Football uber alles

3rd district GOP congressional candidate Jon Runyan explained to an interviewer recently why he's still playing football instead of discussing issues like health care and Afghanistan:

"I kind of came [to San Diego] to just kind of prove my point to people telling me that I could not recover from this knee injury and play football again."

I don't think Adler has anything to worry about.

Chris Christie, Paula Dow & paperless immigrants

It seems Star-Ledger columnist Paul Mulshine is not exactly doing cartwheels over Christie's appointment of Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow to be the next Attorney General. Evidently Dow was Prosecutor when an undocumented immigrant was linked to the shooting of four Newark students, and Mulshine seems to imply that Christie's alleged reluctance to aggressively pursue undocumented immigrants had something to do with it. He then quotes Morristown Mayor Don Cresitello saying, “This is the job of the federal prosecutor to start cracking down on this, but he seems only to want to deal with political prosecutions.”

I guess Mulshine, Cresitello et. al. would prefer Christie giving Sharpe James and Wayne Bryant a pass in favor of busting motel maids and grass cutters.

Can Christie "bend" without falling?

Chris Christie said in an interview with the Asbury Park Press his primary intent is to fulfill his No. 1 campaign pledge. "We are going to balance the budget without raising taxes," Christie said. "I will not bend on that principle."

It would be interesting to see Christie bend at all, especially after he's had a full meal.

Time for lunch. Anybody disagree?

Chris Christie said he opposes legislation a member of his transition team, State Senator Sandra Cunningham, sponsored to let local governments put off paying part of their pension contributions this year. He added the issue does not affect his "respect" for Cunningham.

"It will be shocking for you to know that I don’t agree with everything that everyone around me proposes," Christie said.

Except when somebody proposes they take a break and go to lunch.

Steve Lonegan is "not very happy" with Chris Christie

Steve Lonegan, who ran against Christie in the GOP primary this year, called Christie's support of a $1 billion bond deal to pay for highway and mass transit projects “a travesty” that will merely continue the policies of Democratic administrations that relied heavily on borrowing to pay state expenses.

“If that's an indication of things to come, I'm not very happy with that,” said Lonegan, who is state director for Americans for Prosperity, a conservative public policy organization. “This is an underhanded gimmick.”

If Lonegan was happy, I'd really be scared.

Politicians in "over-politicized" glass houses should not throw stones

On radio station 101.5FM Chris Christie took yet another potshot at those who did not support him for governor: The NJEA, who has been attempting to set up a meeting with Christie, to no avail. He said, “Teachers are not the problem. It’s the over-politicized of the leadership of their union.”

"Over-politicized" former US Attorneys should not be casting stones, lest they be without sin.

Christie finds band to replace Springsteen

A post on PolitickerNJ.com reports that Todd Christie, the brother of Chris Christie -- a devoted Springsteen fan despite their political differences -- offered Springsteen a large donation to the charity of his choice if he performed at Christie’s inauguration. Springsteen declined, however, signaling he did not want to get involved in state politics.