Viva Christie

Less than a year ago, I saw an article on the Tigerhawk blog showing a Chris Christie campaign stop that was almost a total no-show for supporters. My guess at that time was that Christie didn't have a chance. Well, times have changed and doing what seemed impossible in NJ, Christie is now Governor. What is more of a shock is that he is doing what he said he would do and is cutting government spending, not only by doing what is easy, but also going after the bloated education union pension and benefit plans.

Only time will tell how successful he will be, but right now, Christie is a ray of hope for all NJ citizens. Doing what is right is not always the smart thing for a politician. Perhaps, if he gets voted out in NJ, he can run for President. The federal government needs someone that preaches what Christie preaches and then walks the walk.

Excerpt: You haven’t made it in New Jersey until organized labor wants you dead. By that measure, Chris Christie is already one of the most influential governors in the Garden State’s — shall we say, colorful history. Just a few months into his term, Christie has taken the fight to the blood-engorged leech of a public sector so quickly and so hard that one teacher-union apparatchik sent an e-mail to thousands praying for his untimely demise.

But Chris Christie lives. And nearly two-thirds of the state’s bloated school budgets are not so lucky, having perished at the polls — the local tax levy proposed by each school district in New Jersey is subject to voter approval — in greater proportion than in any year since 1976. This is undoubtedly a win for New Jersey taxpayers, who recognize the necessity, if not the palatability, of Christie’s strong fiscal medicine in a state that teeters on the brink of bankruptcy even as it pays the highest tax burden in the nation.

Decades of big, bad government and a rare red mandate in a blue state have left Chris Christie with the daunting task of convincing the beneficiaries of the status quo that the party is over and that they’ll have to help clean up. The school-budget battle was the first real test of the feasibility of that program. In winning that battle by, in his words, treating voters like adults and “governing like a one-termer,” Christie may have drawn the union’s death wishes, but he just might have saved New Jersey’s life. Read full article here.