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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the title bout in this year's politcal lineup. In the left corner, wearing a host of tax and toll increases, a budget shortfall of more than $2.1 billion and scars of scandals with unions, ex-girlfriends and cabinet officials is Jon "Almost Gone" Corzine.

In the right corner, wearing a corruption busting image, over 130 successful prosecutions, and the hopes of millions who want to improve the quality of life in New Jersey………..Chris “You Can‘t Miss” Christie.

Many expect New Jersey's headline political battle to shape up this way. The incumbent governor is, as usual, expected to seek reelection and go unchallenged for their party’s nomination. In this case that is Jon Corzine. As for Republicans, Chris Christie is expected to run and win the Republican nomination for governor. Christie has finally made it clear that he will be declaring his candidacy and making it official in February. Many anticipate that he will ultimately win the Republican nomination for Governor and given the atmosphere and logistics, that may be likely.

Maybe.

The establishment is behind him and the money is being horded for him. Party leaders and elected officials have been lining up behind Christie like teenagers on line for Britney Spears’ latest CD. They are putting all their hopes on Chris Christie because he has some higher than usual name recognition when compared to other possible choices or at least more statewide recognition than most of them.

The thinking is that his name recognition will give us the best chance to defeat Corzine. New Jersey is a unique state, in that without its own media market, getting statewide name identification is very difficult. That is why most candidates have to run in at least one statewide election before they can win a statewide election.

Take McGreevey and Whitman for example.

To get name ID also takes a lot of money, more money than most campaigns in other states would. That is because a candidate has to invest in New York, the most expensive media market in the nation, and Philadelphia, the third most expensive media market in the nation. That makes it rough. So I undertsand the value in wanting a nominee for Governor who has some good recognition in New Jersey but I wouldn’t pin all of my hopes and my party on that alone.

Add to that the fact that Christie’s opponent for the nomination could actually prove to be more satisfactory candidates for the nomination to rank and file primary voters and you have the potential for an upset in the G.O.P. race for the gubernatorial nomination.

On the other side of the aisle you have Jon Corzine.

Incumbents usually do not get challenged and Corzine is no different here. However, many Democrats are not so sure that they want him to run for reelection.

Corzine himself is doubtful.

Not because he doesn’t want the job, but because he is not sure that he can make a case good enough for reelecting him to continue doing the piss poor job that he has been doing.

That is why he maneuvered himself for an appointment to President-Elect Obama’s cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury. The hope was that he could avoid an embarrassing reelection loss by saying “sorry, I have to leave to answer a higher call to duty”.

Well, given Corzine’s dismal financial record in New Jersey, no one wanted him to do for America what he did for Jersey. So state Democrats are left with having to try to carry Corzine’s dead weight over the electoral finish line.

They are hoping that by linking Chris Christie to President George Bush, they could make Corzine more preferable. So despite the fact that Chris Christie has done his job successfully and put an end to the career of more corrupt politicians than anyone in recent state history, Democrats simply say he Chris Christie was appointed by George Bush.

Well duh………and he did his job better than most Democrats have done their own jobs.

So with little to go on, Democrats are scared.

They fear that Corzine is vulnerable and that they could lose to Republicans.

And they're right to think that way.

That is where things get interesting. POLITICS 24/7 understands that not only may Corzine not be up to reelection , he may not be up for his party’s nomination.

Senate President Richard Codey just might step up yet again.

Over the past several years years, Codey has been called upon to govern the state during several different times of crisis.

Those occasions included when disgraced Governor Jim McGreevey resigned amid financial, patronage and sex scandals and most recently after Governor Corzine almost died in a tragic accident that he encountered while speeding down the Garden State Parkway without his seatbelt on.

Putting Codey‘s political leanings aside, he is viewed as a steady hand at the helm, a wise sage of New Jersey politics who can be trusted. Whether this is true or not does not matter. That is how he is viewed and politics is perception. He has never sought the job of Governor but governed when called upon to do so. That kind of reputation is a good one to have. People do not see him as power hungry or ego driven. They see him as a reliable, trustworthy figure.

