We really got into Mike Kelly’s Record column yesterday blasting Joe Ferriero. Man, this guy can write. The Record usually uses only a pedestrian label and calls Ferriero a “Boss” in their attacks. But Kelly says Ferriero is “Vlad the Impaler!”

According to Wikipedia, Kelly’s Ferriero is on a par with a man who was “known for the exceedingly cruel punishments he imposed during his reign” and was the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel. 

That’s tough. 

Regardless, let’s run with it. Ferriero as “Dracula!” What is Loretta Weinberg? Well, Kelly says she is just “not perfect.”

No, No, No, Mike. That doesn’t work. No “real” excitement. No “legitimate” battle.  The people want stories with back-and-forth “believable” action!

There’s a lot of history to draw from, and some more recent than the 1400s.

Many have been subjected to Ms. Weinberg’s wrath. Twenty-eight years ago, The Leader newspaper said (May 9, 1985, page 18) that Weinberg had been “selected by the Party’s powerbrokers” as the Assistant County Administrator where “she began to acquire a reputation as heavy-handed and dictatorial in her dealings with less-influential fellow-Democrats.  She began to be secretly ridiculed as ‘Madame Nhu.’”  (By the way, that story was written by the late Jack O”Shea who went on to write for North Jersey newspapers.)

But, back to Wikipedia. It says this: “Madame Nhu pushed for the passing of 'morality laws'. These included such things as outlawing abortion, adultery, divorce, contraceptives, dance halls, beauty pageants, boxing matches, and animal fighting, and closed down the brothels and opium dens. Many people did not appreciate the imposition of Madame Nhu's values on their lives. She was also widely mocked by the public who regarded her as hypocritical, with older Vietnamese believing her décolleté gowns to be sexually suggestive, as well as widespread rumours of her own infidelity.”

No doubt, if the real Madame Nhu represented District 37 she’d be pro-choice and pushing gay marriage and good government. 

But wait, Bergen’s “Madame Nhu” does represent District 37 and is the so-called champion of open and good-government, while at the same time she uses Senatorial Courtesy to block appointments to punish enemies and to get her appointees through behind closed doors. And Bergen's "Madame Nhu" also cut backroom deals with Camden's George Norcross, a Party Boss far more powerful than Ferriero. And of course, let’s not forget the money she took from the healthcare industry and lobbyists and even a cigarette company while sitting on the Healthcare sub-committee in the legislature. Wow. When it comes to "hypocritical" that “really” is Madame Nhuish.

There’s a good flick in the making here: Vlad the Impaler vs. Madame Nhu. Can two power hungry tyrants share the same Party? We see it as sort of an Alien vs. Predator kind of thing, with fewer special effects. It should not need them if it's a factually driven story, no?