The Newark Star-Ledger has some explosive quotes from one of the two Democratic legislative leaders who recently reached a compromise on a pension reform bill with Gov. Chris Christie regarding the overall state budget:
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.
The pension deal was widely viewed as the antithesis to the bitter battle over union rights in Wisconsin.
And Sweeney’s comments could be a harbinger of future rancor, as the nationally-watched governor pivots toward an education reform agenda by the end of the next legislative session.
A Christie aide said Sweeney’s comments were far off.
“The Governor met with Steve Sweeney and Speaker Oliver for 1 1/4 hours privately on Monday afternoon June 27th, met with Sweeney on Tuesday before the bill signing, and spoke to Sweeney again on the phone Tuesday,” the aide said. “Contrary to what the Senate President said, he was not sitting in his office ‘like a nitwit’ on Wednesday; he was in session with the Senate all day on Wednesday into the late evening — not waiting for the Governor to call him about a meeting.”
A Christie source noted that many political observers have called the Democrats’ budget a “setup,” and not a true starting point for negotiations, adding, “So, please, spare us some of the shock, surprise – and foul language – that Governor Christie would merely sit still for them to punch him repeatedly in the head like that.”
(Source: NBC New York / Politico)
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8 Responses
NJ Dems: A real classy group
Shkoyach YWN for your Pravda method of reporting..if you had reproduced or summarized accurately the Star Ledger article the impression presented here would be very different.
The major thrust of the article was to report about a Governor who selectively and unprecedentedly cut the budget of any entity or group that has disagreed with him…even from the non-partisan and universally respected Office of Legislative Services (whose sin was to determine that Democrat budget assumptions were more accurate than the Govenor’s)… who seems to have used the budget as a means to punish opponents, large and small.
This Sweeney is a foul character who is trying to force hard working non union members to give all their money to hardly working union memebers. As if the citizens of New Jersey are secondary citizens without rights enslaved to the Union Members.And if they can’t have your money they threaten violence. Tell it to Sweeney.
It is so funny how the party constantly calling for civility has no idea how to be civil!!
To: YonasonW – You post, “The major thrust of the article was to report about a Governor who selectively and unprecedentedly cut the budget of any entity or group that has disagreed with him. . . ” Forgive my ignorance, but does/can the Governor cut the budget or does the legislature?
shuali – All the cuts here were line item vetos – not permitted in NY or at the Federal level; but NJ has “strong governor” budget provisions that allow it. Here’s a link to the Star Ledger article:
http://blog.nj.com/njv_tom_moran/2011/07/democrats_cry_foul_at_gov_chri.html
No. 4: Not as funny as your raising the topic of civility. You seem to believe that the Republicans are all good all the time and the Democrats are all bad all the time, or is the dichotomy more a case of cons vs. libs with you?
So how’s that name-callin’ thing workin’ out for ya?
I am not a Dem or Republican. I am a Communist. Having said that, Christie is horrible and has gotten away with his insane rule because people bought into his superficial posture of being thrifty.
I said this before, NJ is too expensive and we pay so many taxes each day, week, month, every three months, and all Christie can say is, “NJ, dont expect anything new. And what we have, I am cutting in half. The well is dry and getting drier.” This is complete corruption of the monies we send in to Trenton.
Also, I am not really a Communist, although Marx had a lot of good points for the working person.