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The Pinelands Putsch Is Murphy’s Chris Christie On The Beach Moment

Gov.’s Office Defends Brazen Move As Promoting “Diversity”

New jersey Governor Phil Murphy and his Trophy First Lady Tammy Murphy  (Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for Montclair Film Festival)

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they made…” ~~~ The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

This is Phil Murphy’s notorious Chris Christie On The Beach moment. (I won’t bother writing. You can read the disgusting details here and here and here)

Sometimes a man does something that so perfectly exposes his essence and reveals the true self that it becomes iconic.

And it generates true revulsion and disgust.

Gov. Murphy’s exposure may lack an embarrassing photo that is splashed across newspaper covers and run in endless TV video loops, but Gov. Murphy’s brazen attempt to ram the confirmation of corporate cronies as Pinelands Commissioners through the Sweeney legacy Senate in a lame duck session just before the holidays – completely reversing his prior nomination of leading conservationists to the Commission, who he failed to support and fight for  – is one of those iconic, character revealing, defining moments.

Christie Christie was a selfish slob and everyone knew it. His solo weekend at the beach photo – when the beach was closed to the public – perfectly captured his essence. And Christie had his own disgusting retaliatory war on good people at the Pinelands Commission:

• Gov. Christie Cans Pinelands Commission Chairman

Phil Murphy is what some might call a dick. Or an arrogant clueless prick. Or a new monied rich piece of shit. Or a power mad raging corporate Neoliberal Wall Street parasite.

Take your pick.

President Obama appointed Murphy – a man with zero diplomatic training or experience – as Ambassador to Germany.

Phil’s only credentials were his money and all the political connections and cronies that it buys. He made that money as a Wall Street cannibal. His European experience was in privatizing public goods and transferring wealth from poor people to Oligarchs, the only experience that counts in his crowd: (Wiki)

[Murphy] engaged in a number of transactions with the German government’s Treuhandanstalt agency, whose purpose was to conduct the privatization of formerly state-owned enterprises within the boundaries of no-longer-extant East Germany. .

That’s how Phil rolls.

Obama got zero criticism for that. Phil was praised.

Murphy spread a little money around in New Jersey to buy political support of sycophants and he was able to use that to support to buy the Governorship of NJ and a nice little gig for his trophy wife, Tammy. Tammy the trophy – has a nice ring to it.

Murphy appointed a “diverse” man – a former corporate lawyer for some of NJ’s largest corporate polluters who has egregious conflicts of interest – as his DEP Commissioner, a brazen move in and of itself – and got zero criticism for that and support from the “diverse” sycophants he bought along the way.

So why shouldn’t he ram through corporate cronies to the Pinelands Commission – and publicly prostitute his “diverse” sycophants in the process?

Isn’t Phil just being Phil?

Those tactics worked before. It’s how Phil rolls.

Incredibly, here’s how the Murphy press office defended the move (source: Michael Zhadanovsky, Deputy Press Secretary – check out his bio – campaign for Hillary, to intern at corporate KPMG,  to Phil’s campaign)

After collaborative talks this afternoon with Pinelands advocates, we are moving forward with two nominees to the Pinelands Commission. The Governor is committed to diversifying the Commission and ensuring that it’s actions promote environmental justice and accountability to those most impacted by it’s decisions.

Get that? Diversity. It’s the diversity, stupid!

Phil has a “diverse” corporate man at DEP (with far more power and far worse conflicts than his Pinelands cronies. Curiously, the “green group” sycophants never said a peep about any of that).

Now he can have “diverse” corporate cronies at the Pinelands Commission (and a corporate Latina).

That is the twisted notion of “diversity” that Professor Nancy Fraser called “Progressive Neoliberalism”.

It masks corporate Wall Street policies behind the facade of cultural politics.

Again, its how Phil rolls.

Right up there with the Governor’s most disgusting move of the decade – an incredibly corrupt move, even for slimy NJ politics – is the collapse and capitulation of the conservation groups: NJ League of Conservation voters, led by Gov. Murphy’s most “diverse” cheerleader, Ed Potosnak, and the Pinelands Preservation Alliance.

(Around Phil, Eddie P. is like a little boy in short pants, desperately trying to walk faster down the sidewalk and catch up to reach up and hold daddy’s hand. And if anyone doubts that characterization or finds it over the top, just watch Little Eddie perform at the Gov. recent press conference.)

Little Eddie is second from left

These groups issued an alert and angry press statements late Friday afternoon. (a veteran NJ journalist sent me one for comment).

Little Eddie blasted “the slate” of 3 nominees – all 3, not just the Chemistry Council nominee – and demanded:

The governor’s plan is unacceptable. We are asking him to immediately change course in order to keep his promise to New Jersey voters to protect our state’s clean drinking water, clean air and open space.”

They generated immediate support of thousands of people to contact the Gov. and Senators and strongly oppose the Gov.’s move.

They scheduled a State House Press Conference for Monday to blast the Governor and demand that he rescind the nominations.

So far, so good.

Then something happened over the weekend. Someone got a phone call.

They cancelled the press conference on Sunday. Here’s the last minute lame excuse PPA offered up to their members for that sellout:

We are canceling the event in order to provide an opportunity to reach a better outcome for the Pinelands through further discussion with the Governor. 

And on Monday they had a “collaborative talk” with the Governor’s Appointments Office. 

Pathetically, they sold out to low level Murphy bureaucrats. They did NOT meet with the Governor, as they informed their supporters. So in addition to a sellout, they are lying about who they sold out to.

My Trenton sources tell me that:

The Governor is moving forward with the nominations of Laura Matos and Davon McCurry. Elvin Montero’s nomination has been pulled.

How does a conservation group go from a Friday fight to a Monday collapse and capitulation?

How do you sell out the thousands of people who immediately rose to defend the Pinelands?

How do you throw two excellent Pinelands Commissioners under the bus? (NJ Spotlight)

Mark Lohbauer, a current commissioner, declined to comment on the nominated candidates but praised the contributions of the three incumbent commissioners. “The three people who are being replaced are great public servants who have been very courageous in their votes in defense of the Pinelands, and I think the people of New Jersey owe them a debt of thanks,” he said.

Worse, even in his hissy fit blasting the Gov., Potosnak revealed a classic battered wife syndrome – he again praised and lied about the Gov.’s record: (NJ Spotlight)

Potosnak said the nominations don’t match the rest of Murphy’s environmental record, and, to the environmental community that supported him, feel like a rejection.

“It’s like a great stab in the back because we’ve been great supporters of the governor,” Potosnak said. “He has been a strong environmental champion, and he ran on a legacy of environmental protection, and this is completely the opposite of that.”

Yes, Potosnak has been an embarrassingly cheerleader for the Gov. But how does one walk back a comment like this:

“This slate of nominees amounts to a massive corporate giveaway of one of New Jersey’s greatest environmental treasures in a move so brazen that not even Chris Christie would have attempted it,” said Ed Potosnak, executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, referring to the former governor.

How could Potosnak have a “collaborative talk” with the Gov.’s Office and then fold after saying that?

Contrary to what Meatloaf sang about, 2 out of 3 is bad.

And Little Eddie is lying about the Governor’s environmental record.

As I showed recently, the Gov. is no “strong environmental champion”. His environmental record is actually worse than Chris Christie’s.

Shame on them all. This sets a new low.