We were asked to publish the story of five area residents who formerly worked for Assemblyperson Gail Phoebus at the country club she owns. The former employees of the Farmstead Golf and Country Club contacted Watchdog. One employee identified herself and forwarded a statement and the letter of dismissal from Farmstead. This is an excerpt from that statement:
The former employees believed that their ages played a role in their firing. They believe that the legislator's actions "speaks to her character." Referring to Phoebus' firing of her legislative staff before Thanksgiving and to the further attempts to destroy their reputations and ability to earn an income to provide for their families, the statement notes that "this behavior with Gail Phoebus is nothing new. She has been treating people badly for quite some time."
In response to accusations that were posted and distributed about legislative staff by members of the Skylands Tea Party group, the Office of Legislative Services (OLS) last week issued a formal statement saying that EVERY accusation made against the innocent staff workers was wholly false and without any basis whatsoever. In other words, it was all made up. A fantasy designed to destroy the livelihoods of human beings, their spouses, and their children.
In fairness to Assemblyperson Phoebus, last week Watchdog offered to publish her response to the above statement by her employees, unedited. Instead of a straightforward response for us to print, her campaign circulated rumors that suggested blame be placed elsewhere and that she was away at the time -- this time not at the Colorado ranch but in sunny Florida.
The people who run the Skylands Tea Party (and the Phoebus campaign committee) believe that they should determine the relationships of others. They believe that every elected official should come to them and that they should get to choose who they hire and fire. And maybe get a little finder's fee in the process perhaps?
But what about their relationships? Who is watching who they associate with?
The president of the Skylands Tea Party is a New York City lawyer who has, shall we say, a very interesting client list. Not quite as interesting (in terms of violence and malevolence) as that maintained by Gail Phoebus' lawyer and consultant, but interesting nonetheless. Here are the biographies of the Skylands president, and his partner:
On Monday we learned that the president of the Skylands Tea Party represented "feeder funds" connected with Bernie Madoff. Yep, Bernie Madoff. Remember him?
Bernard Lawrence "Bernie" Madoff (born April 29, 1938) is an American fraudster and a former stockbroker, investment advisor, and financier. He is the former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, and the admitted operator of a Ponzi scheme that is considered the largest financial fraud in U.S. history... On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme. The Madoff investment scandal defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars. Madoff said he began the Ponzi scheme in the early 1990s. However, federal investigators believe the fraud began as early as the mid-1980s and may have begun as far back as the 1970s. Those charged with recovering the missing money believe the investment operation may never have been legitimate. The amount missing from client accounts, including fabricated gains, was almost $65 billion. The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) trustee estimated actual losses to investors of $18 billion. On June 29, 2009, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed.
Now we learn that his law partner -- the man he freely chose to form a business with -- is a major supporter of liberal politicians, beginning with Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Take a look at some of the liberal Democrats the other half of this two-member law firm supports:
Why isn't the Skylands Tea Party questioning the relationships of its own president? Before suggesting that they should get to determine who other people hire and fire, they need to do some house cleaning of their own.
The hand of Graham -- Freeholder George Graham -- was obvious in the latest attack from the Skylands crew.It singles out solar whistleblower Harvey Roseff for abuse and attacks him in a very personal way.
Curiously, Skylands' abusive post mirrors language used by Freeholder Graham to describe Mr. Roseff, a Sussex County taxpayer who became an activist.On the issue of the failed solar program, the Skylands group takes the same snarky, overly-defensive posture that the Freeholder Board under Graham does:
Harvey is painfully long winded... He can write endlessly about solar without really explaining it at all. He began pontificating under the Herald comments and even began inserting himself as an expert without any credentials. It took a while, but the Herald finally saw through him and stopped taking his calls. He would contact anyone associated with the county, rambling on about how he knew everything about solar... As Ralph Kramden often would say; “I have a BIG MOUTH!” So does Harvey.
And who but a reporter -- or legal counsel -- would have such inside knowledge of what goes on at the Herald?
Why is citizen Harvey Roseff being attacked?Well, it is no secret that Roseff has questioned George Graham and the Sussex County Freeholder Board over the delayed and expensive (a half million dollars) report on how the Freeholders allowed Sussex County to lose as much as $40 million in taxpayers' money.
And for this, Harvey Roseff has been attacked by Skylands Tea Party members and the county politicians they answer to.Sad, isn't it?
They could have discussed how to help advance the agenda of President Donald Trump: Illegal immigration, terrorism, rebuilding America...
But that would have been too positive. Instead of moving forward, Skylands Tea Party boss Bill Hayden hogged the valuable time of those present at last night's meeting with a long rant about how much he hates conservative writer Bill Winkler.
Yes. This turned into one of those "anger therapy" sessions.
Inexplicably, some would say insanely, the Skylands Tea Party group allowed Bill Hayden to attack two guests at their meeting, Assemblyman Parker Space and his wife, GOP State Committeewoman Jill Space. Jill Space is also the Vice Chair of the Sussex GOP. She chaired the Trump campaign in Sussex County and was elected to go the Republican National Convention last year as a delegate for Donald Trump.
