It takes one to know one

Republican State Sen. Gerald Cardinale had words with Sen. Nia Gill over his questioning of a witness, an advocate of marriage equality, who referenced the state’s Civil Union Review Commission’s findings in support of his point. Cardinale tried to undercut the legitimacy of the commission’s report.

When the witness noted that the commission was set up by the legislature, Cardinale said that “someone once told me that [law school] was three years of learning to lie effectively, but you aren’t lying effectively.”

Cardinale is like the madame of a whorehouse telling one of the girls she needs to do a better job at pretending to enjoy her clients.

Paul Mulshine does "Chicken Little"

Star-Ledger columnist Paul Mulshine is doing his usual "Chicken Little" shtik about New Jersey's imminent financial collapse. Now he says there’s a real chance the state could fail to appropriate funds to pay off those bonds. He also says Chris Christie has a crisis on his hands the minute he takes the oath as governor next month.

"Things are probably worse than most people believe," state Sen. Mike Doherty told Mulshine recently. "It’s questionable if we’ll even be able to meet payroll in a few weeks."

Funny coming from a guy so desperate a few weeks ago to win election to a State Senate seat he now says is worthless.

They were against federal grants before they were for them.

Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean and Senator Diane Allen, both members of the Senate Education Committee, expressed disappointment that New Jersey is woefully unprepared to apply for federal education grants.

“It is disappointing that the state Department of Education will be unable to complete the grant application by the deadline,” Kean stated. “I believe, especially in our current fiscal situation, it is imperative to make every effort to apply for all of the federal aid for which we are eligible."

And if their fellow Republicans in Congress had their way there wouldn't be any federal aid to apply for.

Chris Christie goes to school

Gov.-elect Chris Christie and Lt. Gov.-elect Kim Guadagno met with 11 superintendents from across the state to discuss problems with and solutions for the state's education system. The meeting was closed to the media, but Christie spoke with reporters afterward and said the fiscal challenges faced by school districts have wide-ranging effects.

"The challenges we face both fiscally and from an educational perspective in New Jersey are tied together,'' Christie said. "And that was my concept and Kim's concept walking into the meeting, and what we heard from the group of superintendents just further reinforces that, that everyone in the education community understands that real change needs to happen in the state.''

Maybe if schools did a better job teaching science and math to kids they wouldn't grow up to become political hacks in empty suits.

GOP stays relevant

Disgruntled conservatives recently tried to get the NJGOP State Committee to officially adopt the National GOP platform. The motion was tabled but the insurgents issued their own statement urging support for the platform:

"Historically, our party has always taken a stand on tough social issues.
If we go back and look at the Republican Party platform of 1856 we find
strongly worded positions on the social issues of the day – about the rights
possessed by every human life, and about the definition of marriage.

In that platform, we find those social issues addressed with these words:
“It is both the right and the imperative duty of Congress to prohibit those twin
relics of barbarism – Polygamy, and Slavery.”

Nice to see Republicans taking a progressive stance on issues like polygamy and slavery.

Toga! Toga!

Chris Christie says that his inaugural ball will be toned down to match the economy.

“I don’t feel and Kim doesn’t feel comfortable with the idea of having some really fancy black tie ball given what’s going on in the state. We’ll have a dignified celebration that night. I think we need to be sensitive to the idea that there are a lot of people unemployed and that are suffering,” he said.

I'll bet he doesn't cut back on food.

Rants and raves

Proposed legislation to change the way the governor appoints U.S. senators in the event of a vacancy has drawn outrage from Chris Christie. "It's garbage. It's political lying," said Christie during a press conference."There are no niceties to be put around this. This is a political power play by the party that's losing power, and it's wrong."

At one point, a reporter tried to follow up on one of Christie's points.

"Let me finish please. I'm in the middle of a rant here," Christie joked.

I'd like to see how he rants when the Assembly moves to cut the food budget for Drumthwacket.