# N.J. Governer Jim McGreevey is gay, Resigns. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 12, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589 "2004-08-12T20:43:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/21 "2004-08-12T22:35:56Z")
Next governor is Senate President Codey. Btw, my conspiracy theory is that perhaps the allegations of corruption was about to hit the Gov himself and he was in trouble all around. Perhaps someone came up to him and said the gay affair was going to be revealed and McGreevey realized that if he stayed, the affair along with the corruption would have killed him and the party. If he just resigned because of the gay affair, the party may be able to be saved. If any corruption charges stuck to the Gov, that may not have been the case. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/22 "2004-08-12T22:41:03Z")
An actual gay role model might have come out some time before he was under fire for sexual harassment and illegal patronage, for some reason other than providing a smoke screen. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/23 "2004-08-12T22:43:14Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#): > > Next governor is Senate President Codey. Is Codey a Dem or a Pub? ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/24 "2004-08-12T22:49:07Z")
Democrat- the Dems organized the New Jersey State Senate after the 2003 elections. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/25 "2004-08-12T22:53:43Z")
> [@SolGrundy](#): > > In an environment where people are saying (with a straight face, no less) that there’s a gay agenda that’s infiltrating the highest levels of governmental power, _and_ that gays are violating the sanctity of marriage, _this_ is the guy we want as a role model? No thanks. What I meant was that he \*could have been \*a great role model. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/26 "2004-08-12T23:04:14Z")
Now that the shit is about to hit the fan, yet another self-loathing closet-case suddenly “comes out”…there is no excuse for this crap, and as a Gay man, I hope he gets the full punishment of the law. My hope is that any other closet cases out there in the public arena (politics or NFL or MLB or Mission Impossible films) will see this and get their act in order. Most Americans could give a rat’s ass if you are Gay or not, but lying and covering up the fact always comes back to haunt you. In this case, I feel sorry for the current wife (plus prior wife), as well as his kids, as well as the guy who moved here, as well as the people who voted for him and liked his politics and…see how screwed up this is? Because he didn’t have the balls to tell the truth? I am sure there are some who say it is nobody’s business what your sexual preference is, but that is not true. We have a President trying to ammend the Constitution to ensure sexual preference is a factor in getting equal rights. I am just guessing here, but I will bet Gov. McGreevey was not in favor of Gay marriage - as it would indeed harm the sanctity of ideal marriages like his ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/27 "2004-08-12T23:11:14Z")
> [@Governor Quinn](#): > > Democrat- the Dems organized the New Jersey State Senate after the 2003 elections. So the same party remains in control. Can the NJ Dems, between now and next year’s election, dissociate the party from McGreevy’s legacy, get their act together, and win? That’s the important question, not where McGreevy goes from here, or what his fall means for gay rights. I don’t think it will help nor harm the gay-rights cause in any important way. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/28 "2004-08-12T23:46:55Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > I am just guessing here, but I will bet Gov. McGreevey was not in favor of Gay marriage - as it would indeed harm the sanctity of ideal marriages like his Looks like my guess was correct: [http://www.tgcrossroads.org/news/archive.asp?aid=282](http://www.tgcrossroads.org/news/archive.asp?aid=282) ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/29 "2004-08-12T23:48:53Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > In this case, I feel sorry for the current wife (plus prior wife), as well as his kids, as well as the guy who moved here, as well as the people who voted for him and liked his politics and…see how screwed up this is? Because he didn’t have the balls to tell the truth? I don’t see this guy’s closeted gayness as any kind of explanation for his behavior, now that I’m learning more. I’d say, rather, his closeted gayness was consistent with his overall level of dishonesty, and just part of a larger pattern of behavior. He’s a slime, plain and simple. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/30 "2004-08-13T00:23:18Z")
