Freeholder Rose is supporting anti-gun candidate John McCann. What's up with that?

Maybe the Tea Party is going soft?  

At Freeholder Jonathan Rose's fundraiser last month, the young libertarian got up and formally threw his support to John McCann, formerly of the Democrat Bergen County Sheriff's office, and now a GOP candidate for Congress.  Among those present at Freeholder Rose's announcement was former Franklin Councilman Dave Fanale, a controversial figure who resigned from the Council after leading a particularly disturbing anti-police campaign. 

Rose's support for McCann, a decidedly liberal Republican on issues like abortion and the Second Amendment, came at the explicit direction of Freeholder Boss George Graham, who also instructed his gal Maria Alampi to put together an NRA-type event for McCann, in order to create the impression among pro-gun Republicans in Sussex County that McCann shares their views.  This follows what Graham did for Dan Perez last year.  Perez, a liberal Democrat running for Sussex County Freeholder against Republican Herb Yardley, enjoyed the support of Graham, Alampi, and the Freeholders Graham controls -- Jonathan Rose and Carl Lazzaro. 

Strangely enough, at last night's meeting of the Skylands Tea Party, none of those questioned why Freeholder Rose is endorsing John McCann for Congress over conservative Steve Lonegan, a Tea Party favorite.  Members of Skylands Tea Party have first-hand knowledge of McCann's refusal to fill out the NRA questionnaire to reveal to the pro-Second Amendment community where he stands on the issues. 

McCann also refused to fill out the New Jersey Right-to-Life questionnaire, leaving his exact position on that issue in doubt, although McCann has described himself variously as "personally Pro-Life" and "Pro-Choice" on abortion.  What is McCann concerned the voters will find out? 

Why Jonathan Rose -- who claims to favor transparency -- should support such a murky character is open to interpretation.

As for Rose's running-mate and fellow Freeholder Carl Lazzaro, he has yet to express a preference for either McCann or Lonegan.  Lazzaro spoke at last evening's Tea Party meeting but saved his attacks for Sheriff Mike Strada, who is suing the Freeholder Board and those three named Freeholders -- Graham, Rose, and Lazzaro -- for wasting taxpayers' money and interfering in the operations of his department for political ends.

What all this amounts to is a pay-day for Freeholder Boss George Graham, who maintains a political consulting business as a principal source of income.  Graham appears to have delivered the Tea Party to McCann -- along with Freeholder Rose and the Alampi wing of the NRA... and this is the amazing thing... despite McCann's refusal to tell the NRA where he stands on gun rights.  A remarkable feat indeed.

Somebody doesn't want his picture taken with Fanale

Jennifer Jean Miller over at NJ Inside Scene had a well-written, personal story about her troubled relationship with David Fanale and his fiancée.   It featured a photograph of a group of people at a recent event.  Standing side by side was the former Franklin Councilman and Republican Sussex County Freeholder George Graham.  Everyone looked happy.

But apparently someone wasn't happy because a few hours later the photograph was cropped. 

Is the Sussex County GOP about to go Orwell on us?  Are they going to act like David Fanale, once a Republican Party County Committeeman and an elected Republican on Franklin Borough Council, wasn't part of their organization?  Are they going to deny that they supported him and that he supported them?  Is he in danger of becoming a nonperson?

It looks like the cleansing has already begun.

It's funny that it's starting with Freeholder Graham, who tried mightily to cleanse from existence all memory of his long history as a Democrat political consultant in Hudson County and as an elected Democrat in Sussex County who switched to Republican then back to Democrat to vote in the 2008 Democratic Party Presidential Primary and then back to Republican to pursue bigger things.  Talk to him today and he's a Ronald Reagan/ Steve Lonegan kind of guy.

Well, they're not called politicians for nothing.

By  the way, Watchdog got hold of the original photograph and, as an aid to honest memory, is publishing it here.  Outside of former Councilman Fanale, who published some unworthy and juvenile stuff on Facebook, nobody in the photo has anything to be ashamed of.  They didn't do anything wrong.  However, whoever demanded that the photo be cropped is guilty of tampering with the historic record, and with the truth.

David Fanale could be a pleasant, charming person.  He is a human being and like the rest of us has his mix of good and bad.  As an elected official he took a controversial route and his means of expressing his position crossed the line into juvenile and unworthy antics.  It finished him as a councilman in Franklin.

So here's the lesson for the Sussex County GOP.  The positions held by David Fanale were always there.  They were not new.  But as with so much else, the leaders and members of the Sussex Republican power structure see only what they want to see.  So-and-so is a nice guy, let's not see the fact that he switched back to his old party to vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.  So-and-so is a good guy, so let's not see the fact that he's using his official position to lobby on behalf of county vendors.  So-and-so is a real friendly guy, so let's not see the fact that he gets a little unhinged when he starts talking about the police.

Instead of purging history and indulging in make-believe, shouldn't it be time for you to wake up?