I ventured over the Delaware River today into my home state of New Jersey. That’s where I heard about this. I guess it’s appropriate that Governor Chris Christie is running the Garden State like a mob boss, but he’s got a war on now. When the Senate Majority leader calls the governor “a rotten prick,” “a bully, a punk,” and says he “wanted to punch him in the head,” then you know something unusual has gone down.
“You know who [Christie] reminds me of?” Sweeney says. “Mr. Potter from ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ the mean old bastard who screws everybody.”
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“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.”
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“I’m just so angry that he hurt people like this to prove a point. He is a cruel man.”
Listen, you don’t give a shit about New Jersey state politics, so I won’t bore you with too many details. The basic story is that Sweeney is a Democrat. He has ambitions for higher office. He put all that at risk by striking a deal with the governor that pissed off labor. Then the governor turned around and used his line-item veto powers to screw over every Democrat who crossed him in the budget negotiations. He went even further than that.
As for the vindictive cuts, Sweeney’s list of suspects is a long one.
The governor cut the Senate and Assembly budgets, but not his own, a move that is unprecedented. He cut money from the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services, the outfit that sided with Democrats on this year’s revenue estimates.
He cut a fellowship program run by Alan Rosenthal, the Rutgers University professor who served as referee in this year’s legislative redistricting fight, and sided with Democrats.
When Democrats tried to restore money to a few favorite programs — including college scholarships for poor students, and legal aid for the needy — the governor not only rejected the additions, he added new cuts on top of that.
He mowed down a series of Democratic add-ons, including $45 million in tax credits for the working poor, $9 million in health care for the working poor, $8 million for women’s health care, another $8 million in AIDS funding and $9 million in mental-health services.
But the governor added $150 million in school aid for the suburbs, including the wealthiest towns in the state. That is enough to restore all the cuts just listed.
Of course, Sweeney winds up looking naive and Christie gives Ann Coulter another orgasm. So it goes.
But, notice who really got screwed.
I don’t understand what Sweeney thought he’d accomplish by striking a deal with the governor. Everyone knows Christie is a thug and a bully and cutting all the programs for ppl to give tax breaks to the have mores. If Sweeney is looking for a dem nomination for higher office he should have known better. But I’m glad he’s decided to fight back now. as far as Christie running for higher office – the repubs think thuggishness is leadership.
To quote Sweeney, he save the pensions of about 800,000 state workers and retirees. And he did.
The pension fund in NJ is fucked. Only about 10% of that can be blamed on the unions. The governors and legislatures or both parties have stolen from it for years. And the voters let them.
Sweeney tried and failed to get Corzine to fix the pensions and health benefits but Jon kicked it down the road.
But that has little to do with the price of potatoes today. It still needed to be fixed, fixed now, and Sweeney knew it. Working with Christie happened because Christie happens to be Governor at the moment.
Sweeney is pissed more than anything because he did the right thing to make an unpopular choice. Christie turned around and made unpleasant cuts not because they were the right things (they weren’t) but because to Republicans inside and outside NJ they would actually be popular.
And because Christie is a vindictive prick with serious impulse control issues.
Ooh, ooh, I know! Is it black people? I bet it’s black people.
Oh, and latinos. And single mothers. And maybe the mentally handicapped too. Because why not?
(checks citation)
Well, that was too easy. Republicans need to mix it up a little more. Stale evil is still evil, but it’s all just so uninspired.
There is compromising with Republicans and then there is dumb shit like this. So blinded by ambition that he forgot who he was dealing with.
Oh and I do care what happens in Jersey. My little sister still lives there and I lived there for many years. I miss my old house and ‘hood.
Sweeney deserves what he got in a way, but the people of NJ don’t. Maybe next time you should realize that making deals with Evil Santa is a stupid idea. Maybe next time you’ll stand by your constituencies instead of throwing them under the bus.
