Andrews hits back with anti-Lautenberg Web site

(This is an extract from a larger post submitted to bluejersey.com http://www.bluejersey.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=7705 )

Congressman Andrews...

1) Do you disagree, in any way, with what all your colleagues in the New Jersey congressional delegation have told us about the dinner meeting you took part in, at which you all agreed and gave your word to refrain from a primary challenge?

2) After the meeting did you feel obligated to honor your word as given?

3) At what point in time (assuming that your answer to the last question was "yes".) did you start to have questions about honoring your word? What were those questions and what brought them on?

4) At, precisely, what point in time did you decide to run against Lautenberg?

5)Was this a decision you came to on your own? Or were the views of other people solicited? Did other people contact you to "recruit you" to run? If your decision was made in conjunction with other people, what were the understandings/conditions that were reached between you and them.

6) Specifically, what was the content of your discussions with Norcross and Adubato? Why did they support your run? Were any specific quid pro quo's discussed? Or was it just implicitly understood that it would be good for them in the future if you were to become a Senator?

7) It was widely reported that Joe Ferriero was supporting your candidacy, but then backed off when it seemed it might cost him more in the short run than he might gain by staying loyal to you. Are these reports true? Was Ferriero backing you? If yes, then why? What was in it for Joe? Was it a matter of high principle that Ferriero was supporting you? Or a matter of political opportunism? If the former; how do you feel about Ferriero now that he's officially abandoned you?

8) Your campaign is thoroughly laced with implications that Frank Lautenberg is somehow too old to competently do his job. Did you have any factual proof/knowledge of this before you announced? If yes, when did you get it and why didn't you share it immediately with the public?

If all these questions can be answered by Robert Andrews in a way that is consistent with the kind of integrity, ethics and good judgment we have a right to expect from a candidate for the Senate of the United States; then I would whole heartedly join him in his quest to share the same platform with Frank Lautenberg.

From Frederick Douglass

If there is no struggle there is no progress......Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

the last thing Frank Lautenberg wants to do is talk about the issues (in public, rather than by a press release).

He knows he'd get flustered in a debate and his age would show.

anyone who's seen Frank speak off-the-cuff in person in the last 4 years knows what I'm talking about.

Andrews can't evade the primary issue in this campaign, and that's his character.

How can anyone ever take anything he ever says or does seriously when he has demonstrated a total lack of scruples and of credibility?

If he can't honestly answer the questions posed above withouit coming off as a total creep; then he doesn't deserve to hold elective office at any level, let alone in the US Senate.

From Frederick Douglass

If there is no struggle there is no progress......Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.