Randi Weingarten: Christie's A Bully With Anger Management Issues

AFT President Randi Weingarten, presumably one of the recipients of the "punch in the face" Candidate Chris Christie wants to give to national teachers unions, released the following statement about Christie:

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten reacted to Christie after the Republican governor said over the weekend the group deserves a punch in the face. The union leader criticized Christie for promoting a culture of violence.

"Chris Christie has issues—from reneging on his promise to fix pensions to his state's fiscal standing facing near junk bond status. But the biggest issue is he's a bully and has anger management problems," Weingarten said in a statement.

 "That he would threaten to punch teachers in the face — mostly women seeking to help children meet their potential and achieve their dreams — promotes a culture of violence and underscores why he lacks the temperament and emotional skills to be president, or serve in any leadership capacity," she said. "It's a sad day in the life of our nation to see a candidate threaten violence to gain political favor."

Weingarten doesn't use the word "misogynist" in her statement, but clearly that sentiment is there:  "That he would threaten to punch teachers in the face — mostly women seeking to help children meet their potential and achieve their dreams — promotes a culture of violence."

And indeed, he does seem to take a certain glee in blowing up on women, as this infamous incident from 2013 with the attendant photo shows:

Yesterday, the NJEA called for Christie to resign as governor.

57% of New Jersey residents were in agreement with that sentiment as measured by a July Monmouth poll.

Personally I think the more Christie tries to relieve the Glory Days of his early governorship where he beat up on teachers and union members weekly in his infamous town hall videos, the better.

This stuff isn't helping him in the 2016 GOP Presidential Primary, not with Donald Trump have superseded Christie's old act with a much more outrageous (and new) act of his own.

The teacher-bashing just speaks to where Christie stands these days politically post-BridgeGate - trying to live in the old "Glory Days" while the rest of the political world has moved past him.

His teacher-bashing misogyny act doesn't play well anymore - not in New Jersey with voters (where he got booed by 61,000 yesterday - twice) and not in the GOP primary where he lags at the bottom of the race as a political has-been.

But what else can a governor from a state with an economy in the toilet, an infrastructure in tatters, and an electorate furious at him do but try and relive the old days?

Chris Christie Tries To Relive His "Glory Days" By Bashing Teachers

The uproar of Candidate Christie's comments about the national teachers union continues:

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.