It’s The Bottom Of Pete the Parrot’s Cage For The South Jersey Times Again

Pete the Parrot

It’s starting to look like animal week here at The Bob & Steve Show, first Cowboy Cal, for his connection to Murray Sabrin, and now Pete the Parrot, because the Editorial Board at the South Jersey Times used a disgraced school board candidate as a way to attack Seth Grossman, get mentions in the blog this week. All I have to do is find a way to work my dog into a post for a hat trick.

Yesterday, the South Jersey Times ran an editorial titled “Candidates go rogue for South Jersey’s racists.”

In the editorial the Times states:

"Suffice it to say that Grossman's self-assessment, in an op-ed published in our print edition Monday, may vary greatly from the assessment of outsiders -- notably, the GOP's own national congressional committee. The committee cut ties with the 2nd District nominee, passing up an opportunity to back a campaign that could keep an 'open' seat in Republican hands."

The key in all of that is the word “outsiders.” Outsiders, like this Editorial Board do not know Grossman and have no intention of getting to know him. Seth Grossman has been traveling within Republican circles for decades. I ran into him many times over the years. Never once did I walk away from an encounter with Grossman believing he was a racist. I found him to be a smart, honest man who says things to get a conversation going. Sure, I might phrase some of those things differently, but doing so would not get people talking.

The Times editorial goes on:

Grossman's inelegant posts, tweets, and interviews, in one of which he called diversity "a bunch of crap," do not use the typical racial, ethnic, homophobic or misogynistic slurs that the worst of our political candidates now feel the freedom to utter. For that, we have a Monroe Township (Gloucester County) school board candidate who just called it quits over the weekend.

In that paragraph the Times hit the nail on the head with the word “inelegant.” Inelegant is code for “not politically correct” and that is what Grossman is guilty of – not being politically correct.

Political correctness can be a good thing, but it can also be bad, especially when it robs us of honest, open conversation. And, that’s what Grossman has been trying to do since the 1980s, have open, honest conversation. He may say things in ways no political consultant would advise, but he does get conversations going. Unfortunately, folks like those at the Editorial Board of the South Jersey Times don’t seem to care much about the honesty part.

The Times continues its BS attack on Grossman:

Grossman used his op-ed to point out that he is Jewish, that he went to a minority-heavy Atlantic City high school and that, as an attorney, he has represented many African Americans in legal matters. Maybe, but his highly provocative views were well known before he entered the GOP House primary. Republican political organizations in some 2nd District counties are still backing him, if not financially, by refusing to ask him to stand down.

So, now having “provocative” views is a disqualifies one from holding elective office?

And, then the Times Editorial Board shows a little honesty, they, like some party power brokers, wanted Hirsh Singh:

Although the GOP party machinery backed another candidate in the House primary, Hirsch Singh, it failed to get the job done by coalescing effectively around Singh, and failed to limit the number of candidates splitting the non-Grossman vote.

"Open" primaries are usually good things, but not when party leaders fail to prevent the likely outcome from being a fall nominee who's a known embarrassment.

Notice they didn’t even spell Singh’s first name correctly? Maybe folks should accuse the Times Editorial Board of being closet racists over their misspelling of Singh’s first name the same way the Editorial Board falsely and openly accuses Grossman of bigotry.

The Times ends their editorial asking a question:

Can South Jersey's Republican hierarchy say they're equally blameless for what their rogue congressional candidate says or does?

First, the Editorial Board advocates for rigging primaries by saying the party “failed to limit the number of candidates splitting the non-Grossman vote” and then ask this stupid question.

The answer to their question is yes. The voters in the primary chose Grossman. This is partisan politics, the way it works is you hold a primary, the candidates beat the crap out of each other in that primary and then get behind the candidate the voters chose at the end.

So, the Times makes it to the bottom of Pete the Parrot’s cage again for (a) advocating the GOP rigs its primaries for the candidate their Editorial Board prefers and (b) for falsely accusing Grossman of being a racist.

He’s Polling Third And He’s Bragging About It

Cowboy Cal - the horse Murray Sabrin bet campaign funds on in his 2008 senatorial campaign (photo from Paulick Report)

If you told me a week ago that I would be writing about Murray Sabrin two days in a row I would have told you that you were crazy. Then again, if you told me two months ago that I would have let Bob Greco talk me into doing a weekly radio show I would have laughed. So, here I am writing about Sabrin two days in a row. Lesson learned, never say never.

Yesterday the Sabrin campaign, via press release, bragged they have a poll that “shows Sabrin is a serious candidate to take on Menendez.”

“A new scientific poll conducted by Gravis Marketing, a non-partisan research firm, shows that 16% of voters in New Jersey who know of Murray Sabrin will vote for him. The results of the poll showed that once voters were informed of Sabrin’s positions, he quickly rose to be within striking distance of Menendez and Hugin.”

