Mayor ME-Cormac Knows All of Us
Woodbridge is a big township of 100,000 people, but it's really just ten small towns who all hang out together.
Don't doubt it. Mayor John McCormac knows every last one of us.
In several tragic but regionally newsworthy events of the last few months, McCormac managed to personally know every person involved.
The mayor's latest insinuation is with Woodbridge Police Officer Edward Barrett, Jr. Just days ago, the patrolman managed to stop a crazed shoplifter who held an elderly woman at knifepoint in Woodbridge Center with one shot from his gun.
The hostage holder is dead, the shopper is safe, and Mayor John McCormac somehow put himself into the middle of it, so to speak.
The mayor told NBCNewYork.com less than 48 hours after the Woodbridge Center shooting that Barrett's father, a retired Woodbridge police lieutenant and current head of the Woodbridge Township Ambulance and First Aid Squad, gave him a merit badge.
"42 years ago, (Barret, Sr.) gave a freckle-faced little kid named John McCormac his First Aid merit badge as a Boy Scout," McCormac told NBCNewYork.com.
The mayor said he has "known the family for years."
He said the same thing about the family of Corporal Kevin Reinhard, the Marine from Colonia who was catastrophically killed in a January helicopter crash in Afghanistan.
"It’s rough,” McCormac told the Home News. He "went to high school" with Reinhard's mother.
Then there is the death of much-beloved Hopelawn Fire Chief Bruce Turcotte. The firefighter passed away after courageously fighting a January fire in Menlo Park Terrace.
McCormac told the Star Ledger he personally "grew up two blocks from the fire scene."
He also told the newspaper that he remembered a similar fire in the 1970s at the same house that ended with tragic results. (This was apparently after he received his Boy Scout merit badge.)
It wouldn't be fair to say knowing Mayor McCormac isn't good for your health.
But Mayor McCormac relating how he is the BFF of everyone who makes a headline and comes from Woodbridge really isn't the point.
Did you expect your mayor to be gracious and low key, to stand back and let families and the heroes themselves take the spotlight?
Not in Woodbridge, and not with John McCormac, the self-proclaimed "mayor for life".
It's that the man feels this extraordinary need to insert himself personally into anything that happens in Woodbridge as long as it puts him front and center. He seemingly would rather jump off the Victory Bridge than miss a chance at a headline.
It's almost as grimly amusing as watching any of Woodbridge's cable channels. The mayor's face is plastered on everything; any piece of paper out of anything in Woodbridge that has a bulk mailing permit has McCormac's name smeared all over it.
The era of politicians with grace, wit, good sense, and intelligence seems to have bypassed Woodbridge Township.
Why, one would think the mayor paid for all these things himself. He didn't; taxpayers did.
But then, what's a little favor between best friends?
tweetiexx
6:12 pm on Monday, March 12, 2012
It's called "delusions of grandeur" or "Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)"
TAKE YOUR PICK.
Katora
7:43 pm on Monday, March 12, 2012
It's called politics.
Donald Nelsen
8:16 pm on Monday, March 12, 2012
Isn't it also politics that Johnny Mac applauds PO Barrett for shooting the thug in the head (as do I without any reservation) stating what a violent robber the now deceased criminal on parole was - yet another person who served 4 years time in state prison for the very same robbery crime is allowed to continue to work as an EMT Supervisor in an emergency services sensitive position with the Woodbridge Township Ambulance & Rescue Squad (and now as a part time dispatcher in Fords Fire District 7)?
I am interested to hear his new spin on the continued double standards - or is it NPD?
Be careful Tamara, Johnny Mac will target you if you keep posting the truth.
Tom Maras
12:05 pm on Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Don, it's more MacBluster than politics. Perhaps, Mac's next logo should read: Mac the Beloved of All!
Why do you continue to harp about an EMT, who made a mistake as a youth and turned around his life in a very positive way. It sounds like you would have shot him for his offense, had you had the opportunity to take the shot. Just think how many lives might not have been saved by that EMT, had your standard of timely justice been applied.
Tom Maras
12:17 pm on Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Tamara,
One of the best opinions on the man many consider the ultimate egotist. Wonder why he doesn't tout his relationship with Fancy Pup; they got a lot of press lately.
One must remember, Mac has stated he will be Mayor for as long he wants the position. Perhaps, that's why he spends so much time with school kids, kids who sing praises of him and, if Mac has his way, will be voting for him in years to come.
Donald Nelsen
3:48 pm on Thursday, March 15, 2012
Where was I harping Tom? I simply made a statement on a post somebody else wrote. Nobody is saying he hasn't served his time or apparently turned his life around. The whole start of this entire fiasco was pointing out the double standards present in the Mac Administration - at the time the disparity of statements regarding the Avenel-Colonia EMS debacle then the Woodbridge Township and Ambulance mess. Heaven forbid we actually point out an issue in contrast to your poop at the dog park capers.
For the record, Armed Robbery is an enumerated crime for which lethal force is justified and if I was present and felt threatened or believed the victim to be in harm's way - your darn right I would shoot any armed robber under those conditions.
If I remember correctly, I believe the EMT in question robbed an elderly woman with a knife - similar to the recent incident at the mall. Too bad PO Barrett wasn't around to stop that violent crime as well.
Here's a shocker - if Johnny Mac and cohorts followed the law and did not allow this illegal hiring to continue, we wouldn't be having this conversation. And, in the EMT's place there would have been somebody else (probably a township resident nonetheless) in his place to save otherslives. Is the EMT in question the only one who knows how to save lives? Really Tom, your arguments are totally misguided; again.
Tom Maras
9:34 pm on Thursday, March 15, 2012
Oh Donny boy...
xNNx
5:03 pm on Wednesday, March 21, 2012
We need more dirt on this guy! I love meeting skeletons from the closet...anyone wish to share some more?
Can't shut me up
7:51 am on Tuesday, March 27, 2012
@xNNx.....Here's come interesting reading for you about the spokesman for Woodbridge.
http://articles.philly.com/1994-07-07/news/25846340_1_police-car-police-radio-thomas-gallagher
Janet Gage
2:35 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
great, we have another drunk in city hall. just what we needed. kind of explains why the township is spending our $$$ like drunken sailors - it's because they are!
Tom Maras
10:04 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
He makes about $12K more than his boss. Wonder who picks up the tab. Who signs his expense accounts?