by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
august 16, 2004
In a swirl of controversy, New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey resigned from office citing his affair with another man as the reason. It doesn’t take much thinking to see that why his resignation has saturated the mainstream media and will for some time to come. It’s not the ordinary man meets woman, man cheats on woman, man leaves office scenario, if in fact that still happens. Uttering the phrase, "I am a gay american", the twice married McGreevey officially came out of the closet, eliciting reactions of sympathy and disgust. announcing his sexual preference at a time when gay marriage has become a subject of debate, gives the story more newsworthiness than it would have had 10 years ago.
In March 2000, while serving as the mayor of Woodbridge N.J., McGreevey travelled to Israel, where he met a young Israeli man, Golan Cipel. The two later developed a sexual relationship and after McGreevey won the governorship, Cipel appeared in the United States, where his paramour obtained taxpayer-funded jobs for him.
If the story so far wasn’t enough, the relationship ended acrimoniously with Cipel claiming sexual harassment and McGreevey’s people claiming that the Israeli was trying to extort millions from the governor. It is claimed that the extortion bid was the reason for the timing of McGreevey’s announcement of his resignation.
One of the jobs that Cipel held in New Jersey, thanks to his relationship with the governor was as a homeland security advisor to the state. Other than serving in the military as most Israelis do, Cipel seemed to have no qualifications to perform the $110,000 a year job that McGreevey had appointed him to. McGreevey later allowed Cipel to retain his salary when he was named as a "special advisor" after the Secret Service and the FBI refused to give him information because he was a foreign national who lacked a security clearance.
Forget about the fact that McGreevey has hidden his sexual orientation from himself, his family and his constituents for his 47 years; forget the fact that he was unfaithful to his wife; forget the implication of what his revelations mean to gay and lesbian americans--the public should be outraged at the government having compromised the security of the state for a sexual purpose. as radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh put it, what McGreevey did was tantamount to Bill Clinton having given Monica a job on his Secret Service detail. as sexually obsessed as the former president might have been, at least he had more sense than to do something like that.
In their zest to cover the sexual aspects of Jim McGreevey’s life, the mainstream media has completely ignored the ramifications of Golan Cipel’s security appointment and how that might have compromised the safety and well being of the citizens of New Jersey.