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Flashback: Last Brownstone Standing
Governor James McGreevey announced yesterday that he was stepping down as Governor of the Garden State yesterday in a press conference where he also announced that he was gay. With support from his ex-wife and current wife, McGreevey said he had his feelings since adolescence and that the truth was that he was "a gay American", that he "engaged in an adult consensual affair with another man", and that "given the circumstances surrounding the affair and its likely impact upon my family and my ability to govern, I have decided the right course of action is to resign."
Some people question whether McGreevey stepped down for other reasons. The Governor's image has become tarnished in recent weeks when fundraisers of his were involved in a corruption scandal, and he pushed his top contributor, Charles Kushner, to run the Port Authority. Governor McGreevey was also questioned for hiring Golan Cipel as his special assistant on homeland security in 2002. Cipel, who had minimal experience in the field, was unable to attain security clearance because he was a foreign national.
Cipel, who may file a sexual harassment lawsuit today, is reported to be the reason that McGreevey made the announcement that he was gay yesterday. It is believed that McGreevey was alluding to his relationship with Cipel when he said, "I engaged in an adult consensual affair with another man." Some reports have Cipel blackmailing McGreevey for $5 million to keep quiet about the affair.
During his announcement, he said he would step down on November 15th so he could "facilitate a responsible transition". Why so late? Because he is stepping down so late, he will pass the Governorship to fellow Democrat and State Senate president, Richard J. Codey. Without a special election, Codey will serve out the rest of Mcgreevey's term - through 2006. Govenor McGreevey is now the highest ranking gay official in the United States.
The full text of McGreevey's speech, the public reaction in the NY Times and the Newark Star-Ledger, gay reaction in the Trenton Times. Google News on McGreevey and NJ.com Statehouse coverage. Plus MemeFirst's perspective, with New Jerseyan Sterling (it don't matter he's in Virginia, he's still got NJ in his heart) weighing in about corruption in NJ politics and McGreevey's news is old news.
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Holy cow. Running around yesterday, I had no idea, but when someone called me to ask me if I heard McGreevey resigned, sadly enough, I said, "Because he's gay?" Of course, he resigning on top of some other corruptiong issues, but there have been rumors about McGreevey's sexuality for a long time in NJ, especially after Cipel was appointed to a security position without proper clearance... Talk radio shows in NJ dealt with it practically like an open secret. Among the ones bandied about disgrutnled NJans I heard:
- McGreevey asked his secret service like detail not to be present near his sleeping quarters at night; the reason was allegedly that the baby would wake them up.
- McGreevey made sure Cipel lived on his estate at Drumthwacket, the Governor's mansion
- McGreevey took time out of his day to help Cipel find an apartment - what governor tends to help his adviser find an apartment?
The interesting thing is that I feel most people would accept the affair. A lot of people, including myself, don't think he's resigning just because of his homosexuality, although that on top of a lawsuit and corruption charges, is reason enough. But given that this country came so close to impeaching a president over his hetero affair with an intern (okay, "lying" to the government), it's not surprising that he's had to resign. Should be interesting to see the way the story gets covered. On the one hand, it's the salacious news the tabs live for, but on the other hand, it's very sad that McGreevey has to out himself in such a public way.
For some reason, this made me think of Ricky Williams; hi-profile resignations, both because of confines of the high-valued professional worlds they were a part of, confines that would not allow them to live the lives they really wanted to live.
Having slept on this one for a night...
Ugh. Folks, he's not resigning because he's gay, nor is he resigning because he had an affair. The former is barely scandal material in NJ, and the latter... anyone remember a guy named "Rudy Giuliani?" He's resigning because his administration was thoroughly corrupt, and the chickens finally came home to roost.
I don't know what's sadder: that McGreevey decided to try to use coming out as a smokescreen to distract from the actual issues, or that so many of my fellow queers are buying it.
The moral of this sordid little tale? Gay or straight, don't put your foreign, younger lover on the state payroll for $110,000 a year as a "homeland security consultant" and then have such a messy breakup with him that he files a sexual harrassment lawsuit against you. In short: "duh."
Political scandal, blah, blah blah. Corruption, blah, blah, blah. Typical NJ politics, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, McGreevey was stupid, but what's so sad about this is the effect it has on his wife, kids, and mother. How awful for them to be the focus of so much press coverage all for something that is not their fault. And how terrible it is that a 47 (?) year old man couldn''t couldn't come clean about his sexuality until now.
Against impossible odds, I managed to secure a transcript of his wife's thoughts during the speech. It's at my site! hehe.
www.winnerofthesat.blogspot.com
agreed, DM... McGreevey played the gay card to take attention away from all the corruption. It would have taken guts to come out with no scandal, or during a race, but this seemed cowardly. We need more Signorile-style forced outings of sleezy queers like this guy.
