Lightheaded and Dizzy, Senator Lautenberg Falls And Gets Hospitalized

    At 86 years old, Monday night, New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg fell at his Cliffside Park home after feeling dizzy and lightheaded. As a precautionary measure, was rushed to the hospital by ambulance and after undergoing an endoscopy it was disclosed that the octogenarian senator was suffering from a bleeding ulcer that he was promptly treated for.

An aide to the Senator announced that Lautenberg is expected to have a full recovery and after a night of routine observation, the Senator should be back to work very soon.

Nonetheless, even before Frank Lautenberg took his fall, most of us have known that Lautenberg is usually lightheaded and dizzy. It is called liberalism, but that aside, at 86 years old, one must ask how much dizzier and lightheaded can Frank get before he is unable to pretend to represent the people of New Jersey responsibly?

Now that New Jersey has a Republican governor, Lautenberg will be propped up by the state and national Democrat committees for as long as humanly possibly but at some point, rigamortis will set in and it will be hard to hide. When that time does come, Chris Christie will have to replace Frank and that replacement is not likely to be a Democrat.

Sorry Frank Pallone, but your stuck, again, being the bridesmaid, never the bride.

Who Christie’s appointment will be is anyone’s guess. But there are certainly a number of good choices for him to make…..conservative choices like Assemblyman and State Republican Chairman Jay Webber.  Or maybe my personal favorite for this job, Congressman Scott Garret, the most conservative member of the Garden State congressional delegation.

Two other possibilities, State Senators Joe Kyrillos and Jennifer Beck, are a little less conservative than Garrett or Webber but still solid choices. And what’s more is, they are close confidants of the Governor. So they may have an inside track. If that is the case, Kyrillosmay have the edge.

During the race for Governor, it was rumored that Joe Kyrillos was going to resign his state senate seat and retire if he was not picked to be Christie’s Lieutenant Governor running mate. Well neither happened and Kyrillos is showing no clear sign of leaving politics anytime soon.  So the very possible eventual vacancy that will open up in Lautenberg’s Senate seat may just be filled in with Joe Kyrillos.

Of course, Governor Christie’s friend, State Senator Jennifer Beck, would make an outstanding choice that can place a lot of political points on Christie’s plate.  As a woman, she would be the first female US Senator in the state and her appeal among the electorate would be widespread. She is bright, articulate, energetic and real go getter.

But Chris Christie is hard to judge. Sometimes, his prosecutorial backgrounds causes him to go out of the way in attempts to look above reproach. That sometimes makes those closest to him, the least likely to benefit form him. So Christie may not want to tap anyone he has any close personal or political ties to.

That is how he wound up choosing Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno as his Lieutenant Governor. While competent, forceful and outspoken, Guadagno had no real ties to Christie.

Either way, speculation of who Christie might choose to fill a vacancy in the US Senate can continue to run wild, but until Lauternberg either admits that the job is beyond him or until till death do him part, New Jersey is stuck with another dead headed liberal representing them in the U.S. Senate.