Editors make it all about Christie

Governor Christie is promising a "hopeful tomorrow" after so many failed yesterdays. (Wikipedia)

Governor Christie's plea for full funding of Sandy relief led The Record on Friday, and the front page also carried a political column on the GOP bully's chances for a second term.

Any reader who managed to swallow more than a few paragraphs of the Political Stile column turned to the continuation page (A-8) and found a long news story on the same subject.

(The three-line blurb on A-1 was incorrect, sending readers to the wrong page, A-6. Thanks to Production Editor Liz Houlton for that screw-up.)

Christie was back on the front page today as one of the officials who scorned remarks by the chief executive of the bloodthirsty National Rifle Association.

Two more Christie stories appear on A-4 today.

Making Christie shine

You could argue the state's chief executive deserves this kind of attention from Editor Marty Gottlieb, but The Record is so intent on making him look good the coverage is suspect.

Today's A-4 story on another tax-revenue shortfall really belongs on the front page as an example of how Christie has mismanaged state finances.

But The Record allows the governor to shape the debate, blame the shortfall on Superstorm Sandy and threaten even more budget cuts, which have fallen disproportionately on the middle class.

Growing tax phobia

As usual, the paper fails to mention Christie's longstanding opposition to a tax surcharge on millionaires or his refusal to raise the low gasoline tax to fix roads and expand mass transit.

On Friday's A-6, The Record reports Christie's campaign slogan for a second term would include the promise of a "hopeful tomorrow we're going to provide," but he's been in office for nearly three years so why haven't voters seen a "hopeful" today or yesterday?

One-track mind

On L-1 Friday, Road Warrior John Cichowski continued his hand-wringing over the loss of free mass-transit rides for 1,700 NJ Transit workers, but he hasn't ever mentioned how paying passengers ride packed rush-hour trains and buses with little prospect of relief.

In Friday's Better Living, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung doesn't explain why anyone would bother going to Clifton for mediocre coal-burning pizza at Grimaldi's when there are Brooklyn's brick-oven pizzerias in Hackensack, Edgewater and Ridgewood (BL 18-19).

Hackensack news

After a flurry of stories between late November and mid-December from Hannan Adely, the new Hackensack reporter, there has been little city news in Local lately.

See the Dec. 21 edition of the Hackensack Chronicle for what The Record missed, including a shared-services study of construction offices in Hackensack, Englewood, Teaneck, Bergenfield, Bogota and New Milford.

The City Council on Dec. 4 also outlawed the use of "boots" on cars parked illegally in private lots by anyone but the police.

Thanks to The Record's head assignment editor, Deirdre Sykes, and her deputy, Dan Sforza, for keeping city residents informed.