IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ... 

  Patton, Dangerfield and Mother Teresa of Teaneck  

Bergen County Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Ferriero is not the easiest man to like.

 

Don't take my word for it. Plenty of folks say he controls the party with an iron fist. Like most stories, it's half truth and half myth. But like him or not, compare Ferriero to Bergen County Republican Organization Chairman Guy Talarico and it's clear that one man, at worst, is a regional Gen. Patton while the other one, at best, is Rodney Dangerfield.

 

Ferriero and state Sen. Loretta Weinberg have bad blood between them. They tell different stories of how it all went wrong, but the common denominator is Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa. The former state assemblyman wants to return to Trenton. How to make "Ken whole" again is a quandary that rivals what to do with a large male egg who once sat on a wall and subsequently had a great fall. To date, all of Ferriero's efforts to reassemble the Trenton career of former Assemblyman Zisa have failed.

 

Even Patton could not make Democrats swallow the ticket of Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes for Senate, and Zisa and Cid Wilson for Assembly in the 37th District. Weinberg and her team of incumbents, Gordon Johnson and Valerie Vainieri Huttle, were polling way ahead of the Ferriero-backed team.

 

Reportedly Governor Corzine and Rep. Steve Rothman helped broker the truce. I've heard state Sen. Richard Codey also had a hand in it. Obviously, these men have the negotiating power needed in the Middle East.

 

Ferriero is pragmatic. He wasn't going to easily win. Why waste political and financial capital in the reassembly of a former assemblyman? Ferriero and Weinberg may not like each other, but who cares? Certainly not Democrats who want to retain control in Trenton. It's about winning. Ferriero is not Tony Soprano, and Weinberg is not Mother Teresa of Teaneck. These are smart, savvy politicians who play full out. Weinberg won and Ferriero is smart enough to recognize that.

 

That is the opposite approach of the man who gets no respect, Guy Talarico. This week the finance chairman of the Bergen County Republican Organization, Joseph Caruso, resigned. In a letter to Talarico, he wrote: "I do not wish to waste my time and effort bolstering personal agendas and feeding vendettas. Nor do I wish to watch the money I have helped raise for the BCRO -- which has amounted to a considerable sum -- be squandered beating up on fellow Republicans."

 

The bruised Republicans are in the solidly Republican 40th District. Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole is running for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Hank McNamara. Incumbent Assemblyman David Russo and Wayne Mayor Scott Rumana flesh out the ticket.

 

Talarico, though, wants to make Todd Caliguire "whole" and is backing an opposing slate. The Republican GOP doesn't have the money or the organization for such a fight. That isn't stopping Talarico. Whether his motives are to promote a conservative agenda in a moderate district or to keep the Senate seat in Bergen County, it is pure political folly.

 

Talarico's tactical insight might be welcomed by the Bush administration's foreign policy advisers, but they aren't helping Bergen Republicans. Rather than marshal his energy to fight state Sen. Joseph Coniglio in the 38th District, who is vulnerable, or chip away at state Sen. Paul Sarlo, who will have some difficulty capping his EnCap flip-flop, Talarico is fighting fellow Republicans. He's like the football player who scores a touchdown for the opposing team.

 

Come November, Ferriero and Weinberg are unlikely to be sharing Thanksgiving dinner, but they both will feast on roasted Talarico. Ferriero still has to make Zisa "whole," but for now that egg isn't getting back up on the wall.

 

As for Talarico, he still gets no respect. There's nothing sadder to watch than a comedian who doesn't know when to leave the stage.

 (Alfred P. Doblin is the editorial page editor of The Record. Origin