That is why there are rumblings to have him be the Democrats nominee for Governor.

The move would be a smart one for liberals in New Jersey.

It would be a smarter choice than opting to defend the abysmal record of Jon Corzine. With Dick Codey as their nominee, they will not have to defend against the stream of legal challenges that are pending in the courts against Corzine.

They will not have to defend against proposals to make the cost of driving on New Jersey’s roads so expensive that you need a part time job just to pay for the tolls that Corzine would be increasing for decades to come if he had his way.

Having Dick Codey as their standard bearer, Democrats will not have to explain why under his reign, the affordability crisis in New Jersey has gotten worse and why after raising taxes by as much as $2 billion dollars when his term began, we have a deficit of $2.1 billion dollars as his term ends. Of course Codey would have to answer to why he rubberstamped many of the Corzine led initiatives but at least he will not have to try to explain why he initiated them.

The most controversial part of the Codey nomination is how he will get it.

Insiders are hoping that it can be arranged so that late in the game, Jon Corzine will announce that for personal reason, he is not seeking a second term or that another responsible has called him.

That will allow Democrat party leaders to turn to Codey and say, with only a short amount of time left to nominate their party’s choice, they feel that they need Dick Codey to once again step in and save the day.

Is this likely?

Considering that Corzine has been looking for a way out of running for reelection and saving face, I believe that in a few months Corzine will receive a request to serve in the administration of President-Elect Obama. Not a cabinet position but a lesser position. One that Democrats can conjure up and provide Corzine with the excuse he needs in to save face.

So don’t expect this boxing match to be the one you expect. Not only does Chris Christie have yet to enter the ring as the G.O.P.’s official nominee for Governor, Democrats just might be putting the gloves on someone with more of a punch than Jon Corzine.

TO BE FILED UNDER THE "That's Just Wrong" CATEGORY

NO MORE BUSH - SHAVE THE DATE

Speaking of the upcoming inauguration, you can celebrate the end of Bush in a uniquely personal manner. Sex advice columnist Kristen Chase (also known as “Mominatrix”) is encouraging everyone to “Shave the Date”, or as she puts it “leave no bush behind”. She claims that it will give you a special tingle to realize that at the moment that this country gets rid of Bush, you will have gotten rid of yours.

Her column even includes advice on how to shave your pubes, for first-time Bush removers. She also has a Facebook event — shaving your bush is not required for participation, but is strongly encouraged due to sexual satisfaction and patriotism that will be enjoyed.

Be Sure To Sign The Petition To

REPEAL THE CONGRESSIONAL PAY HIKE

Sign the Online Petition - Repeal The Automatic Pay Raise That Congress Is Receiving

Pass The Link On To Family, Friends and Co-workers

http://www.gopetition.com/online/24301.html

AND DON'T FORGET.............

BE SURE TO SIGN THE PETITION URGING THE NOMINATION

OF SENATOR BECK FOR LT. GOV.

It has been reported that Jack Kemp has cancer.

His office released the following statement:

"Mr. Kemp has been undergoing tests to determine the origin of the disease and the options for continued treatment. He will continue to serve as Chairman of Kemp Partners and plans to remain involved in his business, charitable and politically related activities. Mr. Kemp and his family are grateful for the thoughts and prayers of friends and appreciate respect for their privacy at this time".

The disturbing news hits POLITICS 24/7 hard. For me Jack Kemp, has been a shining example of the type of leadership we expect, want and need in government and the news causes reason for me to pause.

As a young man Jack F. Kemp spent 13 years in professional football, playing quarterback for the San Diego Chargers and Buffalo Bills. He led the Buffalo Bills to the American Football League championships in 1964 and 1965 when he was named the league's most valuable player. He also co-founded the AFL Players Association and was elected it's president for 5 consecutive terms.

