These Dem & GOP insiders agree NY Times op-ed writer should quit; plus, NJ investigates church: What now?

Can Americans still have a sensible and friendly political discussion across the partisan divide? The answer is yes, and we intend to prove it. Julie Roginsky, a Democrat, and Mike DuHaime, a Republican, are consultants who have worked on opposite teams for their entire careers yet have remained friends throughout. Here, they discuss the week’s events, with prompts from Tom Moran, editorial page editor of The Star-Ledger.

Q. Let’s start with the anonymous “senior official” in the Trump administration who wrote a New York Times op-ed describing President Donald Trump as dangerously incompetent. What’s your big takeaway?

DuHaime: It is completely irresponsible by the New York Times to run an anonymous op-ed, someone described only as a “senior administration official.” That could be one of hundreds or even thousands of people with that description. It is a disservice to the Times and its media allies because it plays right into the president’s narrative that the press has an agenda. As for the unknown author, sabotaging from the inside is undermining the election that has already happened. It was wrong the for the paper to print it, and the person who wrote it should quit.

Roginsky: I’ve given this a lot of thought and I mainly land where Mike is. Obviously, reporters use anonymous sources all the time but for some unnamed official to write an op-ed of this magnitude smells of covering his own back if and when Trump ultimately implodes. It’s kind of like saying, “Yeah, I was at the right hand of Marshall Petain, but you should have seen what he would have done had I not been there.” No. You quit and then you write the op-ed.

Q. What impact might this have on Trump? Will he rely on an even tighter circle of loyalists?

DuHaime: The Times knows it will cause an all-out manhunt for the author inside the administration, which will paralyze them for days. And yes, it will cause the president to trust fewer and fewer people. Both of those make it harder for him to enact his agenda. The Times may think that’s good, but that is not the job of the free press.

Roginsky: This president is paranoid to begin with and this will fuel the paranoia. Let’s not forget that Mark Felt, in 1974, categorically denied being Deep Throat, so these denials from Pence, Kelly and others shouldn’t really mean much to the president. At the end, he will be speaking to portraits of dead presidents and sobbing on Henry Kissinger’s shoulder because, when the end comes, all of his so-called loyalists will abandon him.

Q. Answering a demand from state Sen. Joe Vitale, D-Middlesex, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal on Thursday announced a task force to investigate sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in New Jersey, saying he wanted to follow Pennsylvania’s path. Good idea?

DuHaime: As a practicing Catholic, I am appalled and enraged by the Catholic Church’s outrageous mishandling of child sex abuse. It hits closer to home when we learn that the Newark Archdiocese, of which I am a member, was paying settlements regarding Archbishop McCarrick’s behavior before he was promoted to cardinal of the Washington, D.C., archdiocese, perhaps the most prominent post in the American Catholic Church.

The church has shown zero willingness to hold predators and their enablers accountable or to change its culture in a way that will stop abuse. It not only excused abuse, it enables abusers and endangered more victims. The hierarchy of the church put the best interests of child rapists ahead of the well-being of children. I shake with anger as I think about it.

The church does so much good to take care of the poor, vulnerable and the sick as Christ taught, but that does not shield it from accountability when it purposely puts children in harm’s way. Since the church has shown no willingness to police itself, I applaud Attorney General Grewal and Sen. Vitale for this. As a Catholic, I am grateful for it. The civil authorities can save the church by doing what it has been unwilling to do itself.

Roginsky: I am not Catholic, and I hesitate to criticize a religion that is not my own. Having said that, there was a tremendous number of Catholic children who were put in harm’s way by priests who took advantage of their ecclesiastical role. I understand that the church entered into a memorandum of understanding with the attorney general in 2002 to report instances of abuse to civil authorities. Unfortunately, it is only recently that we have learned of the allegations against Cardinal McCarrick and that leads me to believe that there is so much more we don’t know about the abuse taking place in the church. The public deserves a full accounting of what went on and the children who got abused — many of whom are now adults — deserve to see justice. Attorney General Grewal is right to do this.

Q. Hudson and Essex counties have contracts with ICE to hold undocumented immigrants in county jails, and some advocates object, saying that amounts to blood money. Will there be political fallout?

DuHaime: No, there won’t be. Until there is some change at the federal level, I don’t see why county administrations should suddenly change their policies. ICE is a political football federally, but I doubt it will impact votes for freeholder.

Roginsky: I agree with Mike on the lack of political fallout, though on principle, I would not enter into any contract with ICE while it is treating undocumented immigrants so despicably.

Q. Let’s close on a cheerful note: New Jersey has more kids studying foreign languages than any other state, with the bulk studying Spanish. What does that say about the Garden State?

DuHaime: We have the most diverse state in the country, and we continue to have a welcoming attitude. As a teenager, I drove a delivery truck in Paterson and Passaic and often kicked myself for taking French in high school instead of Spanish. Spanish would have been far more practical, unless I move to Montreal someday. It also shows we have great schools in New Jersey that offer so much. My kids take foreign languages much earlier than I ever did, and I think it’s great for them and their generation to be multi-lingual.

Roginsky: I also took French in high school, which actually did come in handy when I went to Montreal a few weeks ago. And as the mother of a bilingual kid, who grew up bilingual herself, I can attest to the benefits of children learning foreign languages as early as they can. This is one of the many reasons New Jersey’s schools rank at the top of the field nationally and Mike is right, it is also a testament to what a diverse state New Jersey is.

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