Asbury Park Press turned the cameras on Chris Christie yesterday during an editorial board meeting. This time, the governor goes a step further in his tough talk aimed at New Jersey's unionized teachers. When your property taxes go up, the governor doesn't want you to look in his direction, he wants you to place the blame squarely on your kid's 4th grade teacher:
... And if they don't (take a salary freeze & contribute towards the cost of health benefits) what you'll know is any job cut that happens, any property tax increase that happens is at the feet of the teachers union and not anybody else.
It seems almost certain that great demands will be placed even on state workers with solid contracts, but there's something unnecessarily pugilistic about Christie's fall-back Republicanist demonizing of teachers, and of public education. It's particularly ugly, given New Jersey's highly-ranked public school systems.
Here's Christie, yesterday. The key line comes in at the :57 second mark:
.gif)
