Memo
T0: Blogosphere
From: Dolores Fienbottom
Secretary to President Roosevelt
Re: Temporary suspension of Blogging activities.
Date: August 17, 2007

The President has gone on Safari to Africa. He is expected back
on or about September 17.
He has given me limited authority to moderate comments in his absence.
Any comments which do not fall within those parameters will be addressed upon the Presidents return.
Thank you all for your anticipated indulgences.
End Memo

Great piece by Jeff Cantor.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070816/OPINION/708160411/1030&GID=sjQkx9hL+EcR4Xcne4bmkEV9ZlX2YQ4iTlvIGU5OEtY%3D
This Guy might just bail us out.

By- Laws

I have been consist ant about at least one thing. The party needs By-Laws.
There has been little discussion about what By-laws should look like. I would like to throw out a radical model for consideration (on the off chance someone actually considers by -laws).

I would suggest a corporate model. The Chairman and a Board of Directors are elected by the county committee. The stakeholders could be expanded to include more then just the committee for the election of the Board. For the chairman I believe that by statute that is limited to the committee. The Board could all be at large members or it could be by region or it could be a combination of both.

I would create a paid position of Executive Director. Pay just enough to make it interesting. say $20,000.00 or more. That position would go to the Chairman as a matter of course. This would make the job attractive to a broader candidate pool. Quite frankly if we do not want a chairman to make money off the influence that comes with the job we should offer compensation. Lets face it not many people can afford to take the job of Chairman as it currently exists.

There is a bonus. If the chairman gets out of hand you are stuck with him until the end of his two year term. However with this model he can be removed from the paid position of executive director and limited to his statutory duties. Which are in reality very few. A nice stick to go with the carrot, It is assumed that a democratically elected board would collectively be less likely to run amok. It could happen I admit but there are more checks and balances in this model.

This may need some work but It is a starting point.

Sundays Paper.

Tinton Falls Council President Michael Skudera had an excellent piece in todays Asbury Park Press. It can be found at .
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007708120359
Open and easy access to government records is one of the keys to government reform.

GO DOWN THREE
I have been working on a post on the legislative races. I had saved it in draft while I worked on it. Unfortunately when I posted it came up beneath my last two posts. So if you care to read it go down 3 posts.

The Real News

The real news today was not Adam's employment situation as many "Monmouth Bloggers" seem to think. Something by the way that certainly did not deserve the prominence it received in the Press. In my opinion Adam's political activity ( while open to criticism) has unfairly interfered with his ability to work and this type of attention can not be helpful.

The real news was in the continuing recap of Bid Rig. I am actually enjoying reading all the juicy little tidbits that have been coming out. I bet Cullinane gets a book out of this. I will admit to having some sympathy for the families of these crooks and that has tempered my enjoyment of the series somewhat. I do however look forward to the next round of indictments as I am sure these guys are singing like canaries to reduce their sentences.

Any way, today's news was the FBI agents claim to have some pretty solid evidence that Larrison was corrupt. Will this put to rest those who continue to defend him?
Unfortunately probably not.

While it is true that he never had the chance to defend himself and there is a presumption of innocence, I do not want the fact that he was corrupt recognized so that he can be vilified or punished. (He is beyond the reach of that in any event). No we must recognize it because if we do not recognize that Monmouth County was corrupt all the way to the top we will never take the steps necessary to reduce the chances of it reoccurring in the future.

Harry Larrisons ability to be corrupt was only as great as it was because we gave him the extraordinary amount of power that he wielded for so long. In fact if Lord Acton is to be believed it may have been that power that corrupted him.

This is a lesson I fear we have not yet collectively learned.