How can this guy not be in jail? Forget John Edward's two Americas, he needs to add one more class.. Rich Democrats who play by their own rules.
Posted on 07/11/2007 4:24:51 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
(CBS/AP) TRENTON -- New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine has stopped using e-mail entirely after Republicans filed a lawsuit asking a judge to make public e-mails he exchanged with a state worker union leader who's also a former girlfriend.
"We'll go back to the 1920s and have direct conversations with people," the Democratic governor said Wednesday.
Corzine contends his e-mails are private and protected by executive privilege, but said he didn't want to risk it until a judge rules on the lawsuit filed in May by Tom Wilson, the state Republican Party chairman.
"Until we get the established rules through a legal process -- establish what's subject to executive privilege, how you interpret it -- I think you potentially compromise your ability to do business," Corzine said.
Wilson wants to see if Corzine's relationship with Carla Katz, president of the largest state workers union local, tainted contract negotiations.
Katz and Corzine dated from 2002 to 2004 when Corzine was a U.S. senator. The relationship came under scrutiny after it was learned the multimillionaire Corzine gave Katz large sums of money just before Corzine began his gubernatorial bid in 2005.
It's been known since 2005 that Corzine gave Katz $470,000 to pay off a home mortgage, and The New York Times reported this year that Corzine gave Katz more than $6 million total.
Wilson contends state open public records laws make any e-mails discussing government business public and has expressed concern Corzine communicated through a private e-mail account -- his gubernatorial campaign e-mail. Wilson questioned whether e-mails discussing state business haven't been retained as required by state law.
Corzine defended using his gubernatorial e-mail, saying there are issues such as politics or personal business that shouldn't be discussed using government e-mail accounts.
"If you're making political comments on a state e-mail, you're actually potentially having a criminal violation," Corzine said.
"Governors have political reality as well as a public reality. We consider it the highest priority to not mix politics." Wilson decried Corzine's Wednesday statements.
"The governor continued his stonewalling," Wilson said. "He seems to think he's still running a private company where he gets to set the rules and ignore them when it serves his purpose. He isn't doing business. He's leading a government established by and for the people."
Katz has also filed court papers seeking to keep the e-mails private, asserting they were sent as a private citizen with the understanding and expectation they were private.
A hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled for Aug. 3.
Corzine has said the e-mails didn't discuss state business, a finding backed by his Ethics Advisory Panel, which determined they neither influenced negotiations nor violated ethics rules.
While it found no wrongdoing, the two-person panel noted Katz and Corzine communicated during negotiations that resulted in a deal to increase salaries but cut health and pension benefits for state workers. Katz opposed the deal. Corzine on Wednesday said the panel reviewed "a significant number of the e-mails," but said he didn't know how many.
Wilson said that calls into doubt the panel's finding.
"They can only pass judgment on what they see and what they saw was only what Jon Corzine wanted them to see," he said.
Corzine's administration has refused requests by Republicans and several media organizations to review the e-mails.
When asked Wednesday what the e-mails discussed, Corzine cited two examples -- inquiring about somebody's ill mother and passing along a news article.
"Private conversations with individuals have moved more to e-mail than they have phone calls," he said.
Corzine said he's never used text messaging and had "very limited" e-mail use before the lawsuit was filed, but conceded shunning e-mail has slowed communication.
"I have nothing to be embarrassed about, but I do have a constitution to protect, a desire to have free commentary from a lot of people about what their opinions are, and we'll just have to find another way to do it," Corzine said.
Donald Rumsfeld and Michael Chertoff never uses email.
Well ... Seems he should be able to communicate all he wants thru his private email account without public scrutiny.
How can this guy not be in jail? Forget John Edward's two Americas, he needs to add one more class.. Rich Democrats who play by their own rules.
What a picture, it looks like he’s slapping her and she’s liking it.
Calzone is such a sleeze.
ping
true
In your case Governor, it's called "pillow talk."
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