| UPDATE 1:06 Sen. Diane Allen, who rightly received so much good will during the time she herself was ill, is so far not voting on anything, so engrossed is she with something on her laptop computer. She's dead-silent on bills to assist other sick people, like the AIDS drug distribution program, which just failed a few minutes ago for want of any GOP support. Also GOP Sen. Kevin O'Toole just hurled invective at Sen. Rice. The exchange was well-covered both by politickernj and in our live twitter feed @bluejersey.
UPDATE 12:15: Among the revelations in today's Senate session? GOP's Sen. Cardinale just said Planned Parenthood promotes child prostitution.
Maybe it's fitting that today's much-discussed meeting of the full Senate will be the first time a major session of the NJ legislature won't be getting the gavel-to-gavel coverage we came to depend on from NJN.
We love us some Sesame Street but right now - and I am not kidding - actor Patrick Warburton is teaching a muppet the word stuck on the (so far unimpressive) NJTV. Next up, presumably, the word irony.
Deciminyan is in the Senate chamber and is live-Tweeting the session gavel-to-gavel. Follow @bluejersey. Hashtag #njsenate.
Thirty-nine separate bills will be discussed, each one of them an attempt by Democrats to restore funding for programs that assist New Jerseyans in some way - teachers for blind kids, AIDS treatment, seniors in nursing homes, health screening and treatment for poor women, postpartum education (I'm sorry, does the GOP only care about the "pre-born", not the post-born?). Senator Weinberg wrote about this this morning for Blue Jersey, Senator Buono talked about it here this weekend.
The New Jersey legislature - and in particular, its Senate - has in these last few weeks failed several crucial gut checks. Leadership in both houses seems not to lead, and sometimes not even to agree, with the caucus, or core principles. And harsh sunlight has bleached out some of the backroom deals between the shadow government that appears to make some of the real decisions in Trenton. We see the ugly things under the rock, but we know that both Republicans and Democrats in power have an interest in keeping that rock just where it is.
It's been a bad month. And it's likely to be a bad day. The Republicans, better at lockstep than the Dems are, have signaled in no uncertain terms they don't intend to help Democrats override Gov. Christie's "surprise" cuts to the budget that so "enraged" Sen. Sweeney, or appeared to, before God or Thor sent lightning down from the sky to try and snap the Senate President into reality.
But yes, we want each Senator on the record, as Loretta Weinberg says. Follow us: @bluejersey. NJ Legislature video feed is here but feed is skipping a lot. |
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