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Drooling on the Pillow

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Get Your Popcorn and Jujubes 

Steve Kornacki's account of the wheeling and dealing surrounding the upcoming Jersey City mayoral election and the state senate and assembly seat competition has more plot than a season of West Wing and 24 combined.

He offers this as a summation of the game as it's played in this county:

"The toes you're stepping on today," Vincent A. "Buddy"
Cianci Jr., the former mayor of Providence who is now
serving time in a federal prison in New Jersey, once
cautioned, "may be connected to the [rear end] you
have to kiss tomorrow."
What makes the story line somewhat Shakespearian is the way the death of Mayor Glenn Cunningham set all the carefully arranged deals and expectations of the players spinning. Allies are enemies, new faces emerge and old plot lines are doggedly pursued in the teeth of new realities. Tragedy, comedy, pathos, catharsis and farce. Folks, we've got it all.

The thing that makes New Jersey politics such a spectator sport is that what would in another state be backroom deals and secret cabals are carried out more or less in the open, as if it were, in fact, a movie. Just as you know if the heroine's best friend sleeps with the football star the monster will get her, you know Lou Manzo is going to run for mayor.

I'm a novice at this, but even I know if you're going to check out the creepy sounds in the basement with a flashlight, you better bring extra batteries.
Posted by: Sluggo / 11:09 AM
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