We're ending a very unstable week in New Jersey, having five different governors in eight days. But it's all about to settle down soon. Way down.

Up until Tuesday, 11:59 a.m., the governor was Donald DiFrancesco, the president of the Senate. He had finished out the last year of Christie Todd Whitman's term when she left office to head up the Environmental Protection Agency – George W. Bush having apparently admired the smell of North Jersey.

From noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, after DiFrancesco's term was up but other officials still were being sworn in, the governor was Attorney General John Farmer. Ah yes, the Farmer administration. I believe I was at lunch back then.

For the next few days after that, the governor was the new Republican President of the Senate, John Bennett. Remember those heady days of John Bennett? Wednesday through Friday? Then the governor was Richard Codey, the Democratic leader of the Senate. We have more Senate presidents than necessary because the Senate is evenly split, or maybe one Senate president belongs to a union.

But this Tuesday, James E. McGreevey becomes governor, and things get steady. Boy, do they ever get steady. Some people are beginning to wonder if James E. McGreevey is anything except steady. The question came up recently when James E. McGreevey's transition office sent various newspapers a note saying James E. McGreevey wishes to be referred to in all news stories as James E. McGreevey.

We're so accustomed to politicians asking for something informal: Christine "Christie" Whitman, William "Bill" Clinton, Richard "Dick" Cheney, "Smokin'" Joe Lieberman. So a lot of us were surprised by James E. McGreevey's formality. The New York Times found it particularly amusing that James E. McGreevey chose to communicate his preference by letter, whereas other governors have had a spokesman simply make a few informal phone calls.

The New York Times doesn't know the half of it.

Anybody who followed James E. "Just Call Me James E. McGreevey" McGreevey in this last election knows that he's not fond of the spontaneous moment. Even near the end of the campaign, as his Republican opponent Bret Schundler rapidly closed the gap between them, James E. McGreevey reacted by canceling public appearances. Often, the only way to get an interview was to e-mail him a set of questions, then have him phone you days later from God-knows-where with his prepared answers. It was eerie – sort of like talking politics with Howard Hughes.

This tendency to have things scripted contrasted sharply with Schundler, who made a point of pressing the flesh, answering questions directly and openly making up a lot of it as he went along. I saw Schundler in person three times in the course of the campaign, and each time, I walked away knowing exactly – precisely – why I wasn't voting for him. But his straight answers showed respect for the voters, and they respected him in return, enough to raise his poll numbers.

Not high enough, though. Presumably, that's what the then-candidate for the Democrats was betting on. If Schundler just kept popping off, then people might talk about what's wrong with Schundler rather than what's wrong with James E. McGreevey. And James E. McGreevey did win. So there you are.

Once that happened, however, many observers wondered whether the new governor might loosen up a bit. And unfortunately we may have received our answer with that note.

God knows, we need someone steady at the helm. But if James E. McGreevey is going to help motivate a new generation of Democrats, he's got to inspire people, dazzle them, make them want to know what he'll say next. Is it inspiring when a man hands out notes requesting that he be called by his formal first name and middle initial?

I think most political observers would agree, this sounds more like a good way to get yourself beaten up at the playground.