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| Governor Christie is going to Jordan to find an Arabic singer who can replace Bruce Springsteen at the grand opening of the Revel Resort and Casino in Atlantic City. |
Nowhere in The Record's Page 1 account today of Governor Christie's visit to Jerusalem does Staff Writer Mike Kelly mention drastic changes in the itinerary forced by the governor's size and weight.
Israeli officials stepped in when Christie expressed an interest in walking through the ancient water tunnel under the Old City, fearing he would become wedged in the narrow space and starve to death.
Kelly's piece also raises a number of questions the reporter never answers.
Irish latkes
Why did Christie, an Irish Catholic, pick Israel for his first trip abroad as governor? Did Ireland refuse to host him?
And why is this non-Jew praying at the Western Wall (A-8)? Christie took up two spots, denying an Orthodox Jew his rightful place during prayers.
Why is there no mention of whether Christie likes Israeli food or misses his usual diet of pizza and beer?
Were those overweight suitcases he paid for with taxpayers' money filled with Neapolitan pies and Budweiser?
Legendary singer
Kelly also doesn't report that a major goal of Christie's visit to Jordan on Thursday is to find the great-granddaughter of Om Kalthoum, the legendary Arabic singer who was known as the "Mother of Egypt" before she died in 1975.
Rejected by Bruce Springsteen, Christie hopes to ask the young woman, Um Um Kalthoum, if she will sing at the grand opening of the Revel Resort and Casino in Atlantic City.
Belly laughs
Kelly's columns usually are laughable, but today, he unwittingly provides a laugh line on the front page, if you can follow the tortured syntax:
"For Christie, the trip -- and especially meetings with [Benjamin] Netanyahu -- seem to have an unstated meaning and mission to bolster's the governor's credibility as a political leader who is interested in much more than New Jersey property tax relief and teacher tenure."
Of course, everyone except Kelly and Editor Marty Gottlieb knows Christie could care less about lowering property taxes, and long ago broke his campaign promise to do so.
What a joke.
Trial for readers
Readers get another belly laugh at the expense of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, who eight days ago ran a Page 1 story reporting the start of suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa's trial.
Testimony still is not under way (L-3).
Monday's paper
If we have to renew our licenses only once every four years, why is there a story on Page 1 about "more formal documentation"?
In fact, none of the three elements on Monday's Page 1 could actually be called news.
Sykes wastes space on the Local front with a story on the uninsured couple who were flown from the Bahamas to New Jersey at taxpayers' expense (L-1).
Now, they are receiving charity care for their serious injuries at Hackensack University Medical Center, and you can be sure the cost will nudge up everyone's health insurance premiums.
The cost of their care is put at $250,000, plus $18,000 to $20,000 for the "medical emergency" flight. What a waste.
The story about Diandra Barreto, 24, of Hasbrouck Heights and Michael Gallinella, 37, of Woodbridge ran so long, Sykes could not print any Hackensack news on Monday.
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From what I understand the trip was paid for by some Jewish Republican organization. The mere fact that a governor of an American state is out talking foreign policy abroad makes no sense to me. I would like to know where the uproar is from conservatives of this man wasting both time and money in a country he has no business in.
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