Schundler: Christie Is A Liar

For a while, former New Jersey Education Commissioner Bret Schundler seemed content to take the blame for the Race to the Top fiasco.

But now he's saying Governor Christie is "defaming" him:

In another salvo of who said what following the state’s failed Race to the Top application, former education commissioner Bret Schundler released a chronology of the events he believes led to his firing, saying that he is not a liar as the governor has claimed.

Last Friday, Gov. Chris Christie fired Shundler, alleging the former education commissioner misled him about whether the Department of Education attempted to provide correct budget information during an in-person presentation of the state’s Race to the Top application. Because the state did not provide information about its education spending in 2008 compared to 2009, reviewers docked the state 4.8 costly points in a competition it lost by three points.

In the chronology, Schundler says he accepts the governor’s right to fire commissioners with or without cause and he accepts responsibility for editing the error that contributed to New Jersey’s loss in the $400 million grant.

“I could accept being fired for that. But I will not accept being defamed by the Governor for something he knows I did not do,” Schundler wrote in the chronology. “The Governor called me a liar this week. That was the last straw. I have no choice now but to defend my name through this chronology of facts and the attached evidence.”

Schundler’s evidence includes e-mail correspondence between himself, the governor’s chief of staff and top officials in the governor’s communications office along with drafts of the letter he sent to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan explaining the fateful error and requesting additional Race to the Top funding he believed the state deserved.

After calling Schundler a liar and stating that the moral of the RttT fiasco was "don't lie to the governor," Christie now says it's "time to move on."

But wait a minute, governor.

Do you get to demand an apology from Obama for the RttT mess, get proved wrong by video tape, pointedly NOT apologize for YOUR mistake, blame it on your ed commissioner and claim he LIED to you about the matter when DOCUMENTS seem to clearly show he did not lie to you and YOU are the one lying and not be held accountable for all of this?

Just another example of accountability for little people, none for those in power.

Let's see if he gets away with it.