Jon Corzine and Carla Katz: Lust in the Dust!

Well, considering the way these two perfectly-mated lovebirds - one a union negotiator, the other a governor with a union fetish - financially pulverized New Jersey, this post title is apt.

Jon Corzine spent two years and nearly $200,000- of taxpayer money to keep secret the emails between himself and former lover and union leader Carla Katz. Now that the Star-Ledger has gotten hold of around 100 of them, we can get a peek as to whether the bedroom talk was simply about the size of Jon's tax increases, or more geared towards the nuts and bolts, as it where, of contract negotiations.

The answer: Both. But most of the pressing came from Carla's side, who comes off more as an unhinged ex-girlfriend than a savvy negotiator. Still, I guess there was nothing untoward on her end in using sex to lure the governor into giving her union more goodies. Who doesn't try a wink and a peek when the chips are down?

Anyway - some examples of Carla's craziness:

At 11:15 p.m. on Feb. 13, she sent the governor a note harking back to their romantic days, saying, "Happy Valentine’s Day, sweetie. You are both a good man and a hard man...and I like both. xxx"

A day later, Katz wanted to know what was happening with the contract talks. As the evening of Valentine’s Day progressed, she still hadn’t gotten the answers she sought, and that sharpened her edge.

At 12:04 p.m. on Feb. 15, she was growing insistent and said she was taking the governor’s silence "personally."

It didn’t stop there. At 8:56 a.m. on Feb. 17, Katz was annoyed and upped the ante, saying she wasn’t looking to discuss negotiations but she needed to speak with Corzine and had been leaving messages for him. "I rarely say it is important and wish you respected that by getting a hold of me quickly."

Corzine responded by having Tom Shea, his chief of staff, deal with Katz. But that did not suit the governor’s ex-girlfriend, who wrote him at 9:40 a.m. on Feb. 17 to say talking to Shea was not sufficient....

Seems like Corzine did the right thing, and continued to try to do so:

While Corzine tried to convince Katz that they needed to avoid contact because of the negotiations, Katz had been sending e-mails pertaining to the talks for weeks.

On Feb. 7, Katz sent him a 22-point list of "non-economic issues" that were part of the union discussions. Ninety minutes later, she said she was disturbed that the Treasury Department had, in her view, leaked a story that would hurt the union’s bargaining position...

And when she wasn't begging for union giveaways, she was begging for sex. Yuk:

She kept asking to see Corzine — for a drink or just a brief chat — and even dispatched his-and-hers horoscopes in separate e-mails on March 12.

By 5:21 p.m. March 15, she sent a note announcing that she had relaxed and was back in Hoboken with the hope that Corzine would see her and that the quiet time could give way to being "temporarily noisy." Ninety-three minutes later, she wrote: "Anybody there???... 9 p.m. drinks? 9:30? 10?" Six minutes after that, she wrote: "Tomorrow? Sat? Sunday? 2008? 2009? 2020?"

Corzine said he was tied up, first with official appearances and then visiting his adult children. He was suspicious about a lull in the controversy, and he encouraged Katz to relax and go to bed.

So why did Jon fight so hard to keep these emails secret, emails that show him as a man pursued by a woman scorned, almost as - a victim? Fellow Democrats weigh in:

"There was nothing in there that he did that he should be embarrassed about," said Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex), Corzine’s predecessor in the governor’s office. "I don’t know what he was thinking when he thought something would be damaging. Sometimes his political acumen wasn’t always the best. Sometimes he just wasn’t thinking clearly."

Just sometimes, Richard?

What's the best part of this story? That the losers turned out to be...Corzine, rejected by the voters, and Carla Katz, fired by the union. Finally - a union communique that I can march along with:

Katz, then president of Communications Workers of America Local 1034, is now 51 and a practicing attorney.
Katz was expelled from the union after it was learned she was secretly communicating with Corzine about the contract talks. Yesterday, CWA leaders said they feel vindicated after reading the e-mails.

"When it became known that such unauthorized and prohibited communications occurred, CWA took action to enforce its constitution," the union said in a statement. "Carla Katz is no longer a member of CWA and Jon Corzine is no longer governor and we hope that this chapter is finally over."

So do we, guys - so do we....