Posted on 09/16/2006 12:43:42 PM PDT by Roberts
McGreevey is set to begin tour on 'Confessions' bookBy Troy Graham Inquirer Staff Writer In his forthcoming memoir, former Gov. Jim McGreevey writes that his first sexual encounter with the man who would bring down his administration made him feel like he was "emerging from 44 years in a cave to taste pure air for the first time."
Excerpts of the book, The Confession, were published yesterday by the Associated Press. The book will hit bookstores Tuesday.
The book describes McGreevey's rise in politics, his struggles with homosexuality, and his downfall at the hands of his lover, Golan Cipel, who McGreevey claims threatened to file a sexual-harassment lawsuit against him in an extortion plot.
Those threats, McGreevey said, forced him to step down from office.
McGreevey said that he and Cipel had their first encounter in December 2001, while his wife was in the hospital recovering from the birth of their daughter and with New Jersey state troopers parked outside.
"We undressed and he kissed me. It was the first time in my life that a kiss meant what it was supposed to mean - it sent me through the roof," McGreevey wrote, according to the Associated Press.
McGreevey said his wife, Dina, confronted him in 2002, asking whether he was gay. McGreevey answered with silence.
The affair with Cipel ended in 2004, McGreevey wrote. In one of their last phone conversations, Cipel said he had told his parents about the affair, the book says.
Famously, McGreevey announced his resignation from office on Aug. 12, 2004, saying he had engaged in an affair with a man and proclaiming himself "a gay American." Aides identified the man as Cipel.
In the book, McGreevey writes that Cipel had threatened to file sexual-assault charges against him if he did not pay him $50 million. McGreevey said he thought about notifying federal authorities, but stayed quiet.
"I knew it would stop the extortion campaign, but it would do nothing to protect my secret," McGreevey wrote. "Once an official complaint was made, I knew my heterosexual pretense was over. My story would land in the pantheon of messy love affairs."
Federal officials investigated the case after McGreevey resigned and found no evidence to support an extortion charge. Cipel never filed a sexual-harassment suit, saying he felt vindicated by McGreevey's resignation.
Cipel, who returned to his native Israel, denied the affair and said he was not gay. His civil attorney, Allen Lowy, said this week that Cipel would not comment on the book.
Cipel had been a controversial figure in Trenton before then, especially after McGreevey tried to put him in charge of the state's counterterrorism efforts, a move that raised eyebrows since Cipel had no experience and was not even an American citizen.
Since his resignation, McGreevey has stayed out of the spotlight, building a life with his new partner, Australian-born Mark O'Donnell. They live together in Plainfield, N.J.
But McGreevey's time in the shadows appears near an end. He has a hefty public relations schedule next week, as he travels the country promoting his 359-page book. He will start the campaign by appearing on Oprah on Tuesday. The episode was taped in Chicago earlier this week.
McGreevey could be vaulted to celebrity status, particularly in the gay community, with his coming-out tale. In the book, he describes his transformation, including telling his Marine father, Jack, that he is gay.
"Dad, I've known my whole life," McGreevey said to him. "This is who I am."
Jim McGreevey's Words Excerpts from former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey's book, The Confession, obtained by the Associated Press:
About his wife, Dina:
"Years later, Dina accused me in legal papers of courting her, and ultimately marrying her, for purely political reasons. That's not true. I treasured her companionship, and in my way I loved her. But as a gay man, I could only love her so much. She deserved more."
How he broke his leg at a Cape May beach:
"Something about that night made me a little silly. I took Dina by the hand and ran with her across the sand, dancing a jig in the crisp moonlight. But high tide had left a four-foot cliff in the sand beneath us, and I landed with one foot on the high side, the other caught on the edge. I had snapped my thigh bone in two."
About his decision to put Golan Cipel in charge of New Jersey's counterterrorism operations:
"He was consumed by the subject. One night he made me drive with him to the foot of the George Washington Bridge to watch the police screening large trucks there, in a method he considered inadequate.
"Golan had grown up under the threat of terror and spent 15 years fighting it in one way or another. He dragged me down to Cape May and along the Delaware River to Philadelphia, to study how the Delaware River Port Authority was interacting with the Coast Guard.
"Talking to him, I realized that New Jersey needed an office of counterterrorism to think about security and anticipate trouble."
About his first sexual experience with Golan Cipel:
"It was wrong to do. I wasn't an ordinary citizen any more. There were state troopers parked outside. My wife was recovering from a difficult pregnancy and C-section in the hospital. And he was my employee. But I took Golan by the hand and led him upstairs to my bed. We undressed and he kissed me. It was the first time in my life that a kiss meant what it was supposed to mean - it sent me through the roof. I was like a man emerging from 44 years in a cave to taste pure air for the first time, feel direct sunlight on pallid skin, warmth where there had only ever been a bone-chilling numbness. I pulled him to the bed and we made love like I'd always dreamed: a boastful, passionate, whispering, masculine kind of love.
"... At around 3 o'clock in the morning I shook him out of bed for his walk home, not wanting to alert the state troopers to anything amiss. When he was gone, I realized that this might all explode on me one day, but I just didn't care. I felt invincible then."
On his wife's asking him if he was gay, in 2002:
"I watched her growing increasingly angry. But then I saw a light bulb flick in her eyes. She tucked [daughter] Jacqueline into her covers and pushed past me in a rage, just as I was hanging up. ...
"After we were safely out of Jacqueline's earshot, she turned and glared at me. 'This whole thing is ridiculous,' she said. ...
"She walked back toward me, in the darkened hallway, until we were close enough for her to study my face. 'Are you gay?'
"For a brief moment I thought I could stop running that day. But I didn't have the nerve to tell my wife the truth. Instead I said nothing."
On telling his wife he is gay:
"I took Dina's hand. 'I hadn't planned this,' I told her.
" 'I want you to know how sorry I am. What I did was wrong, terribly wrong. I violated the sanctity of our marriage. I had no right to do that. I beg you to forgive me.'
"She was silent. I didn't expect her to be surprised.
"When she finally spoke, she said with no trace of bitterness: 'Where are we going to live?' "
He even continues to lie in his book!
And why no mention of the Halper's farm and the payoff he thought he was getting had it not been for the wire Mr. Halper was wearing.
That's the real reason this "gay American" quit his office. And he was successful at getting loose from the noose with this whole pretext.
(Rolls eyes heavenward)
This guy is a joke, for more reasons than I could count.
If he didn't resign he was going to be indicted. And it had nothing to do with where he poked his privates.
Why hasn't that happened already?
Coming soon to a theater near you - Brokeback Mountain II.
Ha! Ha! McGreevey threads are getting thrown into the "Chat" section now.
Poor mods are having a hard time with this topic!
Coming soon to a bathhouse near you. Lube extra.
"It was wrong to do. I wasn't an ordinary citizen any more. There were state troopers parked outside. My wife was recovering from a difficult pregnancy and C-section in the hospital. And he was my employee. But I took Golan by the hand and led him upstairs to my bed. We undressed and he kissed me. It was the first time in my life that a kiss meant what it was supposed to mean - it sent me through the roof. I was like a man emerging from 44 years in a cave to taste pure air for the first time, feel direct sunlight on pallid skin, warmth where there had only ever been a bone-chilling numbness. I pulled him to the bed and we made love like I'd always dreamed: a boastful, passionate, whispering, masculine kind of love."
LOL! This guy was the freaking GOVERNOR?!?
Too bad he didnt break his neck instead of his leg on that beach in Cape May. This is just out and out disgusting and I hope nobody buys this trash.
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