BROKEN TRUST: DON IMUS, GOV. CORZINE & ZAZALLI SUPREME COURT

Governor Corzine and the Zazalli Supreme Court seem to be "one toke over the line" in their approach to judicial credibility. Or, maybe it's just that they are "ten percent to the left of center in good times and ten percent to the right of center when it affects themselves." But, whatever the reason(s), their reliance on former Chief Justice Deborah Poritz as a watchdog over the State's judicial integrity only reinforces the long standing notion of "Jersey Justice" being nothing more than a continuum of broken trust. Prior to the Rutgers' incident, Governor Corzine has appeared on the Imus program a number of times. Nevertheless, Governor Corzine was quick to call Imus out and condemn the race and gender charged remarks that Don Imus made about the Rutgers' women's basketball team. And, Governor Corzine was schedule to act as a go-between at the team-Imus meeting, when traveling at an unecessary 91 mph and without weraring a seat belt, he had a accident(Ironically, the Governor gets a ticket, the trooper takes the fall, and the repentant sinner orders the public get his dose of medicine). The irony of the Imus affair is that Governor Corzine appointed former C.J. Poritz to the Judicial Advisory Panel. The panel suggests and reviews candidates for judicial appointments. C.J. Portitz was placed on the Panel even though she usurped the U.S. Constitution with the creation of the offense known as driving-while-black, i.e. racial profiling, during her stint as the State's Attorney General. Although her apologists note that was a while ago, racial profiling appears to be a growing problem. What makes this even better (or worse), is that Deborah Poritz's racism was rewarded by first being appointed to Supreme Court Chief Justice, and later by being given life tenure. (Again, the State Troopers took the fall). Conversely, Governor Corzine's Attorney General, Zulima Farber, was forced from office for defending her intimate companion in a, you guessed it, click-it or ticket-incident. Somehow reformer Corzine's higher standards of conduct apply to Ms. Farber but not C.J. Poritz, and certainly not to Governor Corzine himself. The investigation of Ms. Farber was relatively independent and open. The investigation of C.J. poritz consisted of a closed door, one person interview with a page of notes (Not even president Bush, AG Gonzales or the Democratic Congress have that one in their play book!). And, former Justice O'Hern's investigation of Gov. Corzine & Ms. Katz was not independent of the Governor, took place in secret and without a record (Maybe AG Gonzales should be held to Governor Corzine's "Due process" standards.). Would that it would end here - damage control, ya know - but it doesn't. The Zazalli Supreme Court must also find racism palitable as it appointed C.J. Poritz to head the "Ad Hoc Committee to Advise {the} Supreme Court on {the Judicial} Code of Conduct." "In particular, the committee has been asked to make recommendations in respect to Court Rule 1:12 and Canons 3 and 5 of the Code, which set the standards for cases in which a judge shoild not participate to preserve the appearance of the court's neutrality. MY, MY, MY! What have we here??? Canon 3(a)(4): "A judge should be impartial and should not discriminate because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, language, martial status, socioeconomic status, or disability." Canon 3(a)(6): "A judge should accord to every person who is legally interested in a proceeding, or that person's lawyer, full right to be heard according to law, and except as authorized by law, neither initiate nor consider ex parte or other communications concerning a proceeding or impending proceeding... ." How would Don Imus describle this mess? What's the word he would use? Duplicity? Fits the facts, but, No. Hypocrites. Maybe. Weasels? Yep, Weasels. The word is Weasels. Labels:

draft