The people of New Jersey voted this dick head into the governor’s mansion. Maybe next time they’ll realize that voting for Evil Santa is a stupid idea. But I doubt it.
the people knew who he was. Sweeney did Christie’s dirty work – so fuck him
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"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."He put all that at risk by striking a deal with the governor that pissed off labor
the really weird thing is that Sweeney is a labor guy. he comes out of the iron workers union. he was able to sell out labor interests in this case because it only affected public sector unions, not his private sector construction union. sweeney’s betrayal has not just sold out public workers, it also worsened a serious division within the labor movement. prior to his deal with christie, public and private sector unions were banding closer together in the reaction against the anti-union legislation in Wisconsin and elsewhere. what Sweeney did screwed over the labor movement just when it was coming together. I have no sympathy for the guy now. he deserves to get screwed over by the governor, though the new jersians who were suffer from these cuts don’t deserve what they are getting.
Thomas Frank’s next book: What’s the matter with New Jersey?
The NJ pols beat out the worst of what has gone on in NC this year. At least we have a governor who knows how to veto GOP foolishness. And we now know who the five quislingcrats are.
Hang in there NJ. Just two more years.
Two lessons to be drawn from all this…
Sigh.
BooMan, not that it matters a bit to anybody but me, or contributes anything to this discussion, but: enough. It’s done. I’ve left NJ. I’ve even left the US. For good.
I had friends, fine progressive friends, who voted for Christie for governor simply because they were pissed off at Corzine.
A good chunk of America has simply lost its mind, and the rest might as well have.
Good luck, all.
I had friends, fine progressive friends, who voted for Christie for governor simply because they were pissed off at Corzine.
Loose talk about ‘bankstas’ and ‘the lesser of two evils is still evil’ did a lot of good there, didn’t it? And thank you, Chris Daggett, wherever you are.
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When did you leave and where have you settled? Interesting composer work you do …
CGNJ production: George Antheil Festival 2003
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."About a year and a half ago, to Canada, divided between Ottawa and Vancouver. Thank you very much for the kind words, and for that Antheil quote, another NJ expat.
Another related quote, interesting one, from R. D. Laing: “I’ll be defined by my music and not by my silence and whatever pathetic shreds of faith, hope and charity that still cling to me.”
Saw this last night. Sweeney is a SUCKER. He sold out his base for nothing. He really fucked up: the big talk is equal parts grandstanding and trying to claw back some of his cred.
I don’t think it’s gonna work. He doesn’t have the votes for an override, so all he can do is have show votes.
That said I like that he’s calling Mayor McCheese a prick, but how fuckin’ dumb is the guy to have helped a republican cut benefits while expecting assistance on democratic priorities? That’s just plain STUPID. “waaah, I gave the bully my toy, and then he stole my lunch money anyway. Waaaaah!!!”
Exactly!! After Wisconsin, any Democrat trying to cut a deal with the GOP is a traitor and should get sent packing. So what that Sweeney was once a steel-worker! Does anyone remember Dick Gephardt? He was supposed to be labor’s great champion. Need I have to remind you what the asshat has done ever since leaving Congress?
He will never claw back any of his cred. but it’s good to have him badmouthing Christie -there can never be too much of that
by the way, this ain’t the first time sweeney’s fucked people on pensions. here he is in 2010 bitching about pensions.
That dude is, hopefully, gonna be out of a job.
as far as an outsider can see, it looks like Jersey politics offers the choice between evil corrupt scumbag republicans and evil corrupt scumbag democrats.
Twas ever thus.
Except for Bill Bradley, because he didn’t need to fight his way to the top of the machine. And Corzine was a different animal, too, although still a scumbag.
Especially South Jersey Democrats. They are just as bad as those vaunted Chicago thugs we keep hearing about from Faux Noise.
Frank Lautenberg.
Tom Kain (Sr), Brendon Byrne, Millicent Fenwick, Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Paine, Grover Cleveland, Peter Rodino, a few others.
Not always right with their politics but dedicated to the public good and service.