Posted on 03/10/2014 6:03:53 PM PDT by SMGFan
There have been so many infamous characters it's hard to limit a list to 10 -- so here are 15 of arguably the biggest names, in a list that still doesn't cover even half of those who have been convicted or pleaded guilty in just the last decade.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
Why is John Corzine still a free man?
What about Neil Gallagher?
Neither party has an edge on sainthood but more often than not you will find most of the crooks amongst socialists, liberals or by what ever name they go by. So, it is always interesting to take note what category the crooks fall under.
New Jersey and Illinois (maybe Maryland too) all vie for the title of the nation’s political toilet.
How could the “Torch” not be on this list....
15. Narrowed down from, like, 50,000 candidates.
he learned to be a crook at goldman sachs. most of them never serve time except at the government trough.
Wouldn’t it be easier to list the NJ politicians that aren’t crooks?
I think it sure would be much shorter list.
Connecticut is in the running... Jack Dempsey is crook #1.
Wasn’t there one called Frank Thompson, but I may have the name wrong?
“Jack Dempsey is crook #1.”
No way. Crook #1 is the thug in the White Hut!
I once researched a biography of Frank Hague, and also knew his bodyguard/driver, a police sergeant. He did take contributions for political favors, and he did have a desk with a long, single middle drawer that opened in the front and back for the convenience of his contributors. I have seen the desk; it did exist. His corruption was a more primitive and perhaps more honest form of corruption, as it was man to man, without the added duplicity of lobbyists or power brokers.
Frank Hague was not your typical NJ (or national) politician. The others on this list were all for themselves, but he gave back to his city, Jersey City, much more than he kept for himself. He also used his political power — he controlled the state as well as the city — to get federal funds for Jersey City during the Great Depression. It is said that he swung one of the elections of FDR.
During the Depression, he used those funds to build the Jersey City Medical Center, a magnificent Art-Deco edifice with marble halls, terrazzo floors, and walnut paneled offices. He personally recruited physicians, surgeons, and nurses from some of the best hospitals in the country to head its departments. One component, the Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital, named for his mother, was perhaps the best in the world at the time.
Every day, Frank Hague would make rounds at the Medical Center, wearing a pair of fresh white gloves that he would use to test for the presence of dust or dirt. He would then go to his office, at the Medical Center, to conduct the business of political patronage. His desk with the special middle drawer was located there.
No one was ever turned away then, for lack of ability to pay. Doctors willingly gave their time to teach and care for the poor. To Frank Hague and the doctors, nurses, and staff of the Medical Center, health care meant something beyond health insurance.
That doesn’t even include most of the really notorious bastards from pre-Revolutionary administrations and DURING the Revolution.
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