Corrupt Corzine’s Fall From Liberal Grace? – OpEd
By Jim Kouri
Just months ago Jon Corzine, a Democrat Party powerhouse, was being touted as a likely successor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Now with the MF Global scandal that includes about a billion dollars missing from corporate coffers, Corzine will be lucky to stay out of prison, claims political strategist Mike Baker.
Corzine, who co-headed Goldman Sachs before joining the U.S. Senate, danced the Beltway two-step in front of former colleagues of a Senate committee investigating MF Global’s demise.
Jon Corzine after losing reelection as governor of New Jersey was hired by MF Global as chairman. He appeared to be a political liability after serving only one term and then was beaten by the Republican U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, who won 48.5 percent of the vote to Corzine’s 44.9.
Corzine’s latest scandal shouldn’t shock most people who are aware of his sordid political career. For example, while a U.S. Senator, Corzine gave his ex-girlfriend a half-million dollar loan. Her name was Carla Katz and she just happened to be the head of one of New Jersey’s largest workers unions.
Eventually, Corzine forgave the loan making it a gift. And Katz and her union endorsed Corzine for New Jersey Governor. Not only did he get their endorsement, but he received thousands of hours of free work from union members for his campaign.
Besides the half-million smackers he gave Carla Katz, Senator Corzine voted in favor of a treaty between the United States and Japan that contained a provision exempting certain investors from paying capital gains taxes on their shares in a Japanese bank.
The [public-interest] lawyers say Corzine was among the 100-plus investors who benefited from the exemption.
This treaty gave him a specific, private benefit that was not available to other investors in the United States or Japan and is a private bill that benefited the senator personally.
In addition, according to syndicate columnist J. Grant Swank, Corzine never notified fellow Senate Foreign Relations Committee members that he was a part of that investors group. Senator Corzine is one of the wealthiest people in New Jersey and in the United States.
He’s part of a cabal of rich Democrats that includes Senator John Kerry. In fact, when Governor he became the richest man ever to sit in the New Jersey state house — richer by far than even former Republican governors Christine Todd Whitman and Tom Kean.
