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2010-08-04 Home Front: Politix

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Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2010-08-04 12:03|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 It was supposed to have been the biggest fight of Chris Christies young administration: a May showdown over what Democrats in Trenton were calling the millionaires tax, designed, like each of the 115 statewide tax increases of the last decade, to paper over a small part of a yawning structural deficit by soaking the rich, one last time. Never mind that half the filings and a third of the revenue from the tax were to come from New Jerseys business community, already battered by a perfect storm of overtaxation, capital flight, and recession. The Democrats were loaded for bear, and had the legislative majorities in place to pass the measure, having spent all winter threatening a government shutdown should Christie use his veto pen.

Next time, the Dems ought to try bluffing with something they are genetically able to do. Shutting down government isn't one of them.

Democratic senate president Stephen Sweeney had even admonished, in a turn of phrase eminently Trentonian in its sheer backwardness, that to give up $1 billion to the wealthy during this crisis is just wrong. He promised that the millionaires tax was where theDemocrats would make our stand.

A highly principled, well-thought-out, feel-good stand.

The tax passed on party-line votes in the assembly and senate on May 20. Sweeney then certified the bill and walked it across the statehouse to Christies office, where the governor who had vowed to balance the budget without raising taxes, and whod developed a bewildering habit of keeping his promises vetoed it. The whole thing took about two minutes.

My, that was easy. A whole lot easier than, say, trying to lower a revenue-negative 6.25% sales tax. Oh, the debating. Oh, the tooth and hair pulling. Oh, the political favors that have to be called . . . . It's hard to do the right thing. Unless you don't have a political agenda, that is.

Well be back, governor, Sweeney told Christie on being dispatched with the dead letter.

... his lip quivering.

All right, well see, came the reply.

IOW: Up yours, you over-complicated politcal a-hole.

And just like that, the biggest obstacle standing between Christie and the realization of his sea-changing, fiscally conservative first-year agenda was gone.

Yep. Just like that. And I'm thinking about moving to NJ just to be near the guy! :-)

We have not found our footing, Democratic state senator Loretta Weinberg later said, still reeling from the decisive defeat. I think a lot of people underestimated Chris Christie.

He thinks like the peasants. Be careful of them, too.

Christopher James Christie is fond of saying that hes been underestimated his whole professional life. The Newark-born son of an Irish father and a Sicilian mother, Christie is the product of respectable but middling schools the University of Delaware and Seton Hall Law and enjoyed a successful, if not spectacular, career as a partner in a small New Jersey firm. He served a single term as a Morris County freeholder, but was primaried, and soundly defeated, in his bid for reelection. When, despite a lack of criminal prosecutorial experience, he was appointed U.S. attorney in 2002, some detractors thought it a bit of cronyism the Bushadministration rewarding Christie for the fundraising work hed done during the 2000 election.

Sometimes even the blind squirrel finds its nuts.

They were wrong. By the time Christie left the job six years later, he had put over a hundred crooked pols from the school board to the state house and of both political parties behind bars, without losing a single case. And he had tried and convicted terrorists, Mafiosi, and child pornographers; arms dealers, gang members, and corporate hacks.

But it's so hard to know what to do with these guys. It's more complicated than it seems. Especially if you have relative morals. Or are looking at it from an effed up political perspective.

Posted by gorb 2010-08-04 12:45|| 2010-08-04 12:45|| Front Page Top

#2 PIMF, I know. Something bad happened with the html tags on the last one. Here is what it should have looked like. :-)

It was supposed to have been the biggest fight of Chris Christies young administration: a May showdown over what Democrats in Trenton were calling the millionaires tax, designed, like each of the 115 statewide tax increases of the last decade, to paper over a small part of a yawning structural deficit by soaking the rich, one last time. Never mind that half the filings and a third of the revenue from the tax were to come from New Jerseys business community, already battered by a perfect storm of overtaxation, capital flight, and recession. The Democrats were loaded for bear, and had the legislative majorities in place to pass the measure, having spent all winter threatening a government shutdown should Christie use his veto pen.

Next time, the Dems ought to try bluffing with something they are genetically able to do. Shutting down government isn't one of them.

Democratic senate president Stephen Sweeney had even admonished, in a turn of phrase eminently Trentonian in its sheer backwardness, that to give up $1 billion to the wealthy during this crisis is just wrong. He promised that the millionaires tax was where theDemocrats would make our stand.

A highly principled, well-thought-out, feel-good stand.

The tax passed on party-line votes in the assembly and senate on May 20. Sweeney then certified the bill and walked it across the statehouse to Christies office, where the governor who had vowed to balance the budget without raising taxes, and whod developed a bewildering habit of keeping his promises vetoed it. The whole thing took about two minutes.

My, that was easy. A whole lot easier than, say, trying to lower a revenue-negative 6.25% sales tax. Oh, the debating. Oh, the tooth and hair pulling. Oh, the political favors that have to be called . . . . It's hard to do the right thing. Unless you don't have a political agenda, that is.

Well be back, governor, Sweeney told Christie on being dispatched with the dead letter.

... his lip quivering.

All right, well see, came the reply.

IOW: Up yours, you over-complicated politcal a-hole.

And just like that, the biggest obstacle standing between Christie and the realization of his sea-changing, fiscally conservative first-year agenda was gone.

Yep. Just like that. And I'm thinking about moving to NJ just to be near the guy! :-)

We have not found our footing, Democratic state senator Loretta Weinberg later said, still reeling from the decisive defeat. I think a lot of people underestimated Chris Christie.

He thinks like the peasants. Be careful of them, too.

Christopher James Christie is fond of saying that hes been underestimated his whole professional life. The Newark-born son of an Irish father and a Sicilian mother, Christie is the product of respectable but middling schools the University of Delaware and Seton Hall Law and enjoyed a successful, if not spectacular, career as a partner in a small New Jersey firm. He served a single term as a Morris County freeholder, but was primaried, and soundly defeated, in his bid for reelection. When, despite a lack of criminal prosecutorial experience, he was appointed U.S. attorney in 2002, some detractors thought it a bit of cronyism the Bushadministration rewarding Christie for the fundraising work hed done during the 2000 election.

Sometimes even the blind squirrel finds its nuts.

They were wrong. By the time Christie left the job six years later, he had put over a hundred crooked pols from the school board to the state house and of both political parties behind bars, without losing a single case. And he had tried and convicted terrorists, Mafiosi, and child pornographers; arms dealers, gang members, and corporate hacks.

But it's so hard to know what to do with these guys. It's more complicated than it seems. Especially if you have relative morals. Or are looking at it from an effed up political perspective.

Posted by gorb 2010-08-04 12:49|| 2010-08-04 12:49|| Front Page Top

#3 Well worth taking the time to read this article.

It seems his success derives from leadership, rule of law, support of the NJ taxpayer and many other factors. But above all, LEADERSHIP.

Posted by tipover 2010-08-04 13:03|| 2010-08-04 13:03|| Front Page Top

#4 A weird thing happened when he lead, he looked back and people were following.

Keep your eye on this guy. I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the political scene for some time, and not as Governor of New Jersey.

Posted by bigjim-CA 2010-08-04 16:49|| 2010-08-04 16:49|| Front Page Top

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