How to hold him accountable

Gov. Jon Corzine told New Jersey voters, "hold me accountable," when he took office in January of 2006, but how is anyone supposed to be held accountable when he spends $60 million on his poll-driven re-election campaign?

Corzine has demonstrated a degree of generosity when it comes to providing for special interest group leaders, power brokers and political consultants who support him.

Apparently there is no contingency plan for financing a monitor to scrutinize his actions in office and I would expect a gang of thugs to show up at the home of anyone who even suggests that some insurgent Democrat mount a primary challenge to Corzine.

Former Sen. John Lynch, indicted Bergen County boss Joe Ferriero, ex-Sen. Wayne Bryant and ex-Newark Mayor/Sen. Sharpe James are all undoubtedly routing for Corzine's re-election, along with another 125 public officials sent up the river by former US Attorney Christopher Christie.

The support of the crooked contingent is one reason why Corzine's money paid for a poll that indicated that there is virtually no trust left in us for him. Expect Corzine to be spending a considerable amount on television advertising aimed at countering our gut feelings, perhaps with some subliminal tricks thrown in.

If that does not work, there is always a chance Corzine can hire someone to rig the computerized voting machines recently purchased at taxpayer expense.

We learned from a uniquely New Jersey prankster that not only does George Norcross have Corzine on speed dial, but the former Wall Street CEO responds to the South Jersey political boss with Pavlovian rapidity.

I was trying to understand if that is part of being unbossed or unbought, until it occurred to me that all Corzine's campaign promises seem to have been broken.

In 2000, he spent $60 million to buy himself a seat in the US Senate. Corzine could afford this because he made $465 million at Goldman Sachs & Co. the year he led the firm, which lost billions under his 'leadership.'

After finding out how boring it is to be a member of the minority in Washington, Corzine decided to escape the most exclusive club in the world by running for governor.

Despite the fact that Senate President Richard Codey already replaced disgraced ex-Gov. James McGreevey and had begun the process of healing years of fiscal neglect and unethical antics, Corzine again rode into town on a magic checkbook and swiped the Democratic nomination in 2005.

Somewhere along the way, Corzine paid off his ex-girlfriend/union leader Carla Katz and her brother to the tune of some $6 million or more.

He then traded secret emails with Katz during state employee contract negotiations and used our tax money to commission an confidential study about how to sell the state's toll roads.

He also squandered more tax dollars trying to keep those email messages secret and to prevent the foreign engineer's report from being disclosed to the public.

Now Republicans are suing to get answers about cuts being implemented to cover the growing budget gap.

Still, while he is not very forthcoming about what he has done with our money, in respect to both where the dollars are going and what's being cut to make up for the budget deficit, Corzine says he wants us to hold him accountable.

It would seem accountability requires some level of cooperation, but that's something we are not getting from this governor.

If he again tries to overwhelm any potential opponent with the kind of massive campaign spending that has become his signature, then Corzine would seem not so much to be challenging the public to hold him to his promises but instead, to be daring us to do so.

Maybe Corzine's "hold me accountable," is nothing more than a grown up version of the schoolyard bully saying, "What are you going to do about it?" Being as this is New Jersey, I am going to keep my eyes open for someone to take Corzine out of the picture.