Christie: I'd beat Hillary Clinton just like I defeated Buono

Our weird weather hasn't ended. I encountered fog on Woodland Street in Tenafly on Monday morning.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie isn't even the GOP candidate, yet The Record today devotes a long front-page story to the wannabe president's saber rattling and talk of taking on China, Iran, Russia and Syria.

And buried deep in the story by Salvador Rizzo is the biggest laugh line of all:

The GOP bully said "he would be able to beat Hillary Clinton, if he decided to run for president, because it would be similar to the race he ran against another Democratic female senator, Barbara Buono" (A-6).

Who is this State House Bureau reporter, Rizzo? "Another Democratic female senator"?

Clinton was President Obama's first secretary of state, not "another Democratic female senator," and Buono was a state senator, not in the U.S. Senate, which is where the onetime first lady served.

By the way, the byline on the story says "Salvador," but a credit at the end of another Page 1 story says, "Salvatore."

Big defeat ahead

Christie is just setting himself up for the biggest humiliation of his political life, if he thinks beating Clinton would be as easy as his 2013 defeat of Buono, who was put up as a sacrificial lamb by the sheepish state Democratic Party.

For one thing, Christie was so desperate for a second term he exacted political retribution against Democrats who didn't endorse him for reelection.

And all the reporting on politics by Charles Stile of The Record and other media turned off registered voters to the point that fewer than four in 10 cast ballots in the gubernatorial race -- the lowest turnout in history for such an election.

Obama in Camden

The president visited Camden, showing the kind of leadership in addressing police violence against blacks that Christie could never display (A-1).

In fact, Christie, from his second home in New Hampshire, belatedly referred to all of the gun violence in Paterson, where three young blacks were gunned down in drive-by shootings in about 15 months.

Christie said he is ready to work with Paterson to create the same kind of community policing credited with cutting crime in Camden.

But the last of the three blacks slain in Paterson, basketball star Armoni Sexton, 15, died about a month ago, so why is Christie just now making the offer?

Teaneck horse

Multimillionaire Ahmed Zayat was born in Egypt and owns race horses, including American Pharoah.

But Zayat, a Sephardic Jew, has lived among other Orthodox Jews in Teaneck for 30 years.

Now, the editors are making a half-hearted effort to show township residents are behind him and his horse, and are rooting for American Pharoah to win the Triple Crown (L-1).

That's likely because twice on the front page recently, victories by the horse have been called "wins" for Teaneck. That's preposterous.

The story by Mary Diduch reports Zayat Stables are in Hackensack. Boy, does that make me feel good.

And I got a good laugh out of her first line: "Bergen County isn't exactly horse country."

Of course it is. 

The Bergen Equestrian Center at Overpeck Park, Leonia, has a long history, and many Bergen residents actually stable their horses there and ride them frequently.

A second county horseback riding facility is in Franklin Lakes.

Here's a line that is irrefutable: 

Local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza -- who assigned this stupid story to a clueless reporter and then embarrassed themselves no end by missing her ridiculous first sentence -- are horse's asses.

Better Living

Today's story on the popularity and health benefits of olive oil omits one important fact:

Unlike the vast majority of corn, soy and rapeseed (canola) used in cooking oils, olives aren't genetically modified and olive oil doesn't contain GMOs (BL-2).

There is no explanation why this piece runs under the heading of 15 MINUTE CHEF.

Hacks cover Hackensack

Image by Global Jet via Flickr

Schools near Teterboro Airport get federal soundproofing money. Homeowners get the shaft.

Why does The Record of Woodland Park -- formerly of Hackensack -- have hacks covering the city where it was founded in 1895 and where it prospered for more than 110 years? And how have the hacks kept their jobs?


When the Hackensack City Council introduced the budget, The Record ignored it. When the council passed the budget and set the tax rate, The Record was silent. When the council picked a new mayor, only the weeklies reported it.


Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes is chiefly responsible for local news, along with her crew of clueless assistants. She often sidetracks municipal reporters on expensive, prolonged investigations that bear little fruit. Wrongdoing often is exposed long after it has ended.


Sykes apparently has told Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado that her mission is blanket coverage of the Police Department, where the chief has been suspended and hit with a number of lawsuits, and he, in turn, has brought some of his officers up on administrative charges.


In nearly a year and a half of covering little else, Alvarado hasn't reported whether policing has been compromised or the public's confidence in the department has been shaken. 


Sykes even has Alvarado covering the administrative hearings as if they are pronouncements from the state's highest court, including spell-binding legal maneuvering to get the chief to testify on one cop's suspended and expired driver's license (L-3).

Catching up to 2005-09

Elise Young, a hard-working member of the State House Bureau, leads the paper today with an expose on the reckless Local Finance Board, the supposed watchdog of municipal and county spending. She pored over thousands of pages relating to actions the board took in 2005-09.


Once she convinces readers that these morons have forced taxpayers to cover the increased costs of out-of-control borrowing, she tells us Governor Christie has replaced the chairman and made other reforms.

What about homeowners? 

The big story on the front of Local today reports delays in FAA aid to insulate students from the noise of of aircraft using Teterboro Airport. But the paper has long ignored noise complaints from homeowners who live under the flight paths of both Teterboro and Newark airports. 

Local food coverage

There is none in Better Living today (unless you count the ShopRite ad on the back page). The battle of the cupcake mixes promised on Twitter by Food Editor Susan Sherrill didn't materialize. Did she have the day wrong?