> [@Governor Quinn](#): > > According to [www.politicsnj.com](http://www.politicsnj.com) , he will be replaced on November 15th by the President of the New Jersey State Senate, Richard J. Codey. The President of the New Jersey State Senate always becomes Acting Governor when the Governor leaves office early. Mr. Codey will also keep his State Senate duties, due to a fluke in the law. From what I heard on the way home there’s quite a controversy in putting this off until the 15th. Doing that keeps the democrats in the governorship through 2006 instead of having the governorship up for special election on the 2nd. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/31 "2004-08-13T00:36:01Z")
> [@mack](#): > > From what I heard on the way home there’s quite a controversy in putting this off until the 15th. Doing that keeps the democrats in the governorship through 2006 instead of having the governorship up for special election on the 2nd. [politics1.com](http://politics1.com) says the next gubernatorial election is in 2005. Are they wrong? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/32 "2004-08-13T01:20:01Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [politics1.com](http://politics1.com) says the next gubernatorial election is in 2005. Are they wrong? It could mean that the next gubernatorial election is in Nov. 05, but the Governor-Elect only takes office in Jan. 06. I do think it’s BS of him to now try to make this all about being gay as opposed to all about his misbehavior. To borrow **Loopydude** ’s phrasing, if it had been that > [@](#): > > Gov. goes to Israel, takes a liking to basically some random [lady] he meets, brings [her] back, pays for [her] naturalization, gives [her] a job [she] has no qualifications for, and when folks raise a stink, keeps [her] on the payroll (to the tune of $110K a year) as an “advisor” with no specific duties … and then upon having a falling-out “she” threatened him with a hefty harassment lawsuit, and only then did he own up to it, that would still be bad conduct on his part. Now, in fairness we can never discount that the harassment charge is brought up in bad faith, either political or personal (Cipel seemed to be liking things just dandy while the going was good…) But it’s his own fault he left himself open to it. But that’s the thing about folk like McGreevey (and for that matter Clinton, or any of a variety of similar power figures)… _how can they possibly be so absolutely fearless of exposure??_ Can they really be so convinced they’re so great that the other person won’t dare talk if things ever go sour? ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/33 "2004-08-13T01:40:12Z")
Well, if we take Clinton as an example, he’d been a pathological skirt-chaser for years, and even the Genniffer Flowers thing couldn’t keep him out of the White House. I mean, why worry about it? Did Kennedy worry about it? McGreevey has probably had more than one affair, and up to now, it didn’t hurt him any. What hurt Clinton was a Republican dirtmongering machine that I think few people could ever have predicted. The whole Ken Star investigation has got to be one of the most shameful muckraking campaigns the nation has ever witnessed. I don’t think Clinton’s transgressions deserved that kind of scrutiny, and if he hadn’t lied on the stand about them, it would have amounted to very little in practical terms. McGreevey’s infidelities appear to be least of his transgressions, and ironically, he seems to be using them to deflect attention from much more troubling concerns; so in that respect, he may be acting quite shrewdly. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/34 "2004-08-13T02:20:52Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#): > > Next governor is Senate President Codey. > > Btw, my conspiracy theory is that perhaps the allegations of corruption was about to hit the Gov himself and he was in trouble all around. Perhaps someone came up to him and said the gay affair was going to be revealed and McGreevey realized that if he stayed, the affair along with the corruption would have killed him and the party. If he just resigned because of the gay affair, the party may be able to be saved. If any corruption charges stuck to the Gov, that may not have been the case. Ding! McGreevey was more crooked than a boardwalk balloon-dart game at the Jersey shore. This particular scandal simply gave him a chance to resign for a reason other than “I’m a machine politician in the worst Jersey tradition and should have been cashiered long ago.” He tries to go out a martyr, but in fact he’s just a crook and did (probably and hopefully) small damage to the gay rights movement on the way out to try to make himself look like a victim. My one criticism of your analysis is that any attempt he was making to save “the party” was really an attempt to leave an opening for his ownself to come back later. The attempt will probably fail, but I put it all on him and none on his party here. Ugh. Just ugh. ---
