I sometimes think the folks who do the people’s business in Trenton are really nothing more than 8-year-old boys (and girls). Evidence the absurd behavior of the members of an allegedly bipartisan special ethics committee that met this morning. First, the committee breaks down along partisan lines in unnecessary bickering over who will chair it, and then it fails to agree on whether it should consider the plight of state Sen. Wayne Bryant, the former budget committee chairman and powerful South Jersey Democrat.
According to the dailies, the meeting turned into a free-for-all with Republicans attacking Democrats for the way they have used their majority status to control the leadership. The committee, part of the ethics reform package unveiled by then Gov. Richard Codey last year, has been dormant for much of its existence, leaving a boatload of complaints unresolved.
This morning’s ugliness defeats the purpose of the committee, which was set up to battle the state’s well-earned image as an ethical cesspool.
According to the Star-Ledger, “the morning’s fireworks left non-Legislative members of the committee frustrated.”
One, Thomas C. Brown, declined a request to be considered as a compromise candidate for chairman.
“After what has been demonstrated here for the last two hours, I really am not interested in having my name put in,” Brown said.
Another, William Kersey, said the bickering between Republicans and Democrats had wasted the time of the public volunteers on the committee.
“You’ve had the debates; you’ve had the name calling back and forth,” he said. “I think the seven or eight of you need to get your acts together.”
All of this occured as the committee prepared to discuss accusations surrounding state Sen. Wayne Bryant. As the Associated Press reports, Democrats want a federal probe in to allegations that the Camden legislator “brought $4.7 million in new state funding to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey after he was given a no-work job at the state school” to run its course. Republican members, however, said the committee needs to demonstrate that it is serious about the issue.
“It seems like a perfectly reasonable thing for this committee to do,” said Sen. Gerald Cardinale, R-Bergen. “It would go a long way toward re-establishing in the public mind that this committee is serious.”
In the end, the best the committee could do was agree to talk about it next time, after it has an opportunity to determine whether committee hearings might jeopardize an alleged federal probe — essentially postponing the question and ensuring further squabbles.
In the end, this kind of childish behavior does little more than confirm the public’s worst thoughts. Republicans are standing on far firmer ground right now, though it seems pretty clear to me that the argument is more about politics than it is about anything else (the GOP no doubt sees the ethics issue as a way of regaining control of the Legislature and are therefore willing to press it for partisan advantage — not exactly the most ethical of responses to Sen. Bryant’s alleged ethical lapse.
The only right thing to do here is to place Sen. Bryant under the committee’s microscope with the Democrats leading the charge. This would give the hearings a much greater sense of legitimacy because it removes the taint of partisanship from the process.
If it continues to break down along party lines, however, the committee might as well close up shop. It becomes a useless exercize that does little more than reinforce the status quo.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Hank Kalet 
Ah, they are pulling the wool over everyone\’s eyes. Everyone that buys into the myth that there is any difference between the two \”major\” parties. It\’s political theater at it\’s best. They are two sides of the same coin. Tweedily dumb and dumber. And year after year, we fall for it. It\’s as illusionary as the Yankees battling against the Red Sox, as if it mattered. Only in this case, it\’s the taxpayers of Nu Jerzee that fund it. Someday everyone will wake up and find out that the joke has been on us all along.