[Sukadrukanga]

That's just not very civil...at least he didn't call him fat.

I wish Christie would run for POTUS.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_tom_moran/201..._gov_chri.html

TRENTON — Senate President Stephen Sweeney went to bed furious Thursday night after reviewing the governor’s line-item veto of the state budget.

He woke up Friday morning even angrier.

"This is all about him being a bully and a punk," he said in an interview Friday.

"I wanted to punch him in his head."

Sweeney had just risked his political neck to support the governor’s pension and health reform, and his reward was a slap across the face. The governor’s budget was a brusque rejection of every Democratic move, and Sweeney couldn’t even get an audience with the governor to discuss it.

"You know who he reminds me of?" Sweeney says. "Mr. Potter from ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ the mean old bastard who screws everybody."

This is not your regular budget dispute. This is personal. And it could have seismic impact on state politics.

Because the working alliance between these two men is the central political fact in New Jersey these days. If that changes, this brief and productive era of bipartisan cooperation is over.

"Last night I couldn’t calm down," Sweeney said. "To prove a point to me — a guy who has stood side by side with him, and made tough decisions — for him to punish people to prove his political point? He’s just a rotten bastard to do what he did."

[inmeirulez]

Here's some more detail on what provoked that lawmaker's comment.

NJ.com: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/201...tml#incart_mce

From around the state, lawmakers, child advocates, mayors and college officials expressed outrage and disappointment yesterday over Gov. Chris Christie’s liberal use of the line-item veto on the budget enacted by the Democratic Legislature.

Christie slashed almost a billion dollars from the Democrats’ $30.6 billion budget that had restored spending for education, health care and tax credits for the working poor, aid to the state’s struggling cities and — in what was widely viewed as revenge for spurning his own budget — cuts to the Legislature.

The governor then signed the budget he had trimmed to $29.7 billion before the fiscal year ended at midnight Thursday, and Democratic hopes of overriding his veto are seemingly slim.

"New Jersey should be working harder to protect children from abuse and neglect, not pulling the plug on programs that work for children," said Nancy Erika Smith of the Newark-based Wynona Lipman Child Advocacy Center, which helps sexually and physically abused children.

[truck]

I'm glad Sweeney finally found his cajones. He's sold out a few times in the past year, but it looks like Christie's version of bipartisanship has helped him realize that he needs to stand by his convictions.

Honestly, I don't think Christie would have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the Presidency. If he had to stand for re-election today, he'd be likely to go down in flames. Other than his millionaire friends, most people here in NJ are pretty sick of his attitude.

[onelovemp]

As rotten bastards go, I'll see you one Gov. Christie and raise you a Gov. Rick Scott.

[hujdrftgkas]

A more specific list of what Christie slashed. Seems that a lot of people may want to take a swing at him after this.

NJ.com: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/201...tml#incart_mce

Christie gutted the financing, known as the transitional aid fund, for the state’s most distressed cities, cutting a program that had already been scaled back from $149 million in his first budget to $10 million.

Christie eliminated $55 million in college tuition grants, mostly for low-income students, removing not only the additional spending Democrats had proposed but also funds from his budget.

Christie cut $3 million that Democrats tried to restore for a popular program known as NJ After 3, which is intended to keep children off the streets after school.

More than $500 million in Medicaid spending was cut, which will require the elderly and disabled to receive care from HMO’s for the first time, in some cases losing their doctors. In addition, only adults whose income is one-third of the poverty rate will be able to enroll.

Nursing homes will see state and federal funds cut by $75 million, which industry officials say will cripple an industry that is already ailing.