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/35 "2004-08-13T02:25:38Z")
I wanna know what that wife of his had taken (Valium, maybe?) before the press conference that enabled her to stand there by her man. They would have had to pry my clenched hands off of his balls if it were me. I think it’s pretty shitty of him to wait until the 15th of November but I don’t expect anything more out of a Democrat these days. Shouldn’t the good people of NJ be allowed to decide for themselves? And while we’re at it how come they don’t have a Lieutenant Governor? (We don’t have one here in WV, either. It’s hard enough having one POS governor, we don’t need anybody to assist ours in wrecking the state.) ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/36 "2004-08-13T02:59:19Z")
Going a bit off topic, but Lieutenant Governor jobs are fairly pointless in state governments. At least the President can give the VP some fairly important tasks, but for the most part Lieutenant Governors aren’t. In California the Lieutenant Governor isn’t even the same party as the Governor. They run on separate tickets and after the Davis recall, Bustamante stayed on as Lt. Gov. Bustamante couldn’t really point out anything important he had accomplished as Lt. Gov when he futilely ran against the Governator. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/37 "2004-08-13T03:04:32Z")
> [@BobT](#): > > Going a bit off topic, but Lieutenant Governor jobs are fairly pointless in state governments. At least the President can give the VP some fairly important tasks, but for the most part Lieutenant Governors aren’t. > > In California the Lieutenant Governor isn’t even the same party as the Governor. They run on separate tickets and after the Davis recall, Bustamante stayed on as Lt. Gov. Bustamante couldn’t really point out anything important he had accomplished as Lt. Gov when he futilely ran against the Governator. Well, here in MA, our last two Governors before Romney were Lt. Gov.'s who got bumped up. Seems Washington likes to farm our Sate House for diplomats. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/38 "2004-08-13T03:34:48Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [politics1.com](http://politics1.com) says the next gubernatorial election is in 2005. Are they wrong? No - I meant until the new governor is inaugurated in 2006. Will following through with the November 15th resignation date be worth the pummeling the democrats are going to have to take over it? ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/39 "2004-08-13T04:58:26Z")
> [@manhattan](#): > > Ding! McGreevey was more crooked than a boardwalk balloon-dart game at the Jersey shore. This particular scandal simply gave him a chance to resign for a reason other than “I’m a machine politician in the worst Jersey tradition and should have been cashiered long ago.” He tries to go out a martyr, but in fact he’s just a crook and did (probably and hopefully) small damage to the gay rights movement on the way out to try to make himself look like a victim. You said it. I’m the _last_ person to criticize a guy for taking a long time to come out of the closet, but I’ve got absolutely no sympathy for this tool. From [this coverage of the story](http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/nation/9387565.htm), we get this quote: > [@](#): > > Steven Goldstein, head of the New Jersey gay and lesbian lobbying group Garden State Equality, said McGreevey’s record was the last thing on his mind as he listened to the governor’s statement. > > “For any of us who are lesbian and gay, we did not watch the governor with political or legal eyes,” Goldstein said. “All of us could relate in a profoundly personal way. The governor’s coming out today was no doubt poignant for every member of the lesbian and gay community in New Jersey and, in fact, across America.” If by “poignant” he means “stomach-churning,” yeah, maybe. A guy being blackmailed by the lover with whom he’s been cheating on his second wife and two children, the same lover to whom he gave a cushy high-paying government job, and he comes out _during an election year_ in a plea to get sympathy for his very trying personal turmoil. So you’re a “gay American,” Jim? Big whoop. Lots of us are, and we still know when to keep it in our pants. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589/40 "2004-08-13T05:03:55Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Most Americans could give a rat’s ass if you are Gay or not Don’t you mean the opposite — that they “could not give a rat’s ass”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-j-governer-jim-mcgreevey-is-gay-resigns/259589.md?page=3)