Run as a Moderate, Govern as a Radical

Doug Forrester is trying to pass himself off as a moderate.

This is the same Doug Forrester who invited Karl Rove to campaign for him, a trip in which Mr. Rove said that liberals wanted "therapy and understanding" for terrorists.

This is the Doug Forrester who joined hands with his primary challengers and declared "Unity in our Party is everything!" A statement that was cheered by RNC chairman Ken Mehlman, who also happened to be President Bush's campaign manager. From the beginning, Mehlman made it clear that the national Republican Party would back Forrester to the hilt - which is fine (and somewhat expected), but you don't get that kind of backing for a wishy-washy return.

This is the same Doug Forrester that "negotiated a little" with Vice-President Dick Cheney on how to "get Jon Corzine out of Washington because of all the trouble he's causing". Presumably, that "trouble" would include opposing the uber-cronyism of putting Michael Brown in charge of FEMA and the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court of the United States.

This is the Doug Forrester who brough First Lady Laura Bush (who may have been the last unsullied member of the Bush Administration) to New Jersey to say that "Clean government is at the heart of democracy, and it's at the heart of Doug's campaign," and "He'll apply the principles he learned in his business career to running the state government so New Jersey can have a lean, effective and honest state government." However, Forrester can't even run a clean and honest campaign and the apparent lesson he learned about making money in business is "give money to get money". Of course, one can hardly fault Ms. Laura for this oversight, given her husband's White House legal problems of late.

This is the Doug Forrester that gleefully took credit for destroying the careers of CBS news executives.

This is the Doug Forrester that invited Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez to speak, even as Forrester himself attacked Senator Corzine for having his famous friends campaign for him.

"Jon Corzine's campaign is stumbling badly," said Forrester. "I'm sure they are looking for all the help they can get."

This is the Doug Forrester that invited California's Governor Ah-nold even as California was banning companies like Forrester's from doing business with it.

New Jerseyans would do well to take a look at Washington now to see how Doug Forrester would govern if elected. Right now, he's making all the concessions he can to the political center (like a certain Compassionate Conservative - which could be a Kean Conservative - did during the elections). However, once in office, the Conservative Crows will come home to roost - and with a vengence. It is telling that President Bush's biggest failure to date has been getting conservatives to back anything less than a mouth-foaming, leg-humping ultra-Conservative Supreme Court nominee - because the next Governor of New Jersey will have to pick a new New Jersey State Supreme Court Chief Justice Deborah Poditz. It isn't hard to see that Forrester, with all the IOU's he is writing, will be looking so far to his right for a nominee that he may just turn his back on New Jersey completely.

But then, by running a campaign apparently co-ordinated and incestuously linked to Washington, he may have already done that long ago.