Mercedes-Benz follows Christie in leaving New Jersey

On Tuesday afternoon, residents of Prospect Avenue in Hackensack and elsewhere in North Jersey were relieved to see only a dusting of snow.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

At least New Jersey still has Ferrari.

Today's edition of The Record carries two front-page stories and a third inside on the decision by Mercedes-Benz, the U.S. arm of the luxury car maker, to leave Montvale for Atlanta (A-1, A-6 and L-7).

Given the South's history of anti-Semitism and slavery, the move might be a great fit for the German company.

Hitler rode in an open Mercedes-Benz built especially for him, and Diamler-Benz, BMW, Audi and other German companies enriched themselves during World War II by employing slaves who weren't killed in the concentration camps.

The great success of Toyota's luxury brand, Lexus, often is attributed to Jewish customers who, recalling the Holocaust, vowed never to buy a Mercedes or any other German car.

Jersey impact

Even if you're among the small minority of readers who own a Mercedes, the move will not affect you one bit, and these and a flurry of earlier stories completely avoid discussing whether the development is more fallout from Governor Christie's failed economic policies.

Who can say whether all the time Christie has spent out of state pursuing his White House dreams influenced Mercedes officials, who reasoned if the state's chief executive wants to leave, why shouldn't we?

And if The Record's executives rode their Mercedes-Benz delivery trucks when they abandoned Hackensack -- holding their middle fingers high in the air -- what's wrong with Mercedes heading to a warmer climate?

The Record cites high taxes as one reason Mercedes is relocating most of its 1,000 jobs, but doesn't remind readers how Christie broke his 2009 campaign promise to lower our ruinous property taxes.

Home-rule expenses

Nor is the home-rule system of government discussed, and the high cost to taxpayers living in Bergen County towns of paying for nearly 70 police chiefs, 70 school superintendents, 70 police departments, 70 fire departments and 70 of everything else.

Mercedes is the latest auto importer to leave North Jersey.

Englewood Cliffs was once home to the U.S. headquarters of Volkswagen-Porsche, Peugeot, Citroen and Alfa-Romeo.

Ferrari Maserati North America remains on Sylvan Avenue. Jaguar Cars moved its U.S. headquarters from Leonia to Mahwah. 

BMW, which outsells Mercedes in the U.S., hasn't said anything about moving its headquarters out of Woodcliff Lake.  

Other news

On Tuesday, the do-nothing Republicans took complete control of Congress for the first time in eight years, and did a lot of saber rattling, but nothing to pass any legislation (A-1 and A-4).

Fair Lawn's Coffee with a Cop event sounds like a great idea for other communities, including Paterson (L-1).

But the photo that runs with today's story could have been chosen more carefully.

It shows Patrolman Gerald Graziano with his arms crossed as resident Jeff Zammitti speaks to him.

Is the patrolman trying to keep warm, feel insecure or rejecting the resident's comments? 

A weather photo on L-3 today didn't even require the photographer to leave the Woodland Park building The Record now calls home.

Three Bimbos

You've heard of the Three Tenors?

Tuesday's front page of The Record carried the same Three Bimbos that appeared on Sunday's Page 1: Christie, Columnist Charles Stile and Teresa Giudice.

In Tuesday's long Stile column (A-1) and Melissa Hayes' news story (A-4) on Christie's relationship with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, there is no mention of a Port Authority contract the governor steered to a company that is partly owned by the Cowboys.

For that, you'll have to read a report today on an ethics complaint filed by the American Democratic Legal Fund (A-3).

Teresa Giudice

The headline on Tuesday's Page 1 story about Giudice going to prison for mortgage and bankruptcy fraud is just awful:

"Next 'Housewifes' scene
starts away from spotlight"

"Giudice begins prison term in dead of night"

I don't see anything in Staff Writer Virginia Rohan's story on the possibility Giudice will likely become another inmate's "housewife" (A-1 and A-6).

Christie is wrong for New Jersey, wrong for the nation

The Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan, above and below, was a source of frustration for North Jersey commuters years before The Record's editors took notice. Only angry letters to the editor roused the paper's transportation writers out of their deep slumber and distracted them from their driver-oriented coverage. Now, the editors are ignoring the problems of NJ Transit rail commuters, who scramble to find rush-hour seats on crowded trains.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In the last few months, The Record's editors had an epiphany:

Governor Christie's mean-spirited policies in New Jersey will have an impact on the 2016 election, if he wins the Republican presidential nomination.

But today's Political Stile column is largely a rehash of which Christie policies "are popular with conservative voters in key primary states" (A-1).

Those conservative voters meant little in the last presidential contest, when President Obama easily won election to a second term, and they won't help the GOP bully, in the unlikely event he is his party's nominee.

That will especially be true, if Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, heads what could be the first all-female White House ticket.

Who needs another Bush or a Christie in the White House?

Jackson stumbles 

A correction on A-2 today notes Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson was wrong in his unusually dull Page 1 column on Monday about his central premise -- how often a U.S. Senate ethics rule has been applied.

How embarrassing. This amounts to a "never mind" from the arrogant reporter, who claimed Rule 23 is "virtually toothless" and "has never been used."

Even the copy editor was fooled into writing this wrong front-page headline:

Senate's
strict rule 
on donors
never used

This Jackson correction and all of the errors readers find in the Road Warrior column makes you wonder about the soundness of the reporting and editing at the Woodland Park daily.

Mercedes in Montvale

In a letter to the editor, Montvale resident Kurt F. Kron says Mercedes-Benz USA is paying about $917,000 in property taxes on about 37 acres in his town -- "a 31 percent discount even after revaluation" (A-8).

In view of the official panic over rumors the U.S. arm of the German automaker might leave for the South, Kron suggests financial incentives should also be offered to keep residents in Montvale.