Only governor gets to have a big mouth

Apparently, it is OK for the governor to say outrageous things, but when his political opponents make similarly obnoxious comments they should step aside.

Let’s be clear: What Vincent Giordano, the executive director of the New Jersey Education Association, said on Sunday was unacceptable.

Responding to the “New Jersey Capital Report” host’s comment that many parents can’t afford to take their children out of poor-performing schools, Giordano said, in part, “Life’s not always fair and I’m sorry about that.”

An apology is definitely in order, and maybe Giordano should resign — I’ll leave that for the NJEA membership to decide.

The governor, however, probably should keep his mouth shut on this. Remember, it was just a few weeks ago that Christie called Assemblyman Reed Gusciora “numbnuts” and said that blacks in the South would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights in the 1960s.

This is typical Christie, of course. He’s the blunt tough guy. Everyone else, apparently, should just shut up and deal with it.

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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

One thought on “Only governor gets to have a big mouth”

  1. In my opinion, Giordano's comment was totally innocuous and harmless. This is much ado about nothing, making a tempest out of a thimble full of tea. This is all part of the vicious nation wide anti-union movement and the drive to destroy what's left of unions in this country. Giordano has nothing to apologize for and he certainly should not resign. Christie has declared all out war against the NJEA from day one because he wants to destroy the union, reduce teacher pay and privatize the schools for his corporate buddies. I just read nj.com's hit piece on the incident. Talk about biased reporting, geez, the headline portrays Giordano as a high paid NJEA official. What does his high pay have to do with the comment? Christie is constantly smearing, demonizing, attacking and swift boating the NJEA and its officials. He gets plenty of support from NJ 101.5, Fox News and the rest of right wing radio. Christie is trying to bully and intimidate the NJEA, to portray the NJEA as the GREAT SATAN of NJ and to create a wedge between NJEA members and the top officials. Unfortunately, the US has become a rabidly anti-union country and the ordinary New Jerseyan is buying into NJEA hatred and Christie's lies about the NJEA. The US's over all unionization rate is just below 12%, while Germany's is about 25%, Sweden's 75%+ and Finland's unionization rate is above 85%.

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