REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Torching Mr. Torricelli
Democrats become ethicists only after their man falls behind in the polls.
Bob Torricelli can be forgiven if he thinks his real mistake was bad timing. Only last August, Majority Leader Tom Daschle responded to the New Jersey Senator's ethics rebuke by saying the "sensational allegations made against Senator Torricelli have been proven false and without foundation." But yesterday Mr. Daschle and his colleagues ran the Torch out of town because his defeat might cost them Senate control.
Mr. Torricelli tearfully announced he was dropping his re-election bid at a late afternoon press conference yesterday, following a day of leaks out of Washington that forced his hand. His own early counter-leaks tried to break the stampede, but they couldn't stop what was clearly a push over the ledge from his own party colleagues and donors. A political lifer and renowned scrapper, the Torch wouldn't abandon his career unless he was given an offer he couldn't refuse.
The Senator's fatal blunder was getting caught amid the more serious post-September 11 national mood. The terror war and leaner economic times have made politics seem relevant again, and voters are suddenly more serious. One consequence is that they're showing a refreshing intolerance for political cads and cranks. The Torch should have had his political canoodling with donor David Chang exposed during the 1990s, when canoodling wasn't canoodling if . . . well, you remember.
There's nothing like a polling deficit to turn Senate Democrats into ethicists. Only last week Majority Leader Tom Daschle stumped for his man at a campaign rally in Trenton, telling voters that, "You can't possibly appreciate the job Torricelli does." He was joined by fellow New Jersey Senator Jon Corzine, who declared, without noticeable irony, that he had "never been prouder to be on a dais as I have this afternoon with the leadership you've got in the state of New Jersey."
Those encomiums came when Mr. Torricelli was still tied or ahead of his GOP challenger, businessman and political rookie Douglas Forrester. But an Eagleton poll this weekend showed a 13-point gap, and that was before the media had digested the just-released prosecutorial findings of the probe into Mr. Torricelli.
The Torch had fought for weeks to keep those records concealed but a judge released them. The documents show that prosecutors believed Mr. Chang when he said the Senator had demanded illegal gifts, but they didn't indict because they weren't sure a jury would believe Mr. Chang. They also found lots of corroborating evidence, which convinced even the forgiving Senate Ethics Committee to "severely admonish" Mr. Torricelli this summer.
Having now put out their Torch, Democrats are scrambling to find a more respectable candidate who can hold the New Jersey seat and their one-vote Senate majority. Bill Bradley would be their first choice, but the former Senator may have had enough of that company. Among the state's Congressmen, the best would be maverick Rob Andrews.
But whoever runs will have to overcome justifiable voter suspicion that this last-minute insider resign-and-trade deal is less about ethics than about power. Republicans have already said New Jersey law doesn't allow a candidate swap closer than 51 days before an election, which is November 5. New Jersey voters will have to decide if they want to reward a Senate Democratic majority that thought Bob Torricelli was a splendid Senator--until he fell behind in the polls.