After a period working for the Reagan gubernatorial campaign in California during 1966 and as special assistant to Reagan when he was Governor, Kemp in 1969 worked for the chairman of the National Republican Committee. In 1970 Kemp was elected to Congress where he represented the people of Buffalo, New York in the state's 38^th district and served their until 1989.

Barely in my teens, my political interests were inspired by Ronald Reagan. They grew each day for the eight years that he was President but during the mid 80's I also came to appreciate the Congressman from my home state of New York. Although Jack Kemp was from Buffalo and I was from Brooklyn, the distance did not takeaway any sense of the Congressman's i.mpact on me.

Many casual voters outside of Buffalo may not have heard of him at the time but those involved in the issues shaping America sure did. Especially those who considered themselves "movement conservatives". They considered Jack Kemp a leading figure.

A movement conservative is one who supports all or nearly all conservative principles with a coherent philosophy, and who advances broad conservative goals both individually and through teamwork. At the time, I did not know it, but I was one and Jack Kemp was one of the movements leaders.

Kemp's credentials increased in In Congress where he became increasingly interested in economic ideas and was a keen supporter of supply-side economics and especially of large cuts in direct taxes, which he argued, would pay for themselves. Kemp was also a strong and vocal advocate of deregulation and enterprise zones. In 1978, together with senator Roth of Delaware, Kemp sponsored a 30 percent across the board tax cut which was in large part enacted in the 1981 Reagan budget. It is said that he sold Reaganomics to Reagan. Kemp's vigorous promotion of supply-side economics made him a well known, if not controversial, politician and earned him a popular following among the Republican rank and file.

In addition to being a fiscal conservative Kemp has also been conservative on cultural and foreign affair issues. In one debate with Mario Cuomo, Kemp said of himself, "I am not a hawk but actually a heavily armed dove".

Over time, I came to appreciate Jack Kemp more and more. I followed his voting record and read the speeches he offered on the floor of the house in the congressional record. His words were always inspiring to me. Although those speeches were often intermingled with words that I needed to lookup in the dictionary, once I did, they made sense and they were supported by all that freedom in a free nation meant.

On top of that, his voting record always matched his rhetoric. Jack Kemp meant what he said and said what he meant.

Later, while working on Kemp's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, I learned that I was not alone in sometimes having to look up the meaning of something Kemp said. While gathering the mornings news clippings for the campaign's press secretary, I stumbled upon an a piece from a local paper that wrote "although very passionate about economic policy, Congressman Kemp often finds himself speaking to an audience of reporters and voters alike, who have a glazed look in their eyes that is brought about by his discussion of intricate policies and use of technical terms that Kemp uses with the familiarity that we have with the alphabet".

After reading that I was actually relieved to know that I wasn't quite as ignorant as most. I was just as ignorant as everyone else.As the Reagan years were winding down I geared up to take the Reagan revolution to the next level and I prepared to make sure that Jack Kemp became our next President. The man to carry the torch into the future. I even developed a report which proved that Jack kemp would be the Republican presidential nominee and that Jean Kirkpatrick would be tapped as his running mate.

I was also a fan of Ambassador Kirkpatrick and the relatively close ties that she and Kemp had at the time, seemed to me, to make them a perfect and likely ticket.

As the 1988 campaign began, I found myself traveling to campaign for Jack Kemp in New Hampshire and eventually became a low level field director. I will never forget sitting on campaign busses traveling from every Notch from Dixville to Zealand in the North White Mountains and Great North Woods to Portsmouth and Seabrook in the Seacoast region and Nashua, Concord and Manchester in between. I was often honored beyond belief to sit next Jack Kemp on the campaign bus and have the opportunity to brief the would be President on events at our next stops and update him on how the door-to-door events at previous stops went.

Although Kemp did win in Dixville Notch, when all of New Hampshire's votes were counted, Kemp came in third behind then Vice President George H.W. Bush and Kansas Senator Bob Dole, but ahead of Delaware's former Congressman and Governor Pete DuPont, evangelist Pat Robertson and Reagan's former chief of Staff, General Alexander Haig, respectively. Suffice it to say, I was devastated.