Being gay has got nothing to do with this. It is corruption that is now haunting them in their faces that forces them to go.
i think it's stupid to say this is some politcal ploy to take away attention from the corruption scandal. who even cares about that anymore? mcgreevey effectively ended his politcal career with this resignation. his coming out, especially in the public way he did it, affects his relationship with his wife, his kids, and his parents (to say nothing of friends and consituents). how does a corruption scandal measure up to that?
Peter - McGreevey's political career is almost everything to him. I'm sure he cares about his wife, his ex-wife and the kids, but the marriages and the kids wouldn't even exist if it were not for the singlemindedness with which he's pursued his ambitions.
I'm like you - I have trouble imagining that someone could have such driving ambition that he would build an entire fake life to enable it. But that is exactly what he's done.
The real story is not that he came out, it's that the straight-facade is nothing compared to the political corruption of his administration. He has done some illegal things, and worse - he's turned a blind eye to his supporters doing some seriously illegal things.
Is there some fancy smancy new surgical butthole tightening procedure in Israel I don't know about?
This is what happens with guys don't have access to gay porn and the Gaiety Theatre. If Jim McGreevey could have gone to the West Side Club and had five or six Dominicans on weekends, he would never have thrown it all away from some thang from Israel. I mean come one, Is Israel famous for its hot hunky studs?
um, gothamist, barney frank is the highest ranking gay official in the us- senator trumps governor every time
um, actually, the senate in massachusetts is already spoken for. i believe there is a kennedy and some guy named kerry. heard of them?
frank is actually a congressman. and i would take governor of new jersey over a congressman representing the 4th district in massachusetts any day. no offense to the 4th district.
I don't want to be a spoil-sport, but I am an avid Gothamist reader and wanted to make one critique: McGreevey is the highest ranking OPENLY gay official, but not necessarily the highest ranking gay official. I imagine there are a few closeted gay politicians who are more senior to McGreevey. Just because they're not out doesn't mean they're not gay.
So how does the Gothamist know that McGreevey (or Frank, if you think members of the House of Representatives are higher ranking) is the highest ranking official who is gay? He's just the highest ranking that the public knows of. I would be surprised if there are not others, hoping for the day when they can come out without risking career destruction. I think McGreevey might well have survived the disclosure (that is, the telling of the truth and standing up to a blackmailer) without resigning, but resigning for this reason beats resigning for corruption problems.
yes, yes, he's the highest OPENLY gay official. sorry i missed that detail.
GAY is a choice (I mean, no one forces anybody to stick their tongues up other guys' butts - unless they are Iragi POWs).
If someone doesn't choose to identity as gay they aren't gay. Like don't hate the guy just because he can have sex with a woman without throwing up.
Does anyone else think its odd how he said "Gay American" as if his nationality were in debate. I wonder what would have happened if he said "I am a Gay Slovenian".
"...So my truth is that I am a gay American" was focus-grouped or surveyed ahead of time.
Had this had been a hetero extramarital affair, it might have been received a bit better (one gay group spokesperson Thursday compared McGreevey to Jackie Robinson integrating major league baseball, a ridiculous analogy), but that isn't the point. No, rather it's the culture of corruption in the McGreevey administration -- a culture in New Jersey which, sad to say, isn't limited solely to him, Charles Kushner or the Democratic party. The Republicans can be just as corrupt and conniving.
Now the Dems' bosses (euphemistically called "county chairmen," but they're machine bosses in the best, or should I say worst, Frank Hague tradition) are trying to get Jon Corzine to run for governor in 2005. They've already set things up so McGreevey's resignation will take place after a special election could be called this fall, perhaps fearful such an election could make the presidential race in the state closer than expected. (Wouldn't that be perverse were it to happen, Bush won New Jersey and that turned out to be the deciding margin, similar to the Florida Dems' inability to get out the black vote in 2000 for fear of alienating old conservative whites.)
And unlike New York, third parties are close to nonexistent in New Jersey, not helped by election laws and courts that serve the two major parties. We on this side of the Hudson don't have a Liberal or Conservative party to realistically turn to.
This whole episode turns me off to state politics, and I'm nominally a Democrat. F--- the machine.
I'm surprised about few people don't comment on how incredibly sad that event Thursday was.
I agree with you, Vincent. I'm a Republican but I cannot tolerate the NJ GOP machine. Both parties are such slaves to cronyism and nepotism that when someone incorruptible in either party comes along, s/he's treater like a leper.
This is why no prominent member of the NJ GOP can really express outrage over what McGreevey has done - none of them have clean enough hands to stand the ensuing scrutiny.