Free Republic

It's been six years to the day since former New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Torricelli resigned his seat, delivering one of the most memorably bad speeches in modern American political history. Thanks to the Post's Paul Kane, who observes this day each year by sending around the text of the Torch's resignation speech to a handful of folks who followed his career closely, we never forget to honor what is -- without question -- our favorite address in the decade or so we have been covering politics. The New York Times -- bless them! -- still has the full speech...

[Placed in the public domain, copying and widespread circulation are encouraged] Obama’s Sword of Damocles: October Surprise Won’t Surprise UsLooming Scandal Will “Toricelli” Barack Obama After Democratic National ConventionThe Democratic Party’s superdelegates, even those who have endorsed Barack Obama, need to do some serious reconsideration between now and the convention. Should Obama become the nominee, the Democrats are likely to find themselves in the same situation as they did with Robert Toricelli (D-NJ) in 2002. As described by Wikipedia (more information at the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20602-2001May12), In the middle of an increasingly competitive race against Republican Doug Forrester, Torricelli decided...

Al Gore and his allies in the media have popularized the notion that an election loser can use the courts to change the rules. Activist judges have been rewriting laws for many years, but now the trend is for activist state judges to try to rig an election. This is a very bad idea. Not even banana republics let judges interfere with elections. U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) has been facing corruption allegations for several years, and a man who paid him bribes is now in jail. Many thought that Clinton's Department of Justice was going to indict Torricelli, but...

New Jersey, dominated by Democrats in recent elections, has become the best Republican prospect for winning a Democratic-held Senate seat this year. New polls last week indicated appointive Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez falling back to an even race with his Republican challenger, state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. Quinnipiac University's poll showed Kean gaining nine percentage points in one month to take a two-point lead. The Monmouth University/Gannett poll's first Senate survey had Kean trailing Menendez by one point, but enjoying a 15-point lead among key independent voters. Kean's edge in the Quinnipiac survey marked the first time a New Jersey...

The US Senate is looking into allegations that a former US senator urged Baghdad to give a US company lucrative contracts under the much-criticised United Nations oil-for-food programme. This is the first time that a leading US lawmaker has been linked to the controversial UN programme, whose shortcomings have been an important element of the Bush administration's critique of the UN. The investigation involves one of the most vivid figures in US east coast politics, former senator Robert Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat who was forced to pull out of the 2002 election after being "severely admonished" by the Senate...

Who's laughing now? New Jersey, the state that spawned a thousand wise-guy bumper stickers and became the butt of a million late-night jokes, is actually a nice place to live. The research group Morgan Quitno crunched the numbers this year and yesterday ranked New Jersey the fifth-most-livable state. As for its neighbors? Pennsylvania finished 30th, New York 32d. "The people we talk to say they wouldn't live anywhere else, and I have to go along with that," said Mark Moran, a Bloomfield resident and one of the editors of Weird New Jersey magazine. "Whether it grows on you or people...

Republicans must still have nightmares about it. When Doug Forrester was running for U.S. Senate in 2002, and incumbent Democrat Robert Torricelli was besieged by ethics questions, the GOP could just about taste victory. Then, with six weeks to go, Torricelli dropped out and the Democrats drafted former Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who went on to win. Now with the race for governor heating up, Republican State Committee Chairman Tom Wilson has proposed an unusual deal to his Democratic counterpart: Promise you won't dump your candidate, and we'll promise not to dump ours.

For months New Jersey Republicans had smelled blood in the water and were lining up to take on Gov. James E. McGreevey. A state assemblyman, a state senator, a businessman, a small town mayor and perhaps a federal prosecutor were all considering the prospect of challenging the Democratic incumbent. Mr. McGreevey had been viewed as vulnerable because of a series of investigations involving top aides, a major fund-raiser and his leading campaign contributor. And it seemed that a state that had turned to the Democratic column - with two Democratic United States senators, and both houses of the State Legislature...

Just wondering. What is the actual answer to this?If Kerry pulled out of the Presidential campaign for some reason before the election, but after being officially nominated at the Convention, would John Edwards (the political equivalent of breat implants) necessarily and consequently be the Democrat presidential candidate. Just wondering.

