Front Page of The Sunday Ledger.....

by: Senator Loretta Weinberg

Mon Feb 21, 2011 at 09:39:00 AM EST

.....says it all! "Disgusting", "Idealogue", "Arrogant", "Jerry Springer Show". And that's before one even reads the accompanying article. OK. So the sides are definitely drawn if in a rather inelegant manner.

And let's skip to the last quote in the article from Mike DuHaime: "Some of them (the legislature) are going to want to work with the Governor," he said. "Some of them are just going to want to throw stones."

So does this quote mean that the Governor, himself, has no responsibility to work with the legislature? In fact, though I don't want to be accused of "throwing stones", I believe this Governor would like to make the legislature as irrelevant as possible. His vetoes of bills which some could say for completely illogical reasons (read medicaid funding which won't cost the state any money).

I am generally not a "conspiracy theorist", but the undermining of our press corps (read: "elitist" and unfunding NJN); the undermining of our Judiciary: (read: former Supreme Court Justice John Wallace and accolades to current Justice Rivera-Soto), the undermining of public employees, particularly our teachers (read: No I won't let the NJEA support our request for $400 million from the feds even if it's helpful); his sometimes "selective" rooting out of government waste and fraud (read: fill in the blanks yourself); refusal of cabinet members to appear before legislative committees (read: the Treasurer's not appearing at the Assembly Budget Committee); his administration's continually stonewalling legitimate OPRA requests (read: too many to list) - all leads me (and I hope others) to examine a troubling and developing pattern. How about giving tax money (through EDA) to a company to move from Seacaucus to Newark? (read: how does this help New Jersey's economy?)

Does this Governor really believe that, given his national press reviews and his "Jersey Style" gravitas, he can steer this State unilaterally without much regard for the other two branches of government? Do we in the Legislature have the intellectual ability and the guts to stand up and start calling attention to this troubling pattern?

I am anxious to hear from Blue Jersey readers on whether you think we are on to something here, or have I really fallen prey to "conspiracy theories"? If I'm right about looking at this as a pattern, how do we go about it?

more below!

Senator Loretta Weinberg :: Front Page of The Sunday Ledger.....

We are faced with a real and very important quandry. We have serious budget problems. We need to decide what the Democratic priorities will be in this budget. I'm for getting that more than millionaire's tax back into this budget, to answer the Governor's riff that there can be no preservation of spending unless we find a way to pay for it.

I'm for calling attention to our "partnership" as an equal branch of government by saying what we believe while respecting the need to bring tax relief to our citizens. I'm for standing up for people to join unions and engage in collective bargaining. I'm for all women having access to health care and control over their own reproductive lives. I'm for everyone paying their fair share to reduce our debt burden and get our folks back to work.

Yes, and I'm also for stopping all the name calling and having the Governor back off his "tough Jersey talk"! We all know he's "a plain talking Jersey guy", and I'll even pass a resolution to that effect if need be.

I'm for calling on the Governor to say clearly how he's going to pay for some of the big corporate give aways he's proposing whether as tax breaks or in any other way.

So let's all agree to the game rules, and let's get on with the people's business. Let's stop using the bully pulpit to "put down" respected legislators. and public employee leaders in our state. Let's encourage our legislative colleagues to not answer in kind.

I look forward to some serious discussion on this in the Blue Jersey community.

Note: Taking next Monday off from column writing as I'll be in Los Angeles for a few days celebrating Jonah's 6th birthday. His favorite pastime is watching the garbage truck. So in between greeting the Culver City garbage pick up truck and playing legos, I'll certainly be following all developments on line.

Keep your voices heard!

Tags: featured, Loretta Weinberg, Wisconsin, AFL-CIO, jerry springer, Chris Christie, healthcare, NJN, NJEA, (All Tags)

Print Friendly View

Send As Email

Front Page of The Sunday Ledger..... | 3 comments

good question (4.00 / 1)

Do we in the Legislature have the intellectual ability and the guts to stand up and start calling attention to this troubling pattern?

