The Star-Ledger today slammed a pair of Democratic big shots for backing Gov. Chris Christie, even though he “routinely does violence to core principles of the Democratic Party.”
Christie favors the rich over the poor every time. He vetoed an income-tax hike on the top 1 percent and a modest increase in the minimum wage. He is an aggressive opponent of abortion rights who closed down six Planned Parenthood clinics.
He pooh-poohs climate change, withdrew from the regional treaty to cut emissions, and depleted the state’s clean energy funds by a staggering $1 billion. He removed the only African-American justice on the state Supreme Court for no good reason. He reduced aid to cities, forcing police layoffs that increased criminal violence. He is still trying to grab money set aside for affordable housing.This list goes on, but you get the idea. Christie is a conservative fellow. And if he wins re-election, as seems likely, he’ll become a lot more conservative as the 2016 GOP presidential primaries approach. Count on that.
And yet, Democrats like Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo and Union City Mayor Brian Stack — and numerous others — still endorse him. The reason, the Ledger says,
is that guys like DiVincenzo and Stack don’t give a damn about grand causes. They think about state aid, and they think about hedging their bets. If Attila the Hun were favored to win in November, they might endorse him as well.
And if that means a single mom who can’t pay her rent because she works a lousy job for minimum wage must be thrown overboard, then that’s the way it goes.
The polite term for guys like these is “transactional politician.” They are guided by a simple calculation of benefits they provide against benefits they receive.
The impolite term for them is much shorter.
Ouch.
Send me an e-mail.
Hank Kalet 
I don't ever remember a time when so many NJ Democrats were backstabbing and sabotaging the Democratic candidate for governor (Buono). If they love Christie so much, then they should go the whole nine yards and become Republicans. On a side note, Democrats praising Reagan as some kind of positive force is vomit inducing. Has Obama given any kind of support to Buono? Nah, he's been all kissy face with Christie, giving all kinds of indirect and not so indirect support to Christie. Christie has done hideous damage to NJ schools, trying to privatize them and turn them over to charter schools and trying to enact school vouchers. He has attacked the NJEA mercilessly and he has also attacked the teachers directly, too. Good grief, 4 more years of this s**t. He has created a class war between public school teachers and private sector workers. Teachers are portrayed as greedy entitled elites. Oh yeah, all those teachers with their yachts, Rolls Royces, NYC penthouses and multimillion dollar golden parachutes. The vile vicious hateful scum on NJ 101.5 cheer on all this venomous anti-teacher crap that spews from Christie.