<p>The failure of inspectors to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is not surprising. Once again, high-tech analysis by our intelligence community got it wrong. It's a long tradition: the ouster of the Shah of Iran, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Sept. 11 attacks. In each case, our intelligence community failed to predict these historic events.</p>

Pass the Alka-Seltzer and the Prozac, Please – It’s Time to Vote by Kirsten Andersen 11/4/2002 I'm depressed. No, not in the clinical, weepy, pill-popping sense of the word -- I'm really just plain sad. Weary. Mournful. Depressed. I hope it's temporary. Not so much for my sake, but for the sake of our country. The past several weeks of ongoing election drama have sent your usually happily-jaded commentator into a shocking spiral of doubt and despair. I didn't think it was possible for me to be any more disgusted by national politics -- or more correctly, politicians -- after...

Does the Constitution empower the U.S. Supreme Court to be the nation's board of elections? Of course not. Yet more and more conservatives are joining liberals in promoting this distortion of our republican form of government. Article I, section 4, paragraph 1 of the Constitution states, in relevant part: "The times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators." The New Jersey supreme court's decision seems...

I wonder how the democRATS would respond to some republican dirty tricks. Note: I'm not encouraging any dirty tricks or illegal activity, I'm simply opening a discussion of dirty tricks that Republican's could use (but won't) and what the RATs would think if we did any of these things. For example: What would the RATs say if about 1 week before the election an email was sent out to NJ voters that mixed up the voting rules.OFFICIAL COMMUNICATION FROM THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, STATE OF NEW JERSEY You may or may not be aware that our honorable Senator Toricelli has removed...

This Wednesday, the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered election officials to replace Robert Torricelli's name on the November statewide ballot for United States Senator with that of Frank Lautenberg. What should observers make of the court's decision and the surrounding legal and political issues? In the grand tradition of law school exams, where students are given an interesting fact pattern and a short deadline, we will try to "spot" some of the major issues and provide some preliminary analysis. Why All of the Democrats' Nonlitigation Alternatives Were Seriously Flawed Issue 1: What options, other than filing suit to get new...

I'm From New JerseyBy John Gorka I'm from New Jersey I don't expect too much If the world ended today I would adjust I'm from New Jersey No I don't talk that way I watched too much TV When I was young I'm from New Jersey My mom's Italian I've read those mafia books We don't belong There are girls from New Jersey Who have that great big hair They're found in shopping malls I will take you there I'm from New Jersey It's not like Texas There is no mystery I can't pretend I'm from New Jersey It's like...

I don't know the pertinent NJ laws, but it seems to me that the NJSC has provided clear grounds for their impeachment for grossly violating their oaths of office. Is impeachment brought by the House of Representatives in the General Assembly? If so, are there enough Republicans and outraged Democrats in the NJ House to bring articles of impeachment against the justices? I'd think that many legislators would be incensed by this usurpation of their constitutional prerogatives. If I'm right about this, do any of our NJ FReepers know their state Representatives well enough to put this idea in their...

They are polling on the Senate Republican Conference website as to rather Torricelli should remain on the ballot. http://src.senate.gov/home/index.cfmGO VOTE!

I thought the wheels of justice grind slowly. Then again, I never litigated before the hyper-efficient justices of the New Jersey supreme court. On Monday, around 5 P.M., Sen. Robert Torricelli announced that he would not seek reelection. On the same day, the New Jersey Democratic party, among others, asked the superior court and the New Jersey supreme court to allow the ballots for the November election to be changed. The next day, Tuesday, the New Jersey supreme court took up the case directly and scheduled oral arguments for the following morning. On Wednesday morning, the court heard oral arguments...

<p>He quit his re-election campaign for the U.S. Senate seat that he has dishonored and abused.</p> <p>That was the right thing to do, but he may have done it too late to help Democratic voters in New Jersey who might like a chance to vote for a party nominee without a huge ethical cloud.</p>

The Supreme Court of New Jersey has now ruled in favor of Democrats who want to substitute Lautenberg for Torricelli after the seemingly-clear 51-day statutory deadline -- Statutes? Bah!