Sunday, August 29, 2010

"Everybody loves Chris"


Chris Christie, the governor of Sopranoland, is currently the flavor of the month in the republican party. They just love the guy. He did, after all, beat a billionaire incumbent democrat to become governor of Jersey. They love his no bs style, and the way he is taking on the teacher's unions and making cuts to the state's bloated budget at every turn. "You go get em Chris, lower our taxes."

Anyway, Chris has been a little full of himself of late, so when his state lost over 400 million dollars because they just missed out on making the top ten cut in Obama's "Race To The Top" program, he let his O ness have it:

"That’s the stuff the Obama administration should answer for. Are you guys just down there checking boxes like mindless drones, or are you thinking? When the president comes back to New Jersey, he’s going to have to explain to the people of the state of New Jersey why he’s depriving them of $400 million that this application earned." Christie blamed the error on an official at the state's DOE, but said excuse him if he got one little thing wrong on the lenghty application. “We’ll take the responsibility we need to take for putting one wrong piece of paper in a thousand page [Ed Note: It was 260 pages] application,” he said. “If you want to take shots, take shots at me." [Story]

But wait.....seems the governor of Sopranoland spoke too soon:

"Earlier this week, New Jersey was first runner-up in the competition for education grants under the Obama administration's Race to the Top Program, barely missing out on hundreds of millions of dollars in aid for its schools.

Now it looks like the Garden State's own sloppy homework is to blame, CBS News Correspondent Elaine Quijano reports.

It was the rant heard around the political world.

"Anybody in Washington, D.C., have a lick of common sense?" Republican Gov. Chris Christie told reporters Wednesday. "Are you guys just down there checking boxes like mindless drones?"
Christie publicly blamed the Obama administration for New Jersey's failed bid to get a $400 million federal education grant.

"This is the stuff that makes people go nuts," said Christie. "This is the reason why people want to throw everybody the hell out of Congress. This is why people are angry at the president of the United States."

But a day later, the Education Department fired back, releasing a video showing Christie's top education officials unable to answer questions about their incomplete application.

"Can you explain how or where this information was presented in your application?" a federal official asked.

"No, I cannot; I don't …," a New Jersey official said.

New Jersey officials apparently never produced the information and missed the cut by three points.

On Friday, Christie fired his education chief, saying he got bad information.

"I was extremely disappointed to learn that the videotape … was not consistent with the information provided to me," Christie said in a written statement. "I regret this mistake was made."' [Story]

I don't. This is what happens when you try to be cute and pander to your political mates by taking shots at an easy target. In this case it happens to be his O ness. You couldn't wait to get in front of the news cameras and blame the most convenient target in A-merry-ca these days: Washington. But you were wrong. Seems the buck stops (literally) at your doorstep.

Wipe the egg off your face gov. (try not to eat it)just get back to governing Sopranoland. And, the next time you feel an urge to pop off about Washington; remember to think before you talk.




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