Ex-Governor Is Back
in Public,
This Time as an
Author
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI,
NYTimes on the Web, September 20, 2006
PLAINFIELD, N.J., Sept. 19 —
Two years after a nationally televised resignation in which he proclaimed
himself “a gay American,” former Gov. James E. McGreevey of New Jersey
officially emerged from his self-imposed exile from public life today to release
a memoir that chronicles his rise to power and fall from grace.
With a succession of newspaper interviews, an appearance Tuesday on “The Oprah
Winfrey Show” and a book signing before a gay-rights group in the town where he
once was mayor, Mr. McGreevey began a 60-day publicity campaign to promote his
autobiography, “The Confession.”
What Mr. McGreevey says in this explicit apologia is stunning for some, while to
others, his confession is telling for what it omits.
Although Mr. McGreevey’s administration was marred by an assortment of
corruption scandals, his book offers only vague acknowledgment that some of his
staff members and associates — whom he refuses to identify — delivered favors to
campaign contributors in exchange for donations.
In an interview on Tuesday morning at his home here, he declined to provide
specifics about the political favors done for fund-raisers, and would not say
whether he was surprised that the man who was once his mentor, former Senate
President John A. Lynch Jr., pleaded guilty to corruption charges last week in
federal court.
“I don’t want to be put into the position of judging anyone,” he said, insisting
that most people were more interested in his personal journey than in details of
the back-room deals that bolstered New Jersey’s reputation for political
dishonesty.
Mr. McGreevey said he hoped that his life story would offer a cautionary tale.
“The point of this book is to describe the pitfalls and dangers of living a
divided, deceitful life,” he said.
Speaking in the living room of the 19-room house where he now lives with his
partner, Mark O’Donnell, a wealthy Australian businessman, Mr. McGreevey
appeared relaxed and slightly bemused by the swirl of publicity that has greeted
the carefully calibrated release of his book.
Mr. McGreevey, who shocked New Jerseyans in August 2004 with his admission and
his decision to resign, is now working as a lawyer and says he hopes to become
involved in advocacy for education and children’s issues.
He says there is little he misses about the world of politics, which was once an
all-consuming vocation.
While his resignation forced Mr. McGreevey to move out of Drumthwacket, the
governor’s mansion in Princeton, his new home in Plainfield has gardens designed
by Frederick Law Olmsted, a circular driveway and a housecleaner who arrived on
Tuesday driving a white Mercedes-Benz.
As the fallen governor prepared to re-enter public life as an author, it was
unclear how warm a reception Mr. McGreevey and his book were likely to receive.
Since last week’s taping of Ms. Winfrey’s television show — during which he said
that the affair that led to his resignation began while his wife was still
hospitalized after the Caesarean-section delivery of their daughter — Mr.
McGreevey has been the subject of a flurry of unflattering newspaper articles.
And Golan Cipel, the man whom Mr. McGreevey, in his book, has finally identified
as his lover, has also been calling news organizations to deny that he was ever
romantically or sexually involved with Mr. McGreevey.
Mr. Cipel, whom Mr. McGreevey appointed as New Jersey’s homeland security
adviser despite his lack of qualifications, set the resignation in motion by
threatening to file a sexual harassment suit.
“He has lied so many times,” Mr. Cipel said on Tuesday in a telephone interview
from his home in Israel. “Now he comes out with a book, and it’s more
lies.”
Mr. McGreevey has characterized Mr. Cipel’s threat to sue as an extortion
attempt — the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into the accusation but did
not bring charges — and insists that the book is “rigorously truthful.”
Mr. McGreevey chose a friendly audience of more than 200 people to make his
first public appearance as an author: a book signing at the community
center in Woodbridge, the town where he served as mayor, held by the gay rights
group Garden State Equality.
Mr. McGreevey was just like the ribbon cutter he used to be, hugging, shaking
hands, and bending down to kiss a woman in a wheelchair. He wore his
trademark navy suit and striped tie, but on his lapel, instead of the American
flag, was a pin that said Garden State Equality.
James Ringwood, who once worked for Mr. McGreevey as his personnel director in
Woodbridge, said, “He said he envied me because I was out.”
Among the gays and lesbians who knew Mr. McGreevey when he was the mayor of
Woodbridge, Mr. Ringwood said the reaction was “very mixed.”
“There are those who feel betrayed, who feel he used being gay as an excuse to
resign as governor,” he said. “They’re not here tonight. They won’t
have the opportunity to see Jim McGreevey as he is now.”
But at the New Jersey State House, elected officials have sought to avoid
discussing Mr. McGreevey.
Gov. Jon S. Corzine said last week that he was uncomfortable with the
“prurience” of the prerelease publicity, and many other Democrats simply
declined to discuss the book.
Laura Mansnerus contributed reporting from Woodbridge, N.J.
|
