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Florio Loves the Campaign Gutter
From the beginning, the Florio strategy has been to attack Corzine for proposing that a modest portion of Social Security funds (15 percent over 15 years) should be invested in the stock market. Florio said this was the "defining issue" in the hotly contested Senate race. He has hit Corzine at every turn, trying to curry favor with concerned senior citizens and others who worry about the future of Social Security. Florio has scored points. He said Corzine takes this position because as a former Wall Street maven he and his stock market buddies wanted to get rich off the backs of hard-working Americans. At the time, I said that Florio was being a bit disingenuous because many non-Wall Street types, including Bill Clinton, had proposed a similar idea. I said the same thing to Florio in a TV interview. But he wouldn't back off. Yet I had to respect him for feeling so strongly that investing even a penny of Social Security money would be a big mistake. I thought that it was a good thing to define clear differences between the two candidates. I thought that reasonable people can disagree. But apparently, things were not what they appeared to be. There were rumors that Florio had previously said in a public forum that he could support investing a portion of Social Security in the stock market. Florio denied it. He said on numerous occasions that he had always been against what he called "a colossally bad idea." But a couple of weeks ago a tape became public that made it crystal clear that Florio thought investing Social Security funds in the stock market was just fine with him. In a May 4, 1999 speech before a group of Jewish leaders Florio stated, "I have no difficulty with a relatively small, segmented portion of the Social Security Trust Fund monies being put into equities." In fact, Florio went on to make a case for how and why we should invest Social Security money in stocks. When confronted with the contents of the tape, all Florio could say was "The transcript that came out clearly indicates I misspoke." Is that what you call it? Misspeaking? What a joke! Florio knew exactly what he was doing. He latched onto the Social Security issue because he could make Corzine look bad on it, especially with seniors. He milked it knowing he had at least once publicly communicated the same position. He just didn't think it could be documented. Florio continually denied that he had ever said anything like that. He also said the reporter from the Jewish News (the paper that covered the speech and disclosed the tape) had acknowledged that it was all some misunderstanding. That wasn't true. Then the tape was found. Florio got nailed. Florio did what Bill Clinton did regarding Monica's infamous stained dress. Clinton denied it all because he didn't think he would get caught. Then came the dress. Oops! The bottom line is that Jim Florio was engaging in deceit. He didn't "misspeak." He got caught. If he hadn't he would have continued to hammer Jon Corzine for all it was worth. The INTENT was to deceive voters. It's like a company putting out an ad that says its product does something it really doesn't. It may get you to buy the product, but it's wrong. Get this. Even after Florio was embarrassed with his voice on tape contradicting what he had been saying about the Social Security issue, he put commercials on the air in the last week or so once again attacking Corzine. Florio continued to go after his opponent even after it was revealed that he had taken the exact same position in a public forum. It's about ethics. It's about integrity. It's about honesty. On this Social Security issue Jim Florio gets a failing grade. The fact that Jon Corzine hired a lawyer who then hired a private investigator to look into Florio's private life only makes this Senate race uglier. Corzine ought to be ashamed of himself. No matter how low Jim Florio sunk, Corzine should have been able to avoid the gutter. He hasn't. Thankfully this thing will be over on Tuesday. Let's pray the fall won't be as bad! Fax your comments to me at (973) 509-1659 or e-mail me at sadubato@aol.com.
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