There should be no substantive policy disagreements between the Tea Party and Assemblyman Space. But you can't have anger therapy, without the anger...
So Hayden manufactured one. He demanded that he gets to pick and choose who Assemblyman Space hires to run his campaign. As it happens, Bill Winkler managed the Assemblyman's successful upset win for Freeholder in 2010, as well as his two successful runs for Assembly in 2013 and 2015. Here in America, we reward success.
Not in Bill Hayden's world. Bill Hayden has been pimping for Freeholder George Graham, who has his own political consulting business:
This isn't the first time that the Tea Party in Sussex County has demanded that the LD24 legislators fire Bill Winkler and hire someone else. In 2011, the same exact shakedown was attempted by the Tea Party on behalf of a former liberal state senator-turned consultant who wanted the business. They threatened that if they didn't get their way, Mark Quick would run for the Assembly. Their consultant wasn't hired and Quick ran and got 3 percent of the vote.
Fast-forward to last night and there was the Tea Party -- in the person of Bill Hayden -- demanding that Winkler be fired (and Graham be hired) and there was Mark Quick again, threatening to run for the Assembly. Haven't any of these people heard of a "restraint of trade" lawsuit?
Restraint of trade is an economic injury that involves interfering with another person’s ability to do business freely. Restraint of trade is part of antitrust law, but the topic covers a wide range of activities, that include forcing or coercing someone to quit doing business or to change their business so as not to compete in the market; agreeing to fix prices to drive other competitors out of business; tortious interference with a contract or business agreement that negatively affects someone else’s ability to do business freely. In short, a “restraint of trade” is any activity that hinders someone else from doing business in the way that he would normally do it if there were no restraints. While federal, state, and local governments can pass laws and regulations that create obstacles for certain kinds of businesses, it is generally considered improper for individuals to restrain one another’s trade in certain ways. Someone who loses business or suffers another injury may have a tort case against another individual whose trade-restraining behavior injured him.
We don't know if Bill Hayden is in line for a "finder's fee" for strong-arming the legislators into firing Winkler and hiring someone like Graham, but understand that what happened at last night's meeting was recorded and that it is already on its way to legal counsel. It is quite unambiguous. While the Skylands Tea Party is certainly free to do whatever it wants, it should avoid becoming a party to Bill Hayden's actions, unless it genuinely wants to be.
Bill Hayden has never met Bill Winkler, but he has "targeted" him:
Hayden, a self-styled "tough guy" posts crap like this on people he's never met but then goes straight to "victimhood" when challenged. What did Clint Eastwood call this? "The pussy generation?"
The mantra is "free speech for me but not for you."
(The tutu of victimhood)
When assuming the "tutu" of victimhood, Bill Hayden appears to forget that it was he who posted what he thought was an aerial view of Winkler's home on Facebook -- in the middle of his work day as a state employee. But with his usual incompetence, Hayden got it all wrong and actually posted the neighboring home of an innocent family with young children.
Yep, the idiot "targeted" the wrong people.
As Hayden explained it, he was afraid that his boss might see it or that some law enforcement agency might contact the New Jersey Department of Transportation, where he works, so he went to his boss with what he had done. We don't know what his boss did, but shortly thereafter, Hayden began claiming that he was in trouble, and that Winkler had gone to his boss -- a total fabrication and lie.
But this is what those who wish to wear the "tutu of victimhood" do. They always have to blame someone else for their own lack of good sense. By the way, that's what liberals do.
And that is why Bill Hayden hates Bill Winkler.
And that is why he subjected the members of the Skylands Tea Party to an hour long rant about it.
Someone should tell him that it is a political organization, not a therapy session.
We have been asked to publish the story of five area residents who formerly worked for Assemblyperson Gail Phoebus at the country club she owns. The former employees of the Farmstead Golf and Country Club contacted Watchdog. One employee identified herself and forwarded a statement and the letter of dismissal from Farmstead. This is an excerpt from that statement:
The former employees believed that their ages played a role in their firing. They believe that the legislator's actions "speaks to her character." Referring to Phoebus' firing of her legislative staff before Thanksgiving and to the further attempts to destroy their reputations and ability to earn an income to provide for their families, the statement notes that "this behavior with Gail Phoebus is nothing new. She has been treating people badly for quite some time."
In response to the accusations that were posted and distributed about legislative staff by members of the Skylands Tea Party group, the Office of Legislative Services (OLS) this week issued a formal statement saying that EVERY accusation made against the innocent staff workers was wholly false and without any basis whatsoever. In other words, it was all made up. A fantasy designed to destroy the livelihoods of human beings, their spouses, and their children.
Nevertheless, in fairness to Assemblyperson Phoebus, we understand that there could be another side to this story. We therefore offer to publish her response to this statement, unedited.
Sussex County Watchdog
