Only in New Jersey: Prosecutor vacations with Senator in corruption probe

Today's Jon "Zero Tolerance" Corzine Award for Political Tone Deafness goes to Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli, who decided to go on a vacation to Italy with a small group of friends that included State Senator Joseph Coniglio, the target of a federal criminal probe.  Molinelli told The Record's Charles Stile that he saw no conflict because his office has no role in the U.S. Attorney's investigation of the two-term Democratic legislator.

Molinelli and Coniglio share friends and a political base.  Before becoming Prosecutor in 2002, Molinelli was the Treasurer of the Bergen County Democratic Organization and a member of Democratic County Chairman Joseph Ferriero's inner circle.  A Ferriero rival, State Senator Loretta Weinberg, is holding up Molinelli's reappointment to a second five-year term because she wants to make sure Molinelli's office is "above reproach."

Coniglio, who dropped his bid for re-election last month, was invited to join the trip by another Ferriero guy, attorney Dennis Oury, according to the Stile colulmn.  Democratic sources suggest that the relationship between Oury and Ferriero has become strained over the last few months.  Oury told the press last summer that he intended to file a lawsuit to overturn pay-to-play regulations -- something the more savvy Ferriero did not want to do in the midst of an election.