Yet Another Stench Emitting From The Swamps of New Jersey...

...this time, courtesy of Governor Jon Corzine, another Jersey Democrat who blasted all accounts of his financial malfeasence as "campaign mudslinging", then continued dancing down his dirty road once safely re-elected:

Gov. Corzine came to Trenton promising ethics reform. Sounded good, but then he hired a lobbyist to write two major speeches. Behold the crumbling Corzine credibility.

Lobbyist Eric Shuffler worked for former U.S. Sen. Bob Torricelli and former Gov. Jim McGreevey, both of whom left office in disgrace. Shuffler also lobbies for Geico insurance, which wanted its lizard mascot on billboards at the George Washington Bridge.

Earth to Corzine: You can't reform ethics until you recognize a conflict of interest.

Corzine has a speech writer and a communications staff. Still, he had his pals at the Democratic Party pay Shuffler $10,000 for a major speech last summer....

The Asbury Park Press digs deeper:

While Shuffler, who doesn't live in New Jersey, was writing Corzine's speeches, another Shuffler employer, Geico, was working on a sweetheart pact to put its billboards on George Washington Bridge tollbooths.
Senate President Dick Codey called for a probe of the Geico deal, saying it was the worst since Native Americans sold Manhattan for beads.
The bridge is controlled by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which backed off the Geico plan after Codey's remarks...

Now hear come the explanations - I mean, excuses...I mean, lies...

Everyone involved in this wants you to know there is absolutely, positively no connection.
Corzine's staff on a lobbyist writing Corzine speeches: "It's all above board."

Shuffler on the billboard deal: "I learned about it when I read it in the paper."

The Port Authority on . . . well, we're not sure what it's talking about: " Anyone has a right to their own opinion, but any objective journalistic story does not have a right to its own facts."

And here's the key point that these filthy two-bit scam artists cannot even grasp - similar to that made yesterday by Mike Kelly of the Hackensack Record:

Even if Corzine's speeches had something new and inter-esting, there is no acceptable excuse for paying a lobbyist to write them. It is a conflict of interest and a tad hypocritical if it occurs simultaneously with lip service to ethics reform.

More than a tad, I would say - between Menendez tearing it up at secret donor-funded parties, and Governor Corzine putting lobbyists buddies (with close ties to "Torch" Torricelli and Funboy Jim McGreevy, no less) on the payroll as speechwriters, is it any wonder the residents of New Jersey get less than a zero return on their highest-in-the-nation taxes?

But c'mon, folks! Keep voting those dirty Democrats in! We haven't hit rock bottom yet! We are still somewhat solvent (albeit barely); the party's not over until the till is emptied!