New Jersey News

Chris Christie Bends, Will Pay Back State For Helicopter Junket

2:50 pm EST June 2nd, 2011 | Republicans | 31 Comments

Which kind of kills the talking point that these trips didn’t cost anything, eh?

A spokeswoman for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says the governor and State Republican Committee are reimbursing the state for all personal use of a state police helicopter, which includes two trips to watch his oldest son’s baseball games.

No word on if the state’s going to get its money back for the 100 yard limo ride.

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New Jersey Voters: Chris Christie Is A Bully

11:04 am EST April 20th, 2011 | Republicans | 13 Comments

The poll also shows he’d get crushed by Obama in New Jersey, but I don’t think he’s running anyway (2016 is another question):

When asked to describe their blunt governor in one word, the survey indicates New Jersey voters overwhelmingly chose “bully.” “Arrogant,” “good,” “aggressive” and “strong” also topped the list.

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Judge: Chris Christie Failed To Comply With State Constitution

9:28 am EST March 23rd, 2011 | Republicans | 34 Comments

New Jersey’s genius governor strikes again.

The decision by Judge Peter Doyne was clear: Gov. Chris Christie failed to comply with the state Constitution by cutting school aid by $1.6 billion. The implication for the future also is clear: New Jersey is heading for a constitutional showdown of historic proportions.

“The lines have never been so sharply drawn,” said Paul Tractenberg, a Rutgers law professor who has devoted his long career to the intersection of education and constitutional law. “Clearly, we are at the orange, if not the red, warning level light.”

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Incompetent Chris Christie Attacks Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley

4:09 pm EST February 3rd, 2011 | Politics | 7 Comments

New Jersey governor Chris Christie gets all jerky about Martin O’Malley calling him out for his abusive behavior. Christie defends his abuse, alleging that O’Malley is “kissing up” to unions for electoral success.

Chris Christie

This is kind of funny when you consider how Chris Christie’s administration totally bungled their application for Race To The Top — while at the same time O’Malley’s team aced the process. When Chris Christie was pushing around people who don’t agree with him, O’Malley was being named education governor of the year.

No wonder Christie went on Fox to whine.

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Chris Christie Lived High On The Hog With Taxpayer Money While A U.S. Attorney

4:38 pm EST November 9th, 2010 | Republicans | 25 Comments

chris christieAnother “do as I say” Republican conservative.

The Republican governor of New Jersey spent big money on luxury hotels without proper justification, a new Justice Department report reveals.

As a US Attorney, Gov. Chris Christie “provided insufficient, inaccurate or no justification,” in 14 of the 15 trips in question, the Department of Justice report (.pdf) said.

The review found that most US Attorneys rarely sought reimbursement above the government rate but Christie surpassed the rate by a total $2,176 over 23 trips. The rate was exceeded by as much as $242 per night.

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Did Chris Christie Lie About What He Knew When He Attacked Obama? Sounds Like It

2:36 pm EST September 2nd, 2010 | Republicans | 6 Comments

chris christie

Bret Schundler has released a chronology of events pertaining to his firing in New Jersey, and if his version of events is to be believed, it doesn’t look good for conservative hero Chris Christie. In the document, Schundler claims that at multiple instances he told Christie not to mischaracterize the mistake, and yet Christie explains to him his plan to assail the Obama administration and bureaucracy for their own mistake.

Schundler has also released the emails, and the Daily Record explains:

The copies of the e-mails Schundler provided shed light on the storm that the discovery of the error created in Christie’s office. They show officials scrambling to craft a response for a Star-Ledger reporter who first called attention to the mistake.

“I need an answer on this,” Comella writes to officials in the state Department of Education, attaching a copy of the reporter’s questions.

A response, crafted by Alan Guenther, the department’s director of communications, asks Comella to allow Deputy Commissioner Andy Smarick to talk directly to the reporter, saying that “the real story is the major reforms in our plan that the peer reviewers praised heartily for their sensibility and boldness.”

“I know what the real story is here,” answers Comella. “I need you to put in email the explanation to her question. Thanks.”

Schundler, who has been cc’d on all the e-mails, responds, “Maria, I’ll send you something on this momentarily.”

Part of his answer read, “All we could do was confirm that we had erred — the 2008 data was not included.”

Christie knew he and his people screwed up, and made a concerted effort to make this not about the mistake his administration had made, but to cover it up with an attack against the Obama administration.

No wonder he’s a conservative hero.

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VIDEO: Maddow Details Chris Christie’s Lies Against President Obama

9:41 am EST August 31st, 2010 | Republicans | 4 Comments

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Bret Schundler: I Didn’t Lie To Chris Christie

10:26 am EST August 28th, 2010 | Republicans | 4 Comments

Bret Schundler is now saying that he never lied to Chris Christie about the errors in New Jersey’s Race To The Top application. That’s critical, because it was that failed application that caused all the strife in the first place and allowed Christie to tee off his attack versus the Obama administration.

So, who’s lying? Schundler says he has e-mails proving his side.

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Chris Christie, Bret Schundler, New Jersey & Conservative Hypocrisy

3:02 pm EST August 27th, 2010 | Conservative | 61 Comments

1. Chris Christie has been hyped to the heavens by the conservative media as something of a rotund Reagan, someone who is laying down the law in a blue state like New Jersey (never mind that New Jersey had Republican governors from 1994-2002)

2. Yesterday, Christie blasted the Obama administration for rejecting New Jersey’s race to the top application based on a clerical error – by the way, Race To The Top is a program where the federal government gives money to states for education. Isn’t that the sort of thing conservatives are supposed to hate?

3. Today it turns out that Christie was in the wrong. The federal officials gave New Jersey a shot to correct their error in person. They couldn’t. In response Christie fired education commissioner Bret Schundler.

4. Now it turns out Schundler requested that Christie fire him so that he can collect unemployment, or as conservatives generally call it – a government handout.

Ousted state Education Commissioner Bret Schundler today said he asked Gov. Chris Christie to be fired from the work he considered his “life’s dream,” rather than resign, so he could receive unemployment benefits to pay his bills.

“I asked if they would mind writing a termination letter, instead of a resignation letter, because I do have a mortgage to pay, and I do have a daughter who’s just started college,” he said in an interview this morning. “And I, frankly, will need the unemployment insurance benefits until I find another job. … And they said fine. They said sure.”

Conservatism in reality is just chock full of ridiculous hypocrisy.

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Chris Christie, AKA Governor Shoots His Mouth Off

1:31 pm EST August 27th, 2010 | Conservative | 7 Comments

chris christie

No wonder this guy is such a hero to the righties. He’s a loudmouth bumbler.

Gov. Chris Christie fired state education commissioner Bret Schundler this morning after Schundler refused to resign in the wake of the controversy over the state’s loss of up to $400 million in federal school funding.

‘I was extremely disappointed to learn that the videotape of the Race to the Top presentation was not consistent with the information provided to me,’ Christie said in a press release. ‘As a result, I ordered an end to Bret Schundler’s service as New Jersey’s Education Commissioner and as a member of my administration.’

A deputy commissioner will be named acting commissioner while the governor searches for the next person to fill the $141,000-a-year position, two officials briefed on the situation said.

Rich Bagger, Christie’s chief of staff, asked Schundler to resign on Thursday evening because he ‘misled’ the governor and senior staff about what happened during a presentation in Washington, D.C., the officials said.

On Wednesday, Christie publicly said Schundler had tried to give the correct information to a bungled question during the presentation, but video from the U.S. Department of Education released Thursday proved that did not happen.

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