By Matt Rooney
Fun fact: I was nominated to the U.S. Naval Academy by then-U.S. Congressman Rob Andrews back in the early 2000s but didn’t ultimately secure an appointment.
Now I realize my error, Save Jerseyans: my mom wasn’t in Congress!
But the fact that Mikie Sherrill probably used her pull as a member of Congress to get her daughters nominated to the U.S. Naval Academy is arguably not the real scandal here. The true scandal is that she can’t be honest about it.
“In order to remove even the appearance of a conflict of interest, my children did not compete in my office’s service academy nomination process,” Sherrill reportedly told The NY Post. “Instead, they applied to the offices of the U.S. Senators from New Jersey, who also run academy nomination processes each year, and I am proud that they each earned nominations on their own.”
Riiight. God bless those young ladies for wanting to serve their country, but pretending the identity of Sherrill’s daughters’ mother didn’t play a role in their selection in a hyper-competitive process is beyond ridiculous. Insulting and ridiculous.
Her own conduct at the Naval Academy continues to roil the gubernatorial race and make national news. Whatever she did was bad enough to not only bar her from walking at graduation but, critically, she refuses to authorize the release of her disciplinary file and keeps changing the story.
First, we were told she refused to snitch on some cheating classmates. “I didn’t turn in some of my classmates, so I didn’t walk, but graduated and was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Navy, serving for nearly ten years with the highest level of distinction and honor,” Sherrill said in a statement issued by the campaign last Thursday.
But a mere 24 hours later, Sherrill dropped in on the National Pan-Hellenic Councils Across New Jersey in Plainfield and served up a very different version of how it went down. “There was a test at the school that was stolen,” Sherrill explained. “I did not realize it was stolen. I took the test… afterwards, I knew what the rumor mill was… I didn’t come forward with that information.”
So did she not walk because she refused to snitch out cheaters?
Or because she cheated?
Her compulsive lying extends well beyond Academy-related scandals. Keeping track is becoming quite the chore. Back in July, I detailed Sherrill’s lies concerning her success with stock trading, an endorsement of NYC’s Mamdani, and even which plane her grandfather piloted during WW2. Who the f–k lies about their grandfather flying a plane which didn’t even exist at the time? Particularly when the liar in question is a military pilot!
Let’s get to the heart of the matter at hand: with Election Day only one month away, should we now expect her lying to end upon being hypothetically elected governor and taking the oath of office?
Life doesn’t work that way. Liars don’t work that way.
She’d be another McGreevey. Corzine. Christie. Murphy. A new face in a long, familiar succession of liars who’ve betrayed the trust of New Jersey voters. It’s time to break the chain and reboot, Save Jerseyans. We know how this movie ends. I don’t want to watch it one more time. Do you?