The Sabrin campaign press release goes on to explain:

“The poll shows that once voters learn of Sabrin’s positions they quickly abandon Menendez. It indicates that after learning about Sabrin, just 31% of voters support Menendez, 30% support Hugin, and a shocking 16% support Libertarian Murray Sabrin. When voters know that Sabrin is a college professor, support rises to 18% overall and 40% among young Millennials. Sabrin has no gender gap and his strongest support comes from Asians (21%) and Hispanics (16%). The poll reveals awareness of Sabrin is only 26%, showing great room for growth in his support as more New Jerseyans get to know him.”

I don’t understand the bragging. 18% isn’t anywhere near “striking distance.” This is a guy who in all the Senate races he’s competed in, 2000 (12.6%), 2008 (13.8%) and 2014 (19.4%), couldn’t make it out of the GOP primaries finishing last every time. The numbers all hover around the 16%-18% the Sabrin campaign brags about in their press release.

This poll does show Murray Sabrin isn’t winning. The only question left for Sabin is which Bob’s campaign is he trying to spoil.

Give it up Murray, even the horse you bet on in the 2008 campaign, Cowboy Cal, got a new job.

Grossman Weighs In On NJ Transit Mess

Seth Grossman

Republican candidate for congress in New Jersey’s 2nd congressional district, Seth Grossman, weighed in on the NJ Transit mess today via press release. It appears the mainstream press ignored the release, probably because the words “racist” or “bigot” don’t appear anywhere in the release.

But it does appear the folks at 6ABC at least read Grossman’s release. During their 5:00 PM reports they did a piece on the Atlantic City rail line and said some people feared the coming shutdown will be permanent. Maybe next time they’ll give Grossman some credit.

Here’s the Grossman release as it appeared in our email:

Congressional Candidate Seth Grossman Claims State Officials And Democratic Opponent Are Misleading Public by Claiming Three Month Closing of Atlantic City Rail Line is “Temporary”.
 
Fears Temporary Shut Down Is Prelude For Permanent Closing of Atlantic City Line
 
Atlantic City, NJ, August 20, 2018 – Republican candidate for Congress Seth Grossman said NJ Transit officials and his Democratic opponent, State Senator Jeff Van Drew, are misleading the public in claiming the planned three month closing of the Atlantic City rail line beginning September 5 is temporary.
 
“The need to install safety equipment because of the fatal crash in Hoboken two years ago is just the tip of the iceberg,” Grossman said.  “The line was unsustainable for many reasons since the NJ Transit reopened it thirty years ago,” Grossman said.
 
“Donald Trump noticed one big problem right away.  In 1989, Trump criticized state officials for “sticking the (Atlantic City) train station in the middle of nowhere, and then building the convention center next to the train station!” Others at the time predicted service would be dangerous and unreliable because only one set of tracks was built.  I was part of the Atlantic City delegation with Trump when we testified to state officials about our concerns,” Grossman said.
 
“Thirty years later, the Atlantic City line now has only about one thousand round trip passengers a day – not nearly enough to justify the expense of staffing and maintaining the trains and some 50 miles of track,” Grossman said.  “When it reopens after a three month closing, it will have far fewer customers paying for service.  Once the train riders have to find alternative transportation to work, do you think they’re really coming back?”
 
According to the new state budget, taxpayers will bail out NJ Transit’s $332 million deficit this year with recently increased gas taxes, tolls, and surcharges added to electric bills.  Even worse, NJ Transit plans to burn up $511 million of money intended for new equipment and improvements as operating expenses. 
 
“Yet in spite of this, NJ Transit trains have worse service and safety records than most others.  The fatal train crash in Hoboken that killed one and injured 100 others in 2016 forced the Federal government to mandate the installation of safety equipment on NJ transit trains throughout the state.  The Hoboken crash followed a deadly 2015 Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia forcing the government to expand a program installing automatic braking safety equipment on rail lines coast to coast, including the Atlantic City line,” Grossman said.
 
Grossman explained that every Governor since Democrat Jim McGreevey in 2003 has pointed out the problems with NJ Transit, and now politics and mismanagement have brought the rail line to the brink of total collapse.   He called Van Drew’s recent remarks asking officials to “reconsider” the September closing “dishonest and childish”, pointing out that Van Drew and Trenton insiders should be held responsible for creating NJ Transit’s problem during the past 15 years
 
“Instead of wasting more money on Band-Aids, we need to admit that the Atlantic City rail line is yet another failed socialist experiment of government controlling an industry they shouldn’t be involved in.  We need to return this important industry to private ownership.  When a government owned company fails, their answer is to bleed more money from taxpayers!”
 
            Grossman bemoaned the fact that the railroad failed at all, noting that it once had been the foundation of Atlantic City’s thriving tourism industry. 
 
“Back in the 1920’s, private companies ran the fastest, safest and most affordable trains in the world out of Atlantic City.  The railroads enabled Atlantic City’s tourism industry to be born.  Railroads declined since then when “progressive” politicians demonized railroad companies as ‘robber barons’ and crippled them with taxes and regulations that made them unprofitable,” Grossman said.
 
“NJ Transit was created in the 1980’s as a government owned monopoly to run all scheduled bus and train service in the state.  Ironically, NJ Transit is exempt from all the regulations and taxes that drove private transportation companies out of business.”
 
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