http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/moran/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1159937221298970.xml&coll=1" Kean is surprising a lot of people these days by showing a ruthlessness that never surfaced during his years as a legislator in Trenton.
At 38, he still looks like a choir boy. But he knows he can't win this race on the issues. So he's hired a team of consultants and turned his campaign into a snarling machine that would make Karl Rove proud. "
" Yes, Janiszewski is a liar with a grudge against Menendez. But Kean needs dirt, and he's not real fussy about the source. "
" In his latest broadside, Kean claims that a secretly recorded phone conversation reveals that a close ally of Menendez was "caught" using his name to "shakedown" a government contractor for a job.
Sounds pretty sinister.
But when you listen to this tape, you find no such thing.
"I listened to it several times, and it sounded pretty innocent," says Ed Stier, a respected corruption fighter.
Stier is a political independent who knows what he's talking about. As director of the state's corruption unit in the 1970s, he imprisoned judges, legislators, police chiefs, and even a member of the governor's cabinet.
"I've heard I don't know how many recorded conversations with corrupt people," he says. "And this sure doesn't sound like one."
Granted, the conversation is not a pretty one. Menendez's ally, Donald Scarinci, is heard suggesting to a government contractor that he hire someone as a "favor" to Menendez.
But he emphasizes that it's a suggestion the contractor is free to ignore. "If you can't, then that's okay," Scarinci says.
Is that really the sound of a corrupt machine shaking someone down? "
" Kean has taken other cheap shots, too. He says Menendez was a willing soldier in the corrupt machine of Union City Mayor Bill Musto, and that Menendez testified against Musto in court only to save his own neck. Several prosecutors who worked on the case say that's simply not true. "
" But Kean hasn't come close to backing up his charges against Menendez. And by basing his campaign on cheap shots, he's raising more doubts about his own integrity than he is about his opponent's. "
