The head of New Jersey's largest teachers' union called on Gov. Chris Christie to resign Sunday after the governor suggested the group's national counterparts deserve a punch in the face.
Wendell Steinhauer, president of the New Jersey Education Association, said in a statement Christie "should resign as governor immediately" after the Republican presidential hopeful assailed teacher unions for putting the interests of adults ahead of students.
"Chris Christie's instinct is always to threaten, bully and intimidate instead of build consensus and show true leadership," Steinhauer said.
"That's not news in New Jersey, where voters overwhelmingly reject his immature and inappropriate behavior as well as his failed policies and lack of leadership," he said. "It is clear from polling that voters in the rest of the country also reject his rhetoric and his behavior."
Christie's happy about all this attention, that's for sure.
He finally broke through the 24/7 Trump coverage with something outrageous that got him some headlines, outrage on social media, and attention from one of his favorite adversaries, the NJEA.
He's built a career on this sort of thing but Donald Trump stole his thunder by saying even more outrageous things and getting almost all the media coverage in the GOP primary story.
So Christie had a good morning yesterday, from his perspective, by saying he'd like to punch the national teachers union in the face.
No matter - right after that, he got booed long, loud and hard in two separate choruses by 61,000 horse racing fans at Monmouth Park yesterday.
That booing - which the Asbury Park Press described as a "bombarding" and NJ.com described as "merciless" - reminded him how people in his state feel about him (where he has a 58% disapproval rating and 57% saying he should resign) and how his fellow Republicans feel about him in the GOP primary, where he will just barely make the Thursday FOX News debate cut with 3.2% support.
Christie's a very unpopular governor in a state with one of the worst economies in the nation and an aging infrastructure that Christie has made much worse through negligence and inaction.
Christie has overseen the near destruction of the state pension system and nine debt downgrades for the state.
Yesterday Christie tried to relive his "Glory Days" by going back to the teacher-bashing and union-bashing schtick he used early on in his administration to great acclaim and rode all the way to a 2013 re-election.
But those glory days are long gone and now Christie's left with the mess he's made in New Jersey, the hostility a majority in the state feel for him and the disdain GOP primary goers have for him.
As Bruce Springsteen, Christie's hero, once sang "Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye Glory days, glory days..."
They're over, Chris, they're over.
Unrelated to this article, but relevant to our concerns, there is a link to a story in Time about hedge fund operators advising Puerto Rico to eliminate many teachers as a way to reduce their enormous debt problem! - in the New York Times today (8/3/15).
ReplyDeleteHow will the NJ economy benefit from state employee retirees slipping out of the middle class? Christie has been instrumental in transforming my once successful teaching career into a minefield. May I add my boisterous booing to the chorous?
ReplyDeleteAbigail Shure
It is a disgraceful time in the United States when those "in positions of power" walk around make speeches to threaten and "punch in the face" those who they disagree with. A true leader engages others through common sense, rationale, dignity, and respect...qualities that Christie demonstrates that he clearly lacks.
ReplyDeleteThis is the bully crowd running in potato sacks with the privatization bandits, to steal from the middle class what it has taken generations upon generations to build.
The only logical reason for bullying tactics is because those like Christie not only demonstrate a severe lack of leadership skills...they really have no logical argument to justify their actions as they pillage and plunder, through legislative and executive hammering, to street thuggery whacking...as they drive their golden chariots along the 21st century California Gold Rush...leaving everyone else to struggle to survive the Dust Bowl.
I recall a time when others used the policy of threats and intimidation to force their agendas on the people of their own nations.
And I look forward to the day when those like Christie are not only judged for their humanity-lacking policies, but are also punished for their crimes against honorable citizens.
If Christie could stand alongside great statesmen that have led the United Sates, he would be exposed for what he truly is more clearly...
...an overly aggressive and hostile boy, unable to stand in the shoes of great men around him.
Perhaps, this can help to explain his anger against professionals such as teachers...it is a compensation for qualities that Christie not only lacks, but ultimately can never attain.
The barbarian is angry because we didn't die yet.
ReplyDeleteHe ought to step to and get his fat ass kicked.
ReplyDelete