In 1989 President George H. W. Bush appointed Kemp to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development when he formed his administration. In this role Kemp was perceived by many as a maverick rather than a collegial member of the administration. Yet he successfully implemented many policies and programs which won over friends and foes alike. One of Kemp's most effective creations was the introduction of urban enterprise zones.

With his maverick image in place, in 1996 the Republican nominee for President, Bob Dole picked Kemp to be his Vice Presidential running mate. The selection was something of a surprise, not least because Kemp and Dole had policy disagreements in the past and had been rivals in 1988. Dole had generally been skeptical of massive tax cuts preferring to emphasize deficit reduction but the electoral dynamics of 1996 converted Dole to the merits of tax cuts. In this context Kemp was an ideal vice presidential choice. He symbolized vigorous tax cuts and was able to generate enthusiasm among Republican activists. Kemp was well known nationally because of his football career and visionary economic and defense policies; and it was hoped that Kemp's energetic style and manner would balance Dole's age.

Maybe it did or maybe didn't but either way Americans wanted a second term of Clinton and Gore and they got it.

Just as was the case in the 1988 primaries, I was disappointed but just like before I remained a fan of Jack Kemp.

I feel that there are few people who have actually been involved in politics on par with Kemp. Sincere, principled, hard working, innovative, persistent and consistent, Kemp and his leadership has influenced our nation much more than your average politician and he helped take what was once a fringe wing of American political thinking and turned it into mainstream policy.

All of his leadership and accomplishments led me to pick up the moniker 'Kempite". On the internet, one must often come up with a user I.D. and since all of my online activity involves politics, I felt there was no name better to choose from other than Kemp's.

So today, from the bottom of my heart, I offer my wishes for a speedy recovery for Secretary Kemp and it is the greatest hope of all of us that he defeats this bout with cancer with the same level of energy and success that earned him his victories and honors in the N.F.L. and that moved America over to his way of thinking in politics.

And Be Sure To Also Sign The Petition To

REPEAL THE CONGRESSIONAL PAY HIKE

Sign the Online Petition - To Repeal The Automatic Pay Raise That Congress Is Receiving Congress

Pass The Link On To Family, Friends and Co-workers

http://www.gopetition.com/online/24301.html

The new year will give us a new President and a newly elected Congress. Only 61 individuals are newly elected to it though. The remaining 474 are simply returning to continue their work (two are going from the house to the Senate). But in this session, all of them are expected to bring about that muct "touted change" that many of them promised along with President-Elect Obama.

How much "change" they will actually bring and what kind of change they will be responsible for has yet to be seen but early on, there exists one change that they will effect right away.

While the nation and the world have entered economic trouble, the 535 collective members of the House of Representatives and Senate will have the opportunity to see their salaries change with an increase of as much as $4,700 a year.

The pay raise is automatic and turns out to be about a 2.8% increase and although it may not sound like much, when one considers the circumstances of the times that we are in, accepting such a pay raise would be criminal.

I say criminal because there do not exist many American institutions that can determine their own salary at their own whim. And there are even fewer institutions that would dare to give themselves more money when they have less money to spend.

On top of that, given the fact that elected federal office holders already make a touch more than $169,000, most Americans feel that that is quite suitable. In fact many Americans might consider it to be a great deal more than suitable. Seeing as how Congress currently has an approval rating of 18.4% and a disapproval rating of 73.4%, I would say that most Americans think that $170,000 for the bad job they are doing is totally inappropriate and way too much.

So why should they get almost $5,000 more for their poor approval?

Even more disturbing, how can they look voters in the eye and claim to understand that the economic climate is rough but that it is necessary for them to shoulder additional costs that Congress had a hand in creating in the first place.

While Congress approves bailing out almost every faction of the private sector that requests help, how can they also accept more money too? Is that the type of change that the elections of ’08 meant, more spending and higher Congressional salaries?

