{"id":186953,"date":"2013-08-12T21:58:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T02:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2013\/08\/12\/he-is-probably-going-to-win-the-primary-tomorrow-but-cory-booker-is-a-corrupt-rat-bastard\/"},"modified":"2013-08-12T21:58:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-13T02:58:00","slug":"he-is-probably-going-to-win-the-primary-tomorrow-but-cory-booker-is-a-corrupt-rat-bastard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2013\/08\/12\/he-is-probably-going-to-win-the-primary-tomorrow-but-cory-booker-is-a-corrupt-rat-bastard\/","title":{"rendered":"He is Probably Going to Win the Primary Tomorrow, but Cory Booker is a Corrupt Rat-Bastard"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may remember his wankitude in the 2012 elections, when he said that Obama being mean to Bain Capital gave him a sad<\/a>, but it’s worse than that.<\/p>\n

He is deeply and openly on the take<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The conference room in the Mountain View, Calif., headquarters of LinkedIn was packed with the stars of Silicon Valley. Top executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter gathered around a table; the billionaire Sean Parker looked on from a back row. The guest of honor: Cory A. Booker, the mayor of Newark.<\/span>

<\/span> The stated purpose of the gathering was to give Mr. Booker, already a Twitter fanatic, a seminar on social-networking technologies. But hanging in the air was an electrifying sense of being in the presence of an ascendant politician they believed understood the potential of the new digital world they were shaping.<\/span>

<\/span> \u201cHe\u2019s part of this tide,\u201d said Gina Bianchini, an entrepreneur who was at the meeting, in May 2009. \u201cIt feels like he\u2019s one of us.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span> Two and a half years later, some of those same Silicon Valley leaders joined forces again on Mr. Booker\u2019s behalf. But this time, their efforts resulted in giving Mr. Booker, until then an admired outsider, the equivalent of full-fledged membership in their elite circle: an Internet start-up of his own.<\/span>

<\/span> Mr. Booker personally has obtained money for the start-up, called Waywire, from influential investors, including Eric E. Schmidt, Google\u2019s executive chairman. A year after its debut, Waywire has already endured a round of layoffs and had just 2,207 visitors in June, according to Compete, a Web-tracking service. The company says it is still under development.<\/span>

<\/span> Yet in a financial disclosure filed last month, Mr. Booker, 44, revealed that his stake in the company was worth $1 million to $5 million. Taken together, his other assets were worth no more than $730,000.<\/span>

<\/span> That revelation, with just a week left in Mr. Booker\u2019s campaign for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate, shows how a few tech moguls and entrepreneurs, many of them also campaign donors, not only made a financial bet on the mayor\u2019s political future but also provided the brainpower and financing to help create a company that could make him very rich. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why is this blatant influence peddling?<\/p>\n

Well, the tell is that Waywire hired the 15 year old son of the head of CNN and gave him stock options<\/a>:(Yes, it’s NY Post<\/i>, but echos the New York Times<\/i> story linked above, and it is far less oblique)<\/p>\n

He isn\u2019t even old enough to drive \u2014 but CNN President Jeff Zucker\u2019s teenage son has already resigned from a cushy position at Cory Booker\u2019s closely watched Internet start-up.<\/span>

<\/span> After somehow scoring a seat on the advisory board of the rising Democratic star\u2019s Waywire video-sharing site, 15-year-old Andrew Zucker abruptly quit yesterday amid questions over his qualifications.<\/span>

<\/span> The rich kid\u2019s consulting career as a \u201cmillennial adviser\u201d ended just hours after it was revealed that he had been granted stock options in the firm co-founded by Booker, the Newark mayor who polls show is a shoo-in for the US Senate after a special election.<\/span>

<\/span> \u201cDespite the fact that his affiliation with Waywire was extremely limited to only an advisory capacity, in order to avoid even the perception of a conflict, Jeff\u2019s son has resigned from the Waywire advisory board, effective immediately,\u201d CNN said in a statement.<\/span>

<\/span> News of Andrew\u2019s stock deal lit up social media yesterday, with critics on Twitter branding it a \u201cgross nepotism alert.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span> Corporate-governance experts also called his hiring highly unusual, saying they\u2019d never before heard of anyone so young getting such a cushy gig.<\/span>

<\/span> Advisory boards are usually stocked with \u201cseasoned folks who have been through the process of making that kind of a start-up work, or enhancing the capacity of a company so it can move to an IPO [initial public offering] or the next level of business,\u201d said Eleanor Bloxham, CEO of The Value Alliance. \u201cSo you\u2019re not generally looking in the high-school age range.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The defense is that he got less than qualified than, “Lady Gaga’s manager.”<\/p>\n

Seriously, the royalty of Silicon Valley is showering their largess on this guy because it’s such a good idea? For a web site that got 2,207 visitors in June?<\/p>\n

Seriously, I got 1,457 unique visitors in June, and I’m the worst writer on the internet.\u2122<\/sup><\/p>\n

But wait, there’s more. There is also the case of his old law firm, which continued to pay him for years while getting lucrative contracts from the city<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Cory Booker pocketed \u201cconfidential\u201d annual payouts from his former law firm while serving as Newark mayor.<\/span>

<\/span> Booker, the front-runner in New Jersey\u2019s Senate race, received five checks from the Trenk DiPasquale law firm from 2007 until 2011. During that time, the firm raked in more than $2 million in fees from local agencies over which Booker has influence.<\/span>

<\/span> \u201cThis was a settlement buyout for my interest in the firm,\u201d the mayor told The Post at a campaign stop in Jersey City yesterday. \u201cI had an equity stake, and we had a negotiated settlement.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span> Booker worked at the West Orange firm for five years, leaving in 2006 when he was elected Newark\u2019s mayor to avoid \u201cthe appearance of impropriety.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span> He refused to answer how much he received in the five years after leaving.<\/span>

<\/span> \u201cIt\u2019s all been disclosed for the last seven years,\u201d Booker said.<\/span>

<\/span> Not quite. Booker\u2019s state financial disclosures from 2006 to 2011 list two sources of income \u2014 the city of Newark and the law firm. The forms mandate reporting of income over $2,000 a year, but do not require an exact sum or range.<\/span>

<\/span> Booker\u2019s closed lips on the earnings fly in the face of his public stances. In 2002, he released his tax returns during his unsuccessful race against incumbent Mayor Sharpe James, and ripped James for not doing the same.<\/span>

<\/span> The returns \u201cprovide the only clues as to how many deals the mayor is involved in . . . and the only record of the money he\u2019s making on the side,\u201d Booker said at the time.<\/span>

<\/span> When The Post asked Friday for Booker\u2019s recent returns, his campaign refused to turn them over.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And then there are his positions on the issues<\/a>:<\/p>\n