Lautenberg ROCKS!!! Trashing Blackwell!

[sabra]

Go Frank!

[ohioliberal]

1. You said it!!!!!!!!!!!!

[merh]

8. I love the Integrity legislation he said he will propose!!

Bitch slap blackwell and his thugs.

[El Vengedor]

23. Sorry, but on this, Lautenberg is a hypocrite

Considering how he was elected, Frank Lautenberg is in no position to talk about respect for election laws.

In 2002, Bob Torricelli was the Democratic candidate for New Jersey Senator but he became mired in scandal over corruption. By late-September, it was obvious that he was going to lose to Doug Forrester. Torricelli resigned, but it was long after New Jersey law allowed for a change on the ballot. So what happened? The Democrats got the NJ court to simply rewrite the law and allow them to substitute Lautenberg's name on the ballot.

Secretary's of State are not the only people in a position to abuse power. If you are honest about this, you have to admit that New Jersey election laws were not respected. You also have to admit that voters were disenfranchised because all of the people that voted for him (Torricelli) in the primary had their votes tossed out. The only difference I see is that in Ohio, the Secretary of State abused his power and in New Jersey, it was the court that did it.

[bunny planet]

24. Senator Lautenberg stepped up, and came out of retirement to take over

Torricelli's position until the end of his term. He was a US Senator for almost two decades before that and did a fine job. The man is 82 years old. He was elected plenty of times. The people of NJ wanted him to step in. It is not true that NJ law was rewritten for Launtenberg, the case came before a judge, and the judge ruled in favor of Lautenberg stepping in.

[El Vengedor]

25. You should check your facts

It's true that Lautenberg came out of retirement (he did not run in the 2000 election, Corzine did). It's also true that he served three terms, but the rest of your post is not accurate. Torricelli did not resign his seat as an incumbant, but resigned as a candidate in the 2002 election around September 30. New Jersey law was pretty explicit that the deadline for ballot changes was September 15, but the court ordered that provision waived. Those are the facts.

Was it an abuse of power? You tell me. Would the same court have ruled that way for a Republican? You're from New Jersey; what do you think? Did people want him to step in? The Democratic base sure wanted it. The Republicans were outraged about it. A lot of people didn't care.

[bunny planet]

27. You are correct about those facts. I had forgotten the details.

I did mention there was a court order involved, just couldn't remember whether or not Toricelli was a sitting Senator or not. Got it confused with the McGreevy situation in which I believe his resignation was postponed until a date that he could guarantee who his Democratic succescor would be to avoid Republicans getting into office and taking advantage of the scandal. In Lautenberg's case when the courts went his way, the Republicans chose not to press the case to a higher court. That was an option for them. Frankly, at this point, when a decision favors a democrat staying in their position, I am relieved. As we both must know, the Republicans will litigate until they win in almost every instance, SCOTUS decision on Bush v. Gore being the most egregious example.

I wish the state of our government in this country was such that we Democrats had the luxury to not fight dirty or litigate our way into offices in some cases, but we do not have such a luxury.

I was more concerned with your last post seemingly implying that Senator Lautenberg was not a Senator in NJ previously.

[bunny planet]

28. NJ Politics certainly does not have a long history of not being

down and dirty, on both sides, that is for sure. Unfortunate.

[johnnie]

2. Yup

He rocked

[keith the dem]

3. Proud to be from Jersey about now

[njbuddy]

18. I second that! n/t

[fooj]

4. Woo hoo!

They don't know what they are in for...

[Greylyn58]

5. He was awesome

and I loved what he said about Blackwell!!

[Citizen Jane]

6. He ROCKED!

Finally, someone going after Blackwell!

[meganmonkey]

7. He had big highlighted copy of the letter

blown up on a tripod. SO BAD ASS!!!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

22. I loved his show and tell!!!! I It was one of the highlights of the day,

and I hope it fries Blackwell's ass!!!

[NVMojo]

9. I loved it!!!!

[Woodstock Liberal]

10. I knew I could count on him!

[Vidar]

11. He was magnificent, putting to rest that stupid thread yesterday

about him threatening to arrest Andy Stephenson.

[Andy_Stephenson]

16. Well

I am glad he stood up. But which way did he vote?

He did not stand up today for the American people.

Lautenberg (D-NJ), Nay. With the evidence presented by Conyers my self and others...do you think he should have voted yes to accept electors selected fraudlently? You may not think there was fraud, but there was I have found it and seen it with my own eyes.

[fearnobush]

17. Andy,

Is there enough Fraud to overturn the result? And if yes, why do they work so hard to pretend (Dems in Senate) it's not there?

Thanks

[Andy_Stephenson]

26. If Blackwell had not

held back...if the recount had been done properly. If the Dems in Congress had had more backbone...we might have a different outcome.

Now...we must redouble our efforts at reform. I am going to publish what I feel are the most important things we need to be pushing for. Look for it over the weekend.

Then Monday I will roll up my sleeves and get to work on it.

[fearnobush]

30. Thanks for all that you have done.

Unlike most of our Democratic leaders - you have balls of steel.

[Destroy_All_Monsters]

12. Details on Lautenberg's proposal

Just up on the Lautenberg site, here are some details on Lautenberg's proposed bill to prohibit partisan activity by election officials. This is a VERY important component of any movement toward real electoral reform:

http://lautenberg.senate.gov/~lautenberg/press/2003/01/...

Frank Lautenberg is a genuine hero, and today I was very proud that he's my senator.

(Yes, Andy's a hero, too, so let's just forget that tempers flared yesterday and let the good guys make up.)

[FreepFryer]

13. Hehe. Is there video of Lautenberg's 5min floating around on the net?

[low_phreaq]

34. C-SPAN

You can find the whole thing at:

http://c-span.org

(You may have to click around a bit)

I don't know if anybody has isolated the individual segments, though.

[The Judged]

19. yay! n/t

[newyawker99]

31. Hi Destroy_All_Monsters!!

Welcome to DU!!

[pbartch]

33. great post!!

[Verve]

14. LOVED IT! The blown up Blackwell letter with highlights was hilarious!

His constituents should be proud!

[Helga Scow Stern]

15. Yes--he had highlighted potions of the blown up letter! Way to go! n/t

[garybeck]

20. then why did he vote NAY

doesn't make sense

[Sleepless In NY]

21. garybeck no it doesn't & Blackwell hasn't been hurt at all.

[IndyOp]

29. Kick

[Wilms]

32. So many great speeches. So little time.

Too many crummy threads to KICK the good ones through.