As a mom, I’ve seen it a million times. One kid promises to play nice and doesn’t. So the other kid gets mad and throws a tantrum, calls some names. And the other kid says mean things back. And then it spirals out of control. It’s a tough situation to handle with five year olds.
What do you do when they’re in their fifties?
NJ Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D) and NJ Governor Chris Christie (R) have taken their playground scrum public. Things turned particularly ugly just before the holidays over the state budget. According to NJ.com, after he felt betrayed, Sweeney referred to Christie as “a bully and a punk” and claimed that “I wanted to punch him in his head.”
Pretty awful, right?
What did Christie do to exact that kind of strong talk from Sweeney?
In the midst of a tough fight over the budget, Sweeney felt like he made some concessions to help Christie get key pieces of legislation through the bottleneck. Christie appeared to play along, according to Sweeney, and then vetoed other parts of the budget without notice to Sweeney. Sweeney referred to it as “the most disappointing day” of his political career. He then likened the governor to Mr. Potter from the iconic movie It’s a Wonderful Life noting that he was “the mean old bastard who screws everybody.”
It gets worse. Referring to the governor as “vindictive”, Sweeney said that Christie had promised to call and didn’t even though Sweeney sat by the phone all day (is it just me or is this like a prom date gone bad?).
Christie then took out his veto pen and started cutting. He cut $900 million from the budget, labeling it as “reckless” and “irresponsible.” At the top of his list? Democrat-supported programs including tax credits for the working poor, AIDS research, college funding and aid to cities. And, in what was viewed as something of a direct tweak at the legislature, Christie also cut the Senate and Assembly budgets without touching the budget for the Governor’s office.
This wasn’t Christie’s first veto of budget measures under Sweeney’s watch – Christie vetoed the so-called “millionaire’s tax” in record time last year – but it is perhaps the most painful. Sweeney felt personally attacked, having worked with Christie on a number of budget issues including pension reform and property tax caps. The most recent experience led Sweeney to criticize Christie, calling him “mean-spirited”, “angry” and “spoiled.” He added (Mom, turn away for this one): “He’s a rotten prick.”
Yikes. Now who sounds angry?
Christie isn’t talking about the spat publicly but his communications director, Maria M. Comella, did offer the following statement:
The governor believes the language used was inappropriate and disrespectful to the office, but he continues to stand ready to work with Senator Sweeney and the Legislature in a bipartisan manner to get things done for the people of New Jersey.
I totally agree with her. I don’t think the language is necessary. It’s bad for politics. And it’s terrible for New Jersey.
But, um, Governor Pot? Meet Mr. Kettle.
This is the same Governor who raised eyebrows by saying about Senator Loretta Weinberg (D), “I mean, can you guys please take the bat out on her for once?” He has referred to the teacher’s union as a group of “thugs” and “bullies,” saying to them in the press, “I don’t know how you sleep at night.” And he famously referred to Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D) as a “jerk” for criticizing his use of a government helicopter to attend his son’s ball game.
It’s not surprising, then, that a Quinnipiac University Poll released in April found that when asked to describe the governor in one word, New Jersey voters overwhelmingly chose “bully.” (Perhaps that inspired Sweeney?)
As the insults fly, however, New Jersey’s budget is far from resolved. Senator Sweeney hopes to garner enough votes to override Christie’s vetoes. Even though Sweeney clearly can’t wait to give it a whirl, he must sit out a few days yet. Procedurally, he must allow three days to pass after the governor’s office files the vetoes before he can schedule a vote. For the Garden State, it’s bound to feel a lot longer.
