NJ GUBE: I'm Not Like Those Other Wall Street Guys

Gov. Jon Corzine (D) gave his Wall Street resume a populist bent while accepting the endorsement 3/28 of the Somerset County Democratic Committee.

"I used to talk about being a banker, now I talk about being a Marine," Corzine told the crowd of revved up Dems. "If you don't think I'm a fighter, then you don't know me. You know, I fought (Hank) Paulson and (John) Thain when I was at Goldman Sachs. They didn't have the right values then, at Goldman, and they didn't have the right values after Goldman."

To many observers, Corzine's speech seemed a departure from previous remarks about his years as the CEO of Goldman Sachs.

"This is the first time that I recall seeing him attack his former company," said Joe Marbach, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Seton Hall University. "I don't remember him having a bad thing to say about his time at Goldman Sachs."

When he was running for gov. in '05, Corzine talked up the business skills he honed, and not the battles he fought, while running the financial services firm.

"Simply put, my administration will bring Management 101 to Trenton," Corzine said in a March '05 policy speech.

The political landscape has changed considerably in the last four years. Still, the recession might not be the only reason Corzine feels like invoking his battles against Paulson and Thain. Reminding voters preemptively of his Wall Street experience might make it old news before the GOP primary ends.

"Then maybe there'll be some forgiveness [by voters], or it will get played out," Marbach said.

Corzine isn't about to stop taking about his experience, says Tom Shea, an adviser to the governor, adding that Corzine's remark came as a response to a question. "It's more a reflection of a personal opinion than a change in a political posture," Shea said.

It could simply be that after a decade of relative quiet, Corzine no longer felt the need to hold his tongue about his intra-office battles which, by some accounts, were epic.

According to a July '05 profile of Corzine by New York magazine's Craig Horowitz, the squabbling between Paulson and Corzine goes back to '98, when they worked together at Goldman Sachs. At the time, Corzine was taking the company, which had been a private partnership, public. To relax, he took his family on a Christmas ski trip to Colorado. Meanwhile Paulson, who was then Corzine's co-chief executive, "staged a palace coup," stripping him of his title and authority. "He came back from Colorado and simply could not believe what had happened," a confidante said.

So will Corzine continue to talk about his Goldman Sachs years during the campaign? "His experience as a manager and leader will be a big part of this discussion," Shea said.

(SEAN J. MILLER)