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Two years ago, New Jerseyans were wrapped up in a sleazy scandal involving disgraced U.S. Sen. Bob Torricelli, who was forced from office and his re-election campaign on the heels of an investigation into his acceptance of alleged kickbacks and graft. To fix the Torricelli mess, Democratic Party power brokers powwowed at Drumthwacket -- the governor’s official residence -- to decide the fate of the vacated Senate seat.
But that was then. This is now. And the scandal goes beyond your wildest imagination. Or does it?
Eleven days ago, Gov. Jim McGreevey revealed his homosexuality, a gay extramarital affair and his intentions to quit in November. Since that bombshell announcement, news outlets around the world have jumped on the story asking what is behind the dicey details.
And this sordid tale has become a mess. The man insiders swear was McGreevey’s lover -- Golan Cipel -- sent out lawyer Allen Lowy to tell us Cipel was thinking about filing a sexual harassment lawsuit because the governor’s sexual advances were unwanted. That was followed up with a declaration that Cipel is not gay.
Not to be outdone, McGreevey administration sources leaked the coming out of at least three men, all claiming to be Cipel’s former lovers. One of the men was said to be a northern New Jersey university professor. The next day that man was identified as Dr. Michael David Miller, who ran around giving topless interviews in his shorts.
Two days later Miller brought another familiar name into the fray when he told news reporters that he goes to temple with Charles Kushner. That’s when Essex County Sheriffs officers arrested Miller because of a "pattern of aberrant behavior."
The happy, and professed gay, doc is also claiming to be an FBI agent and a CIA operative who communicates through his satellite dish.
Then the mother of all bombs dropped. The salacious details are better suited for a Penthouse Forum confession. The FBI supposedly has secret sex tapes of McGreevey and Cipel in a compromising position!
Somehow this latest discovery, of sorts, gives me the feeling the tape or tapes will not find its way next to Paris Hilton’s wham-bam night du jour or Pam Anderson’s romp with former husband Tommy Lee. But who knows? The way this scandal is shaping up, the tape could be part of a double feature with Tonya Harding.
The rumor mill insists the tape(s) -- nobody seems to know how many are out there, if any -- shows McGreevey and Cipel doing the things lovers do.
OK. Thank you. But that’s way too much information, I told one of my sources earlier this week. The one thing all the rumor-mill operators are adamant about is that the videotape was made while the governor and Cipel were spending a few intimate days at Charles Kushner’s Florida home.
Ah, -- the breeze, the salt air ... and sweaty men on videotape. We sure do know how to cultivate a Jersey fresh scandal in the Garden State, don’t we? Oh, there were plenty of seeds of sex, guys and videotapes being sown at the State House this past week. The accusations were fast and furious:
- McGreevey has a male hooker on the payroll.
Denied.
- Cipel is a member of a secret gay spy ring allied with Israeli Mossad.
Denied.
- McGreevey is locked in an affair with a high-ranking administration official.
Denied.
Another rumor circulating, albeit less sensational, even says that McGreevey will be named next week as an unindicted co-conspirator in last year’s billboard scandal.
More rumors, tittle-tattle and finger pointing is expected to fly far and wide, leading up to McGreevey’s November departure date and all in the name of outing the whole truth-filled story.
One thing is for certain.
Gov. Hoffman’s scandal pales in comparison to the latest McGreevey intrigue. As for Torricelli, people are whispering he played a role in forcing McGreevey to out himself. Where does it go? ‘Round and ‘round and ‘round he goes; where it will stop nobody knows.
-- Charles Webster is the State House reporter and political columnist for The Trentonian.
