The first of, (hopefully) many federal indictments of the members of the New Jersey State senate are in.

The first fat cat is senator Wayne Bryant, the former chairman of the State senate Budget Committee has been indicted on corruption charges for allegedly bilking the New Jersey tax payers out of millions of dollars. He used his position on the State budget committee to steer millions of dollars to UMDNJ's School of Osteopathic Medicine and others in exchange for no-work jobs in order to triple his taxpayer-funded pension.

Millennium Radio New Jersey

"When you read this indictment" says U-S Attorney Chris Christie, "you will see the lengths to which Senator (Wayne) Bryant went to be able to defraud the New Jersey taxpayers of their money in order to put it in his own pocket…, what you see in this indictment is unparalleled greed bore naked for the public to see."

Christie says Bryant faces mail fraud, wire fraud and bribery charges for taking salaries from UMDNJ, Rutgers University-Camden and the Gloucester County Board of Social Services for allegedly doing little to no meaningful work, "all to feed his own insatiable desire for more public money to put in his own pocket."

The jobs helped Bryant boost the pension he would receive from $28,000 to $81,000, prosecutors allege. Mark Perkiss, a spokesman with the State Department of Treasury says Bryant is not currently collecting a pension. He has applied according to Perkiss, but the pension board has not yet acted on the application. Typically, if charges are pending against an applicant, a pension decision will not be made until such time the case is adjudicated.

Christie says, "He (Bryant) leveraged his position as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and the power that was given to him by the senate leadership to distribute money in order to put money in his own pocket." He adds, "This is pretty brazen conduct….every time I think I can no longer be shocked in this job it seems like somebody else comes along to shock me." Christie explains, "As the evidence was unfolding in this case, I found it just incredible that someone would act in such blatant and brazen way, such a transparent way for his own self-enrichment."

The indictment says UMDNJ created the job for Bryant in 2003 and that he showed up only one morning per week at most and did little more than read newspapers, yet earned up to $40,000 per year and brought millions in state money to the school. The charges also claim Bryant worked just 14.8 hours for Gloucester County Board of Social Services over four years, yet received about $200,000, largely by billing the board for work performed by others. He is also alleged to have done little work in exchange for the income he received from Rutgers-Camden.

The most serious charges against Bryant carry maximum penalties of 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. A 20 count indictment adds up to about 275 years in the slammer.

It's about time. These slugs have to go to jail.

Could the federal investigation into the New Jersey Legislature's budget process be the cause for the sudden exodus of Senators from the New Jersey State Legislature?

More than likely if you ask me.

The deplorable trough swilling may be drawing too much attention now for some of the thieves Senators in Trenton, with the people of New Jersey finally getting their heads out of the sand and speaking up with strong demands for ethics and property tax reform, along with the Federal government looking over their shoulders and into the outrages and illegal things they have done to the State's budget over the past years.

Retiring senators remaking Trenton

By '08, 11 of 40 seats are sure to change.

State Sen. William Gormley's announcement in January that he was leaving the Legislature hardly seemed the start of something seismic.

The South Jersey Republican had, after all, mixed it up for three decades in what he called the "contact sport" known as Trenton politics, and with a primary challenge looming, he wanted to go out on his own terms, with his legacy and winning streak intact. Two other veteran senators had already made it clear for more than a year that they were serving their last terms.

But then came another retirement. And another. By the time Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny announced Monday that he, too, would call it quits at the end of his term, the ripples had become a political tsunami.

Eleven senators -- more than a quarter of the 40-member upper chamber -- have now said they will not seek re-election in November, ensuring the biggest turnover in the Senate since the Watergate era, when voters swept 13 Republicans from office.

The number could grow even higher before next month's filing deadline: There's been no word on re-election yet from Sen. Sharpe James (D-Essex), the subject of a federal investigation, and several other senators face pressure from their parties to move on.

The departing politicians and political observers say the exodus has been driven by a confluence of factors: aging lawmakers, political infighting, a sense that politics has become too nasty a game in Trenton -- and the cloud of a federal investigation into the Legislature's budget process.

"I can't recall this ever happening in modern times," said David Rebovich, a Rider University political science professor and longtime observer of Trenton's machinations. "It's unprecedented that there would be so many voluntary retirements."

I'm sure most are saying to themselves, there is no sense in staying now with many changes imminent. They already have their double and triple state pensions guaranteed to them for life, not to mention the fat bank accounts they managed to acquire for themselves, while draining the purses of the people of the State.

Get out while the gettin's good! Right?

Great job guys! Don't let the door hit yah...