BODY POLITIC

TIME TO PURGE THIS ADMINISTRATION OF POLITICAL HACKS

Even though August is a slow month, scandal rarely takes a vacation in New Jersey politics. And this time, New Jersey residents are so immune to ineptitude that the Board of Public Utilities latest woesbarely register a blip on the radar. Of course, the BPU's failute to monitor an $80 million account is peanuts compared to the expected tax increase that the Trenton Democrats have lined up for taxpayers in the coming months.

In a report released earlier this week, a state audit report claims that the BPU's Office of Clean Energy had no financial oversight on how it spends ratepayer money. Each New Jersey customer pays anywhere from $10-$20 a year to promote renewable energy. Now most level headed residents would think that it is a worthy goal to explore renewable energy and willingly write the check. Unfortunately, that $10 check became another slush fund controlled by political operatives and they didn't even establish controls on how the money would be spent. It was just another slap in the face to residents that are already alienated with state government and bureacrats that are living off the public dime.

What is most aggravating about the latest scandal is the fact that BPU President Jeanne M. Fox doesn't seem concerned. By why should she? As the wife of Democrat political consultant

Steve DiMicco, she has plenty of cover. For starters, Ms.Fox has already made a "misstatement' when she said that an assistant attorney general attached to the Treasury Department signed off on the fund. 

Even more aggravating is Ms. Fox's claim that her appointment to the top job wasn't political, and that the public should believe that it is only a coincidence that her husband ran campaigns for former Governor McGreevey, Governor Corzine, and now Senator Robert Menendez. 

Give us a break.

Ms. Fox may be a very competent administrator, but to say that her connections had absolutely nothing to do with her appointment is absurd. Perhaps, New Jersey residents could stomach another organization ripping off dollars at their expense, but not one who has such ties to the state Democrat organization. It is time that Governor Corzine purge these political hacks from his administration, because New Jersey residents are losing faith in his judgement awfully fast.