Fellow Democrat: You can help Hillary, or you can turn the page.

Or surf to another website. Or post SuperPoke someone on Facebook. Or play Scrabulous with someone from across the world.

I received the email below from President Bill Clinton offering to let me have a shot at eating with himself and Hillary, if I give just $5 to help ‘retire that pesky campaign debt’.

I am sure that back in February the Clintons never figured they’d be sending out such a message about now.

Not a chance.

It must be quite a let down asking for 'Lincolns' instead of inviting supporters to the Linclon bedroom.

So, I gonna send in my five bucks. But, if I should win, I am not sure I want to have dinner and listen to Bill whine about the ‘pesky campaign debt’ and the fact that he’s gonna have to stay in New York instead of move back to the White House.

Maybe he will run for governor of New York now.

Heckuva job, Bloomie!

With Mr. 28% at lower than a 28% approval rating in New Jersey, Republican voters are leaving their party by the score. And this is especially true in the Big Apple, where Repubs are now taking smaller bites.

Across the river and through the tunnel, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced that he, too, is leaving the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Reagan to become an ‘independent’. Hell, if Lincoln and Teddy were around today, I am sure that would say good-bye to the GOP, too. If Reagan were around, I am not sure he would ever really know what was going on anyway.

Now, an argument can be made that Bloomberg was a lifelong Democrat, and never embraced the neo-con values of today's Repubs, anyway. However, he did stand shoulder to shoulder with Bush and other Republicans while in office and embraced their support and as well as their good will.

And that makes him the beneficiary of the Repubs in my book.
I guess when you have a couple of billion dollars, you can play fast and loose with your core values.

What does this mean for New Jersey? That Republican days are numbered here and they may very well become 'the third party' they were back in 1856.

Repub core values will be in the back of voters’ minds on Election Day, not helping Repubs in close races. While no doubt property taxes, auto insurance, sprawl, school funding, open space, etc. --- will always be the issues at the heart of every New Jersey voter ----Repub stands on national issues that reflect the core values of the Bush/Cheney regime in DC will be in the back of voters’ minds at the polls in November.

Voters will be lots smarter this year: The Repubs' stand on such issues as abortion, marriage equality, the war in Iraq, torture, spying on Americans, the suspension of habeas corpus, Alberto Gonzalez… [The list is endless!] will help the Democrats pick up seats in the NJ State Legislature.

This is at a time when the Party in power usually loses seats, during the mid-term election.

Two races to watch closely:

Senator Ellen Karcher vs. Assemblywoman Jen Beck in the 12th and Senator Tom Kean, Jr vs. Gina Genovese in the 21st. Both races will be very expensive and provide opportunities for the Democrats to solidify even more strength in the Senate.

Prediction:

Karcher, in a close race, will retain her seat.

Right now, an even money coin toss for Jr. He’s probably focusing too much on his Minority Senate Leadership race against Senator Leonard Lance, and not enough on his race in the 21st. I have met Gina and she is a contender.

The Big Apple: First, a cover charge, and now a minimum, too.

For years, it cost a cover charge to get in to the Big Apple from New Jersey. The “Bridge and Tunnel” crowd from NJ [and the surrounding boroughs, of course,] would make their way in to Manhattan by those very bridges and tunnels, and pay a hefty fee for the privilege of being in NYC.

Those 'bridges and tunnels' are the ones named for former presidents Lincoln and Washington, and the one-not-named for the nickname for the Netherlands, Holland. We love the folks from Holland very much, but not so much to name a tunnel after them. We like Clifford Milburn Holland, the guy who designed the tunnel much more than we love the Dutch folks, so we named the tunnel after him.

For just six bucks, payable in cash or EZPass, you, too can gain access to the very exclusive land the Indians called ‘Man-hat-tan’ ---from Algonquian word meaning “isolated thing in water”--- [and possibly from ‘land needing hyphens in the name’].

Oh, so accurate were the island natives back then with their naming skills. The thing was such an ‘isolated thing’, that we had to build tunnels and bridges to keep them connected to the rest of the nation. While NJ is actually part of the American continent, Man-hat-tan is not. Their only attachment to the rest of US are those very bridges and tunnels.

Besides the cover charge of six bucks, now Mayor Bloomberg wishes to charge a ‘minimum’ in the form of a ‘congestion fee’ --- charging cars $8 and trucks $21 to drive into Manhattan below 86th Street between 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the privilege of just being present in the Big Apple. This is a plan the Mayor was inspired to consider because of its use in London. And we are amused that the Mayor is inspired by what the folks across the pond are doing to control the riff-raff that makes its way in to London town.

The scuttlebutt/gossip/rumor-mill is that Gov. Corzine is not thrilled with the Mayor’s idea just yet. “I have some concerns, which I have expressed, about how it will impact New Jersey commuters. . . . We don't have the capacity to handle dramatic surges in additional riders on our mass transit system, which is what congestion pricing is going to," he told the folks at Gannett.

So, just like everything else with New York City, when they have a problem, they dump it on us. It’s like having a big, fat party animal John Belushi-type friend, who is fun to have around, but always makes us be the designated driver when we go out partying.