The amount of money we are talking about in regards to the pending pay raise may be minuscule when compared to a 7 or 800 billion dollar bailout but it is still more money being spent. It is still more money being paid by taxpayers and it is still more money than each member of Congress requires. But more than that , accepting a pay raise during the time we are in is a horrific symbolic gesture that essentially tells the American taxpayer “screw you, were in charge and we are going to do what we want, when we want and how we want”. Never mind the out of work salesman who has no conglomerate that can slip congressman or senators a hefty campaign donation and then request federal assistance for themself. Never mind the additional taxes that Democrats will be requesting taxpayers to pay or the out of work taxpayer who can’t afford to pay their property taxes this year. By accepting a pay raise, Congress will be making it clear that they have absolutely no concern for the people whose money they spend.

With Democrats in total control of government, if the 2.8% pay raise goes through, than their hold on power will be short lived. If Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi do not put a stop to increasing their salaries than folks, they are not just greedy, they are downright stupid and should not be in office in the first place.

Having control of government makes Democrats responsible for what happens in government, totally responsible. Accepting a pay raise at a time like this is something that they will have to be held accountable for and they will.

But there is still a chance for them to savwe face. If they act responsibly and derail any efforts to increase their salaries, they can spare themselves the blame and avoid the resulting repercussions of their greed and irresponsibility.

That is one reason why President-Elect Obama should publicly urge the House of Representatives and the Senate to show the American people that they have their priorities in order and that they are aware of the tough times we may be in and demand that they forgo any raise.

It is also why POLITICS 24/7 has issued a national petition.

It is a “Declaration of Rejection of a Congressional Pay Raise ”

As a free society, we cannot simply wait for our representatives to act. We must make our desires known before they act.

In the case of irresponsible government action we cannot wait for irresponsibility to be enacted, we must avoid it from happening . So we have initiated a petition to Congress. It is a petition that calls upon them to reject any increases in their “salaries, staffs and office budgets, as well as personal expense limits, and currently allocated per diem expenses. If such a vote or votes come before Congress at any point between January 2009 and January 2011, we demand that they reject it and that a new vote repealing such increases be brought to the floor of both the House of Representatives and the Senate”.

Simply click here for the "DECLARATION of REJECTION of CONGRESSIONAL PAY RAISE" Online petition and make it clear that will tolerate spending more on Congress than they are worth and that you certainly do not intend to tolerate their greed.

After signing it you must still do two things. Pass this petition on to others. Just cut and past the following link into an email

http://www.gopetition.com/online/24301.html

Then send it to friends, family and business associates and urge them to do the same.

Once you've done that, the second thing you must do is contact the two U.S. Senators representing you in your state and your congressman. Do so either by phone, snail mail or email. No matter how you want to do it, just do it!

If you are really ticked off over this potential pay raise, write your local newspapers too. Send letters to the editors voicing your disapproval of any hint of raising congressional salaries at a time like this.

BE SURE TO SIGN THE PETITION

9 SYMPTOMS OF CONSERVAPHOBIA

conservaphobia: noun. The fear of the American conservative political movement, often based on unfounded stereotypes and distortions.

You might be conservaphobic if:

• You've never really listened to Rush Limbaugh because you're already sure that you disagree with practically everything he's ever said.
• You refer to liberal Catholics, Protestants and Jews as "people of faith" but conservative Catholics, Protestants and Jews as the "religious right" or "radical religious right". (Maybe you have a thing for alliteration too.)
• You think all white Republicans are racists and all black Republicans are sellouts.
• You are a champion of first amendment rights except in public school classrooms and in front of abortion clinics.
• You're glad you're not a Republican because after all, they want to starve school children and senior citizens.
• You actually think that "liberal" and "progressive" are synonymous.
• In your opinion, a government donation to the poor is somehow more effective than yours would be.
• You only listen to and respect the views of "open-minded" people who think like you do.
• You blame society's problems on "religious fanatics" and "corporate greed", never on the irresponsible behavior of individuals.