Another take on McGreevey.

From "Goodbye, Mr. McGreevey," by Richard Kim, on

"... There is, of course, another life to which Jim McGreevey could have aspired, had he the courage or imagination. New York City in the late 1970s, still in the rush of gay liberation but before the AIDS crisis, was ripe with possibilities both personal and political (if not exactly electoral) for men like him. And yet, of all the memories that gay men could recount of those days, his are surely the most pitiable: "All I did in college, literally, was just work. Columbia was a blur of studying." During the late 1980s, while AIDS struck thousands of gay men and the FDA dragged its feet, McGreevey was working as a lobbyist for Merck Pharmaceuticals. He might have acted up then, but he did not. As the early 1990s culture wars saw waves of vicious right-wing assaults on gays and lesbians--and Congressmen like Barney Frank and Gerry Studds spoke out as openly gay men--Mr. McGreevey, then a local politician with far less at stake, had another opportunity to wed the personal and political, but he did not. Not during the Texas sodomy case, the Massachusetts gay marriage decision, President Bush's call for a federal marriage amendment or even New Jersey's own recent debate over domestic partnership benefits did McGreevey choose to step forward. Instead, the moment chose him. He was forced by scandal and threat, the palpable sense of relief that suffused his declaration shadowed by sexual harassment charges and ethical questions...."