Five Hours Of My Life I Can't Get Back; The Cerf Nomination Hearing
Below is the testimony I prepared and (sort of) delivered for the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the nomination of Commissioner Chris Cerf. Senator Doherty went on for what seemed like an ETERNITY (Check out Jersey Jazzman's timeline - it was at least 40 minutes of the five hour ordeal) but the five citizens that testified had their microphones abruptly turned off at exactly the three minute mark.
It felt a bit hostile and unnecessary.
Sitting in the room during the questioning it was hard not to notice how perfunctory it all felt. Yes, yes, here is the question I should ask about (fill in creepy thing Cerf has done here). But there was no probing. No real challenge. No teeth.
Oh, except on his residency. Senator Scutari really dug his heels in on that one.
Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), the committee chairman, said Cerf’s answers about his residency nearly kept him from voting to affirm the nomination. Scutari said Cerf may have perpetrated "something like fraud" by not being truthful about his motivation to move.
Earlier this year, Cerf rented an apartment in Somerset County that is