To The Editor:

Kudos to Robert K. Haelig Jr. for his truthful, right on the mark letter entitled , "taxpayers footing the bill for cronyism."

I've always maintained that Dover's estimated population of 95,000 people should be in attendance on New Year's Day at town hall when the political patronage "jobs" are doled out at the annual organization meeting.

Re-Org Crony Appointments Would Be A Revalation

If you could squeeze 95,000 people into that meeting room on the second floor, it would be such a revelation for many.

In political circles, feeding from the public trough is called "cronyism"  Well, the editorial staff at the Ocean County Observer certainly "get it."

They have been very vigilant in their fine editorials regarding this scourge of pay-to-play politics.

Unfortunately, the general population cares as much about corrupt pay-to-play politics as it does about the ongoing steroid scandal in Major League Baseball involving such superstars as Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Gary Scheffield.

Just the other day, I was sitting in the local watering hole holding court and discussing with others the Mike Wallace interview on "60 Minutes" with disgraced former Major Leaguer Jose Canseco.

Tickets To Yankees Opener  More
Important Than Paying Attention?

All of a sudden, the door to the watering hole swung open and in swaggered a customer excitedly holding aloft four ducats in one hand, and bellowing at the top of his lungs, "I just scored four tickets to the New York Yankees home opener.

So much for the big picture.

It works pretty much the same way relative to the average guy's attitude regarding political corruption, government scandals and pay-to-play politics.

If My Street Gets Plowed, I Could Care Less

Just show the him an Observer front-page story dealing with disgraced politician being led off to jail in handcuffs and in all likelihood Mr. Average Citizen will retort with, "Hey, as long as my garbage gets picked up on a regular basis, and my street gets plowed free of snow, I could care less.