Christie is a political animal -- with emphasis on 'animal'

On Monday, crews paved 4 blocks of Hackensack's Euclid Avenue, between Prospect Avenue, above, and Main Street, for the first time in decades, according to long-time city residents. An elderly man walking his dog said he feared the work would be reflected in higher property tax bills.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Governor Christie and his clumsy attempts to remake the New Jersey Supreme Court have been a continuing story since he took office in 2010.

But The Record's editors have sounded more and more like they are on the GOP bully's public-relations payroll, rather than working hard to uncover the truth for readers.

Editor Marty Gottlieb leads today's paper with a news story and column about Christie ducking out of a political battle with Democrats and looking forward to the 2016 presidential race (A-1 and A-6).

Court disorder

Of course, one reason Democrats would have opposed tenure for Assistant Justice Helen E. Hoens is that she is just as conservative and mean-spirited as Christie on funding affordable housing and public schools in poor districts.

The second is making Christie pay for his shameful, racially charged decision in 2010 to deny tenure to Justice John E. Wallace Jr., who was the only black member of the high court.

(Today, the news story fails to identify Wallace as African-American, but the Political Stile column does.)

Judge Fuzzy

But a third reason is evident: Christie's past nominees and his current pick -- a native of Santiago, Cuba -- are a bunch of turkeys.

Do we really want a state Supreme Court Justice with "Fuzzy" as his nickname?

Politics define Christie, including his putting his fat face into the Superstorm Sandy TV ads in an election year (A-3), and giving cleanup and other contracts to his wealthy supporters.

Cops and courts

Today's Local section from head Assingment Editor Deirdre Sykes is heavy with police and court stories.

Stories on L-1 and A-1 today raise anew the question of whether police are doing enough to enforce traffic and DWI laws -- a story The Record has been avoiding like the plague.

Page L-1 alone carries two stories and a photo about a chase and crash, a one-car accident that killed 3 and an inconsequential car fire.

The front-page story is about a Clifton woman who was killed in the street by an allegedly drunk driver.

Who wrote this?

A photo on L-2 shows an employee for the New York and Greenwood Lake Railway cleaning up the right of way, but the over line is a puzzling "OFF THE BEATEN TRACK."

There is a lot of wire-service filler in today's paper, including a long story from Chicago about Ford pushing Lincoln dealers to make expensive upgrades in a bid to sell the faltering luxury brand to younger buyers (L-10).

I guess The Record's business editors couldn't find anyone to pick up a phone and get a comment from a local dealer.

On the Better Living cover, Staff Writer Elisa Ung is peddling a vegetable-and-fruit juice that fits eveyone's budget: A 16-ounce jar is $12. 

Second look

Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to remain in the dark about when the Summit Avenue exit ramp on Route 17 will reopen -- the subject of his Sunday column and two earlier, though equally clueless, efforts.

The only work left is to activate traffic lights, according to a concerned reader who spoke to a project manager for the state Department of Transportation.

There are so many errors and so much misinformation and missing information in Sunday's column, I'll defer to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

More incompetent Road Warrior reporting