Obviously, we know the answer to the question if it were asked of you, Senator Weinberg, but unfortunately, you are not Senate President. Conversely, the person who is Senate President delivered Democratic votes for a Republican budget last year and will most likely do the same this year unless his job is on the line.

The only way to put Sweeney's job on the line is to change the date of this year's primary election to the Tuesday after Labor Day. Changing the date would give progressives the time needed following the completion of the redistricting process to organize primary challenges that would make Democratic legislators accountable for anything that they might do that enables Governor Christie to pass yet another draconian budget.

We need to see more than just Democratic priorities for this budget. We need to see a progressive vision for governance that engages the serious public policy issues with the breadth and depth that they require. We also need a progressive alternative to the Democratic leadership in Trenton that is driving our state and our party into a regressive oblivion.

by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Mon Feb 21, 2011 at 23:21:35 PM UTC

Thieves Conspire (4.00 / 1)

"Just because you don't believe thieves conspire, doesn't mean they don't or they won't to get higher" Clean Air, Ray Louis

by: Got Kids @ Tue Feb 22, 2011 at 15:47:49 PM UTC

Christie Has The Stage All To Himself..... (0.00 / 0)

......and he's abusing it.

This is not surprising to anyone who has been reading Blue jersey for years. I, and many others here, have been calling out Christie as a bully going way back.

Bullies never back down unless they are forced to. Appealing to Christie's sense of fair play or common human decency is a waste of time, energy and breath.

Only an active, positively aggressive and intelligently compassionate and lovingly fierce response has any chance of derailing the Chris Christie express train to hell.

Stupidly cutting education and human services with a meat ax while giving the wealthiest amongst us is a recipe for long term disaster.

One would have hoped that we would have learned from the experience with Christine Whitman that you can't really take Republican governors at their word and that the consequences of what may seem, at the time, to some to be reasonable policies can come back to haunt you at a later date.

Bertin said all and said it well in this sentence....

"We also need a progressive alternative to the Democratic leadership in Trenton that is driving our state and our party into a regressive oblivion."

The impression I have of the Democratic "leadership" is that they are one of two things......no make that three....they are cowed, compromised or genuinely incompetent. Take your pick.

I know Steve Sweeney can be as tough as nails when he chooses to be so...the fact that Christie is rolling all over the Democratic establishment is a dirty rotten shame...and it will cost the people....the PEOPLE of New Jersey dearly in the years and generations to come if Christie is enabled to dictate the agenda for the next few years let alone a second term.

It's great that we have one fabulously feisty lady like Loretta Weinberg in the NJ Senate.....but what the people of NJ who elected a MAJORITY of the Senate and a MAJORITY of the Assembly deserve is for the MAJORITY of those two bodies to publicly and frequently and hourly if necessary STAND UP to the political/rhetorical strong arm tactics of our demagogic Fox News styled governor.

It is human nature to be attracted to extreme self confidence....that's how people get to be dictators, they appeal to people's need for a patriarchal authority figure to dominate and "make it all better", but at this point in our history we should have realized that those kinds of "leaders" are more often than not....self absorbed frauds that are morally and ethically corrupt.

If the existing Democrats continue to act like cowed "Republican Lite" then when the next election rolls around many of them will lose their seats to real Republicans. They will have so dismayed and discouraged and demoralized the natural base that many decent progressives and rank and file Democrats will stay home our of sheer disillusionment and disgust.

We can do better than this! The recent rallies are a glimmer of hope....but it all needs to be followed up on in terms of local and county organizing.

If the establishment/leadership of the NJ Democratic party doesn't/won't GET that only an AGGRESSIVELY PROGRESSIVE modus operandi can begin to detoxify the Christie agenda.....then it's time to get a new establishment before this one digs our party even deeper into the ditch.

It's long past time for REAL Democrats to get up on the stage with Christie and to give him "what for" and in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS!!! Force him to get into the DETAILS of the ramifications of his sweeping and superficial policy pronouncements.........the details, that's where you'll find the devil Christie doesn't want you to see.

by: Nick Lento @ Wed Mar 02, 2011 at 19:34:13 PM UTC