New Jersey's worst governor -- ever

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Frank Sinatra was a "Jersey guy." What about Governor Christie?

You have to be rich, conservative and out of touch with what has happened in New Jersey to beg Governor Christie to run for the White House.


Garden State residents, especially the working and middles classes, are all too familiar with the GOP bully, the worst governor we've had since I moved here in the early 1970s. 


And, on the Page 1 today, The Record contrasts what he's failed to do -- on taxes, jobs, politics and ethics -- with the success "stories" he spun on Tuesday to woo wealthy conservatives in California.


It's sad to see The Record's Julie Fletcher and other reporters adopting Christie's description of his bluster as "Jersey style" or referring to his "Jersey guy act," because many outsiders think of his mean-spirited policies in the same terms.


Is attacking union benefits "Jersey style"? Does a "Jersey guy" cut school-nutrition programs for low-income children or health programs for low-income women? What about rubber-stamping huge Hudson River toll and fare hikes, or refusing to tax millionaires?


How about removing the only black justice on the state Supreme Court and replacing him with a white lawyer who represented drug companies? Is that "Jersey style"?


Talk about corrupt


Even New Jersey's famously corrupt politicians have more heart and soul than Christie, who in less than two years in office has cemented his reputation as the state's worst governor.


First, The Record broke the story about Irene-related overtime for Paterson officials. Then, the paper blew it by under-counting the number of officials with their hands out. 


Now, it's determined to keep something, anything on the front page, and Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin is piling on with an editorial today (A-1 and A-12).



Chiefs hold us up


Every North Jersey police chief making more than $200,000 a year is a bigger scandal than overtime in Paterson, but those bloated salaries and benefits have long been ignored by Christie and his pals, Doblin and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes.


Editor Francis Scandale must have been scrambling for New Jersey news, if he had to plug a gaping hole on A-1 today with a story on seats for Yankees playoff games. 


I might tune in and look for Scandale and Staff Writer John Brennan, guzzling beer and stuffing themselves with mystery meat, preservative-filled hot dogs.


More sloppy editing


I can't keep up with all of the sloppy editing by Liz Houlton's news copy desk.


I'm no fan of Fletcher, the reporter who produced a terrible lead paragraph about Christie on Wednesday's front page. Today, she begins her A-1 story with, "Facing greater national scrutiny by national conservatives ...."


Where are the editors? We certainly don't need the word "national" repeated twice. The rest of her lead makes about as much sense as the one on Wednesday.


Every reporter, no matter how long in the business, needs editing. At The Record, readers are burdened day after day with bad, fuzzy and long-winded writing, because the editors don't do their jobs. 


Scandale ordered the photo of Christie -- standing behind the Reagan Presidential Library seal and flanked by American flags -- blown up to take up almost all of the top half of A-1 on Wednesday. 


What would the editor do, if Christie threw his hat in the ring, clear the entire front page?


Error after error


On A-3 today, a photo caption must have been taken right from the Web. "State police are reporting a dozen road closures ...."


On the front of Local, the time element, "Tuesday night," appears twice in the same sentence in the Political Stile column by Charles Stile (third paragraph).


Above the column, the photo caption for a court hearing story says, "To Richard Sellitto's right is his lawyer, Mike Mitzner."


But the lawyer in on the suspect's left. 


Mouse Kelly


On L-3, Columnist Mike Kelley says Paterson Mayor Jeffrey Jones must have a tiny inner alarm that warns him "when he is about to do something really dumb."


Bewildered readers have been saying that for years about Kelly, Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski and Columnist Bill Ervolino.


On L-6, a story on the death of a 53-year-old Englewood man and his 3-year-old son adds absolutely nothing to the initial report on Tuesday. 


A deputy police chief is refusing to release the cause of the father's death, and that's OK with Sykes' assignment desk. It's content with waiting for the press release.