We repost the following (with permission) by Matt Rooney from Save Jersey because it asks pertinent questions and raises important issues far better than we could. Thank you, Matt!
I’m just going to come out and say it, Save Jerseyans:
There's a jarring lack of curiosity by the Media concerning Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver’s death.
Sincerely and truly, I have no desire to be insensitive and no interest in advancing a “conspiracy theory.” Anyone’s premature passing is a tragedy and no attention should be paid to party affiliation in the calculus. “Period, full stop” as the late Democrat leader’s boss would say. Still, let’s remember who we’re talking about here. This isn’t a backbencher in the Assembly or a deputy mayor from an obscure hamlet. Sheila Oliver, a former speaker of the Assembly, was the incumbent lieutenant governor of New Jersey. Second in command of state government at least in title and a department head in her own right (over at Community Affairs, a subdivision of the executive branch with broad powers and authority). Under ordinary circumstances, she would fill in for Phil Murphy during one of his extended opulent Italian getaways.
So forgive me, but I really want to know why she died. The circumstances aren’t irrelevant.
I also want to know – if she was ailing – whether Phil Murphy and other senior Trenton officials knew her condition was serious? The governor and his family were overseas at the time she was hospitalized and, by all accounts, made no move to return until after Lt. Governor Oliver passed away. The result of Oliver’s passing was the Senate President temporarily taking over the reins, someone who was only elected by a majority of 1/40th of the state’s population and whom most New Jerseyans couldn’t pick out of a line-up. Not ideal.
And if her passing was associated with a chronic condition rather than something which cropped up out of the blue… why wasn’t the public informed?
Was she ill for awhile? During the close 2021 gubernatorial election?
Or during one of the recent instances during which she assumed gubernatorial duties?
I’ve heard plenty from people in-and-around the political establishment over the past few days, but I’m not printing anything without an official statement. Why would I? It’s not responsible and, candidly, I shouldn’t have to ask! When you obtain high office, the elected official surrenders – unfortunately but necessarily – much of their privacy. There’s no way around it; we have a right to know whether the folks in charge of our running the state are healthy, and while grappling with an illness is in no way an automatic disqualifier for a public position, it’s certainly something which we the people have a right to consider.
Shouldn’t the Media take the lead? Sadly, it’s unsurprising that they haven’t. Joe Biden’s health (and Kamala Harris’s competence) are regular topics of conversation in the political discourse, but there’s been quite a bit of pushback and in some cases lack of concern on the part of the legacy Media to ask hard questions. Another glaring example of journalists failing to do their job can be found directly across the Delaware River: John Fetterman. Details of his true condition were deliberately kept from the public throughout the 2022 cycle, and now that we’ve seen him in action during Senate hearings, it’s not hard to figure out why they did it.
As I said right after her passing, Save Jerseyans, there could be a perfectly reasonable explanation for much of this. We still deserve to hear that explanation.
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