release his testimony and by blocking the release of court documents that summarize accusations against him. And while neglecting to sit down with reporters to discuss this scandal in detail, he is busy sending out press releases that try to blame his Republican opponent, Doug Forrester, for the high cost of prescription drugs."

The Star-Ledger ends its editorial: "National pundits who have never gotten off the Turnpike during their trips between Washington and Manhattan tell us that New Jersey voters don't care much about ethics and will shrug this off. They seem to think we are a state of 8 million Tony Sopranos. And Torricelli is acting like a man who thinks they are right." ***

Photo of Columnist Ted Lang courtesy of the author