Like mother, like daughter? No experience necessary.

This passed weekend, I gathered with a group of Democrats in Flemington at the Union Hotel for a few drinks and appetizers on Saturday night. We began discussing the 7th Congressional District race, and how Linda Stender would fare now that Mike Ferguson had dropped out. They all rejoiced at the good news. Beers all around.

The general consensus was that it was hers to lose. With all the likely 'best possible' candidates on the Repub side having dropped out –Senator Tom Kean, Assm. Jon Bramnick, and former Congressman Bob Franks---it seemed, the group gathered declared, that it was a cinch that Stender would soon be in Congress.

But, wait, I thought. There are lots of factors to consider:

Who will be at the top of the ticket in a presidential year? Who will be the Rs presidential candidate? Who will run against Senator Lautenberg? All factors yet to be decided. Then I predicted that the Republicans will run a woman, younger than Linda Stender, self-funded, without any record to attack.

And, voila, just like that Kate Whitman appears.

The daughter of Governor Christie Todd Whitman. Just turned 30. From a well-known wealthy New Jersey family. Never held office before.

Hmmm.

It’s doubtful she will not face a primary challenge ---Senator Leonard Lance most likely. However, it would not surprise me at all if Senator Lance, a long-time Todd-Whitman family friend, was talked out of a primary run, so that the short-cashed Repubs would not waste valuable financial resources by spending money in a primary.

The young Whitman's [lack of] experience: She worked in Washington as the communications director for Representative Christopher Cox, Republican of California. She graduated from Wesleyan University. Her husband of four years is a lobbyist for Zeliff, Ireland & Associates in Washington. And she is listed on the website for her mother's group, the Republican Leadership Council, as the Executive Director of that organization.

And she is practically scandal free---except for a ticket for littering she received back when she was 21 years old. She tossed a beer can on the ground in front of a police officer in Bethlehem, Pa. Her then-governor mother said of the incident, that her daughter seemed ''to have had a lapse of judgment" and "She will pay whatever fine is imposed."

Stay tuned.

ComboNews: All The News That Fits, We Print

Here are the two most important news stories of the day.

Condensed and combined to save you, the busy New Jersey resident, lots of time:

A smiling Paris Hilton walked out of a Los Angeles County jail early Tuesday, officially ending a bizarre, three-week stay that ignited furious debate over celebrity treatment in the jail system.

A grim and serious Christie Todd Whitman officially ended her three-year silence on the issue of the EPA report that declared the air at Ground Zero was safe to breathe. A silence that ignited furious debate over who was to blame for causing irreversable health problems to Ground Zero workers.

The 26-year-old celebutante was greeted by an enormous gathering of cameras and reporters upon leaving the all-women's facility in Lynwood about 15 minutes past midnight.

The 61-year-old former Governor was grilled by a “largely hostile House Judiciary subcommittee that she relied on sound scientific data when she told residents of Lower Manhattan that the air around Ground Zero was safe to breathe.” The Ex-EPA chief Christie Whitman was bombarded Monday with boos, hisses, and a host of accusations.

Hilton smiled and waved as she filed past deputies and the media, her blond hair pulled back in a braided ponytail. Hilton, who was wearing a sage jacket with white trim over a white shirt and skinny jeans, did not respond to reporters' questions.

Governor Whitman looked stern and emotionless as she fielded aggressive questions from members of Congress, her hair pulled back to reveal a lovely pair of pearl earrings and a matching pearl necklace.
She responded to the inquiry regarding the EPA false reports by declaring she is tired of the "innuendo and outright falsehoods” and “I have been called a liar and a criminal.” She did not seem to respond well to Congress members' questions.

During her stay at the Lynwood facility, Hilton was mostly confined to a solitary cell in the special needs unit away from the other 2,200 inmates.

During her testimony before Congress, Whitman stayed mostly at the table in front of the House Judiciary subcommittee looking sort of ticked off; you know the way some Repubs do when they’re being sanctimonious and holier-than-thou.

After spending only three days in jail, Hilton was released to home confinement by Sheriff Lee Baca for an unspecified medical condition that he later said was psychological.The following day, Hilton was called back into court and was ordered returned to jail, the judge saying he had not condoned her release. Hilton left the courtroom in tears calling for her mother and shouting, ''It's not right!''

After more than three years of silence, Whitman told the House subcommittee, "Let me be clear: There are indeed people to blame. They are the terrorists who attacked the United States, not the men and women at all levels of government who worked heroically to protect and defend this country.”

Yes, blame it on the terrorists. Aha! They must have been the ones to write the report that contained sound scientific data that told residents of Lower Manhattan that the air around Ground Zero was safe to breathe. So, it was not the EPA after all.

“I used to act dumb. It was an act. I am 26 years old, and that act is no longer cute,'' Hilton told ABC’s Barbara Walters. ''It is not who I am, nor do I want to be that person for the young girls who looked up to me.”

"I am disappointed at the misstatements, innuendo and outright falsehoods that have characterized the public discussion about the EPA in the aftermath of the terrorists' attacks," Whitman told Congress. "EPA's most extreme critics have alleged that I knowingly misled New Yorkers and the workers at Ground Zero about the safety risks associated with environmental contamination."

Hilton's stay in jail cost taxpayers $1,109.78 a day, more than 10 times the cost of housing inmates in the general population.

Whitman’s lies and this Administration’s incompetence in the days following 9/11 cost hundreds and hundred of workers and volunteers their good health.

Subcommittee chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who represents Lower Manhattan, was among the most vociferous critics, accusing Whitman of reassuring the public when such reassurances were not justified.

"As a result of the actions by Whitman and others in the Bush administration', said Nadler, ‘our government has knowingly exposed thousands of American citizens unnecessarily to deadly hazardous materials.’

And so it goes.