Tom Kean Sr is a legendary figure in New Jersey politics. He's not a particularly good man, having been elected through race-baiting and voter-suppression. He wasn't a particularly good Governor, since he left a huge debt for New Jersey to clean up. For some reason he's been canonized, which helped his son get the Republican nomination for Senator, since name recognition is incredibly expensive in the Garden State.
It's far past time that the Kean's be called on their dishonest reputation. Aside from engaging in corruption to fundraise for Tommy Junior, Kean is now a critical piece of the partisan disinformation offensive around 9/11, sacrificing the reputation of the 9/11 Commission to further his son's electoral chances in New Jersey.
As for that campaign, here's what you need to know. Tom Kean Jr is a light-weight politician who dropped the 'Jr' from his name in the hopes that no one would notice that he's not his Dad. 2006 is obviously a very anti-Republican year, so Junior can't run fast enough from Iraq and Bush. At the same time, he really needs money from the Republican establishment, as well as a big distracting push centering on 9/11 to have any hope of skilled anti-war incumbent Senator Bob Menendez. His Dad will do anything to help him.
As for Kean Sr, he's well-liked in New Jersey. Like Lieberman, Kean is one of those old wisemen who are incredibly cavalier about power and honesty, since they see themselves as above the fray even as they engage in partisan sniping. Though there are several choice quotes that undercut Kean's supposed integrity, I'm a fan of this quote about the fabricated scene in the docudrama in which Sandy Berger refuses to order an attack on bin Laden. Keep in mind that this scene is entirely made up.
Neither Berger nor Ben-Veniste was consulted on the film. Kean, however, is an official adviser; he says the incident was a fictionalized composite. It was "representative of a series of events compacted into one," he replied to Ben-Veniste at the time. In a phone interview a few days later, he added, "It's reasonably accurate."
I get it now. Apparently invading Iraq is fine. Saddam didn't quite attack us on 9/11, but he's in the Middle East, so it's reasonably accurate to attack him instead.
I know it's late in the season, but I wonder if Atrios would approve of a new category, super-wanker.
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