Brookdale College Decides Christie Show Too Political

by: huntsu

Tue Jun 26, 2007 at 08:32:44 AM EDT

A couple weeks ago Christie totally stepped out from behind the veneer of non-partisanship and slammed Democrats for observing the tradition of Senatorial Courtesy over former employee Stu Rabner's nomination to the state Supreme Court.  Christie not only attacked Senator Nia Gill who opposed the nomination, but also Governor Jon Corzine, Senate Pres. Dick Codey and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair John Adler -- each of whom supported Rabner and eventually shepherded his nomination to completion.

Of course, he didn't attack any Republicans for their silence at the time.  He also didn't attack any of the many Republican Senators who had also used Senatorial Courtesy earlier in the year.  All he did was go after Democrats for upholding a bi-partisan tradition.

This was noticed as rank partisanship by many in the media, including the generally liberal NY Times, the generally centrist Associated Press and the generally conservative Trenton Times.

Now Brookdale College has entered the fray, postponing a show featuring Chris Christie hosted by former Republican Chairman and current Senator Joe Kyrillos until at least after the November elections.

Brookdale Community College has canceled State Sen. Joseph M. Kyrillos? cable television show, saying the college does not want to be at the flashpoint of a political campaign.

Kyrillos had hoped to show himself in conversation with U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie, an unabashed critic of state officials and arguably the GOP's favorite leading man. But the interview Kyrillos did with the feisty Christie may air after the Nov. 4th election, and not before, said Cheryl Cummings, executive director of the Brookdale Network, which produced the program.

The college didn't nix this interview before it happened -- they saw no problem with a state senator interviewing a US Attorney and nor should they.

But after they saw the interview they decided it would put them in the middle of a political firestorm.  I wonder what's on that tape?

Kyrillos is, coincidentally, up for reelection in the fall and can only benefit from having his old friend calling for cleaned up politics on the Kyrillos show.  After all, if Christie is on the show he couldn't be calling Kyrillos a crook -- only his opponents.

Kyrillos still hopes to get this tape up on the air. 

A Kyrillos press release noted that Channel 15, which is owned by Cablevision, is also scheduled to air "Tour of New Jersey," as is Comcast Channel 97.

"I still submitted it to the other channels," Kyrillos spokesperson Courtney A. Fagan said Monday of the roughly half-hour show featuring Kyrillos and Christie. The college, which receives taxpayer funds, pays the bulk of the production costs for Kyrillos? show.

That's Kyrillos' taxpayer funded spokesperson talking about a taxpayer funded tape that the college paying for the tape says it too political to show on the air.

Maybe Christie could investigate this use of taxpayer funds for political gain?

Remember, too, that there is a long history of Chris Christie and Joe Kyrillos helping each other out.  Kyrillos swore Christie in as Freeholder back in the 1990s, and Christie has attended numerous Kyrillos "town meetings" recently to attack politicians.

And then there's the payoff so Christie would get his current job.

So we have Senator Kyrillos, a former Republican State Chair, and two Republican Assembly members inviting the US Attorney to speak.  And this US Attorney - a former Republican freeholder, state campaign attorney for the Bush campaign, $100,000 plus fundraiser for Bush -- and his immediate family just happened to donate $94,000 to Kyrillos' as party chair in the six months before the prosecutor was nominated New Jersey's US Attorney in 2001.

By the way, Christie and his family made no contributions to the state party until after Kyrillos got the party chair gig and had the influence to help him.

Now we have Christie doing what could be considered payback while Kyrillos is running for reelection.  Christie attends town meetings and lauds Kyrillos while attacking the status quo (read, "Democrats" in this blue state).  Christie tapes interviews with Kyrillos that are so political in nature a college won't run them on public access just as Kyrillos is up for reelection.