In 2013, Conde Nast declared Newark, New Jersey “the unfriendliest city in the world.” More significantly, Newark is, according to CNN.com, the sixth most dangerous city in the United States. It has a crime index of 2.82. CNN explains: “The crime index (compiled by the FBI) is a weighted average of six crime categories murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and motor vehicle theft. The national rate is 1 and any number higher than that indicates a higher than average incidence of crime.”
Cory Booker is the Democrat mayor of Newark. Despite massive failure and a ruined city crumbling around him during his tenure, he is fabricating a fable for himself in hopes of securing a Senate seat. And, in future, the White House. He has learned much from his role model, The Lyin’ King.
On Saturday the New York Post ran a story about Cory Booker, Legend in His Own Mind. According to The Post, the tales Booker manufactures are not entirely true:
— Helping a gunshot victim, in 2004, who “died in his arms.” No. The victim, Wazn Miller, not only didn’t die in Booker’s arms but, according to witnesses, Booker made matters worse with histrionics, tearfully begging the victim not to die, slapping and heaving Miller around and generally treating Miller like a Pit Bull’s chew toy. One witness called what Booker was doing “a ploy . . . It was a big act.” Other witnesses insist that Miller was still breathing when he was put in the ambulance. Police and paramedic reports confirm witness statements.
— The Post reports “A street hustler named T-Bone has been a mainstay of the Booker mythology ‘… I’ll never forget he leaped off the steps where he was standing and looked at me and threatened my life … I later got to know this guy, and his name was T-Bone.’” Again, no. A Booker confidante and neighborhood witnesses have denied any existence of T-Bone. The National Review confirmed their stories. On August 29 National Review quoted Booker’s mentor at Rutgers, professor Clement Price. He’d had a “tough conversation with Booker in 2008 discovering that T-Bone was a ‘composite’ character.” Where have we heard that before? The Lyin’ King has established the composite-as-truth precedent with his own “girlfriend” history; Booker blames a “cynical” press for uncovering his lie.
— A classic Booker epic is “how he shoveled snow and delivered (diapers) to residents in the days after a 2010 blizzard.” What the press neglected to do, however, was ask those Booker assisted about it. Barbara Byers, beneficiary of Booker’s highly publicized concerto for diapers and snow shovel, commented: “I always found it weird that no one asked me about what happened … It wasn’t that I didn’t have diapers because I didn’t go shopping. It was two days later and nobody cleared our street … he isn’t a good mayor … If he would have done his job, I would have been able to do for myself … It took three days for someone to come by with a plow the first time.”
Booker’s administration is rife with highly questionable, hypocritical behavior. Despite Booker’s venom for owners of abandoned firetraps left undemolished, his own Newark property, abandoned and overrun by squatters, erupted in flames last year, jeopardizing the lives and property of his neighbors. One of those neighbors, elderly Betsy Smith had this to say: “I think Cory Booker needs to be ashamed of himself. You buy a piece of property in Newark and you do nothing. You hold your head high with your chest stuck out and say, ‘I’m the mayor of Newark!’ What kind of example are you setting? A piss-poor example, in my opinion.” Booker subsequently sold that property for $1, post conflagration. To his own charity.
Booker has denied, for years, that he worked for Trenk DiPasquale, a law firm with millions of dollars in government contracts, while serving as mayor. His federal income tax returns for the past three years tell another story. Booker’s tax returns show earnings of $689,500 from Trenk DiPasquale. They confirm that he “materially participate(d) in the operation of this business” from 2010 to 2012. The tax code states that in order to “participate” one must have had to work for a minimum of 500 hours. Booker blames his tax accountant. Perhaps, preparing for the Senate, Booker was simply practicing how not to read legal documents before signing them.
Why should any of this matter to the rest of America? Because what Booker has done for Newark is a glaring example of what he will do to the rest of America if he is elected. Every Senate seat is crucial. Conservative Republican Steve Lonegan is opposing Booker’s bid for the Senate and his record is as clean as Booker’s is soiled.
Dishonest, power-mad, ego-maniacal Senators are nothing new. Unfortunately, the same can now be said of America’s presidency. The Lyin’ King’s presidency is a disgrace. America doesn’t need another one.
Image: Cory Booker at the 2011 Time 100 gala; author: David Shankbone; Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license
