Ethics reform lite

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on September 05, 2007 at 12:33 AM, updated September 05, 2007 at 12:40 AM

Gov. Jon Corzine signed four ethics reforms into law yesterday, then held each bill over his head in triumph, as if he had just hit a home run.

This was painful to watch. Because the reforms started out strong, and were beaten to within an inch of their lives as they moved through the Legislature. What emerged is not something a grown man should brag about.

The biggest of the four reforms bans legislators from holding second elective offices. Sounds good.

But the bosses got an amendment inserted that exempts all sitting legislators who are doing that now. True story. The chutzpah behind that stunt is the stuff that Jersey jokes are made of.

"Compromise just isn't good enough sometimes," Republican Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole said, playing the role of the skunk at this little garden party.

Yesterday's show, at the Marlboro Public Library, was painful for another reason - because everyone knew that Corzine had just tangled himself up in another little scandal, one that points back to his conflict-filled romance with Carla Katz, a union leader for state workers.

The gist of this one is that Corzine paid $15,000 in what looks like hush money to Katz's brother-in-law, Rocco Riccio. And that he tried at first to hide his involvement even when he was asked about it by Star-Ledger reporters Josh Margolin and John Martin.

Riccio, it turns out, was a state employee who quit his job under pressure when reporters began investigating rumors that he had snooped on the governor's political opponents by looking at their confidential tax records.

Riccio now acknowledges snooping, but says he only looked at records of state contractors, and that it was part of his job. We'll hear more about that later, no doubt.

For now, the important fact is that Corzine didn't want those stories to reach print, so Riccio was called in and pressured to resign by the governor's chief of staff.

And after Riccio couldn't find a job in the private sector, the governor stepped in with the cash.

Keep in mind that Corzine still refuses to say exactly how much he gave Katz, who is now a rich woman. But he at least promised to stop giving her more.

Now we learn that he gave cash to her brother-in-law, after making that promise. Granted, that isn't a lie in the technical sense.

But it sounds a lot like something Jim McGreevey would say, and Corzine promised us something better.

The governor yesterday tried to make all this sound like a gesture of kindness. He said his people pressed Riccio to resign for his own good, because he would otherwise be the target of a press feeding frenzy.

Funny, because it sounds like those stories would be embarrassing to the governor, and that this was an old-fashioned cover-up.

The spin on the cash payment is even more gutsy. The governor's spokeswoman said it was an act of "philanthropy."

But we've seen that there is a method to this man's kindness. He uses cash to make problems disappear, or to win friends during his election campaigns with charitable donations.

Corzine yesterday was reduced to fleeing through the library stacks after refusing to answer more questions from reporters. His little party turned out to be an embarrassment.

So here we are - nearly halfway through his term, and we're still stuck in the muck he promised to pull us out of.

Maybe he can still turn it around. His best shot is to fight for campaign finance reform by banning all political contributions from government contractors. He promised to do that way back, but he hasn't lifted a finger because his party gets most of that money.

Yesterday, in the book stacks, Corzine said he'll try again later this year. Good to hear. Because that is a reform he could really call a home run.