Will Romney nod be the kiss of death for Christie?

Wouldn't you rather have a woman with a solid 20-year legislative record running New Jersey than a macho, in-your-face GOP bully who is in bed with special interests and other members of the 1%?

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

A year ago, Mitt Romney suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of President Obama, but here he is today in The Record,  vouching for Chris Christie as "one of the very strongest" Republicans in a bid to take back the White House from the help (A-6).

The Romney endorsement came on Sunday as Christie and his Democratic challenger, Barbara Buono, continued to campaign, making a mockery of that morning's ridiculous headline on Page 1 of the Woodland Park daily:

Last shots of campaign

Both gubernatorial candidates will campaign today and tonight. The election is Tuesday.

Besides governor, voters will  choose state legislators, freeholders and other officials -- with little or no help on the issues from The Record and its bored editors and reporters.

Woman in name only

The main element on Page 1 today is a story that raises the horrifying possibility that Lt. Gov. Kim Guadano would become governor, if Chris Christie is reelected and resigns to run for president.

Guadano is often seen standing behind her boss -- in a throwback to the days before the women's movement gained so many rights.

A lawyer and former prosecutor like Christie, Guadano used last month's debate with Barbara Buono's running mate, Milly Silva, mostly to praise the governor (A-6).

What a non-entity.

Guadano has even less name recognition than Buono, the Democratic state senator with 20 years experience in the state Legislature.

Who is angry?

On Sunday, Christie said about Buono,  "I've never seen an angrier candidate" (A -6), suggesting the governor has never looked in the mirror.

Buono and the voters should be angry at Christie for telling the Big Lie about lowering property taxes, and for taking an ax to social programs to protect millionaires from a tax surcharge and funnel hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to wealthy business owners.

The headline on A-6 today -- "Attacks heat up in home stretch" -- completely contradicts Sunday's "Last shots in campaign," a reference to Saturday.

Buono noted Christie "went ballistic on a teacher" on Saturday (A-6) -- the day before Staff Writer Melissa Hayes' front-page blow job, which claimed Christie had changed his tone and was watching his big, fat mouth.

In a photo, a stern-faced Christie is seen wagging his finger at teacher Melissa Tomlinson, The Record reports today.

"I was shaking by the time we got done," Tomlinson said (A-6).

How did Hayes miss this Christie scolding of a constituent or did she simply ignore it to preserve the myth-making in her Sunday story?

Where is Deirdre?

The unexplained absence of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes is approaching a couple of months.

She may be out, but she isn't down, as readers can see from the major news from her hometown of Harrington Park that appears on L-2 today.

However, her deputy assignment flunky, Dan Sforza, still needed a Dean's List to pad today's local-news report (L-2).

Local cross-dresser, idiotic headline and boring columnists

A moving truck from Philadelphia at the New Jersey entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel on Friday.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The most remarkable thing about Roger Bowne of Pompton Lakes -- a 6-foot-3 man who cross-dressed in public for 30 years -- is that The Record's local news editors apparently ignored him until he died.

His obituary is just about the only interesting bit of reading in today's Sunday edition, which is weighed down by leaden campaign coverage, an idiotic Page 1 headline and boring columns from Staff Writers John Cichowski and Mike Kelly (L-1 and O-1).

The headline over the front-page photos of Barbara Buono and Governor Christie declares:

Last shots of campaign

So, are readers to believe the GOP bully and his Democratic challenger are taking a day off from campaigning on Monday, the day before the gubernatorial election? 

Aren't the last salvos going to be fired then? What moron wrote that headline, and what supervisor approved it?

Forked tongue

The supposed big news is that Christie is watching his infamous tongue, but what is unreported in this so-called analysis is the foul, expletive-filled language he must use in private (A-1).

Can you imagine what he says about the homosexuals, low-wage workers and teachers he targeted during his first term?

The Record's coverage of the campaign has failed miserably by ignoring Christie's terrible record, including his inability to revive the state's economy after the recession or to keep his promise to lower property taxes.

He's just 'Roger'

The Bowne obituary mentions only one publication that paid any attention to the cross-dresser, the magazine Weird N.J., which featured him in a photo spread in 2009, when his "legend peaked" (A-4).

Of course, there are a number of freaks among the paper's local news editors, and that might explain why Bowne escaped notice until now.

Still lazy

After an absence of a couple of weeks, Road Warrior John Cichowski is back with another column that ignores the commuting woes of the majority and focuses on a driver's complaint, this time about towing charges (L-1).

The lazy columnist misses the biggest lesson here: Don't neglect regular maintenance if you plan to drive your car into the ground.

More Kelly crap

What's the point of Kelly's O-1 column about Cory Booker, who was sworn in on Thursday as a U.S. senator?

Harrington Park and Bergen County's other overwhelmingly white suburbs may have tolerated an occasional mixed-race family such as the Bookers, but they certainly don't deserve any medals for integration.

Virtually all of the county's minorities live in three communities, Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood.

That is no coincidence. Sadly, it the dark side of home rule The Record has ignored for decades.

On Page 1: The Laurel and Hardy of right-wing politics

At Passaic Street and Summit Avenue in Hackensack, above, and at other intersections, crews are making curbs wheelchair accessible. What about improvements to ease the flow of traffic, such as turn lanes on Passaic, a notorious bottleneck? Don't hold your breath.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Today's Page 1 photo of Mitt Romney and Chris Christie -- a latter-day Laurel and Hardy -- runs with a story on a new book that exposes the dark side of right-wing GOP politics.

"Double Down: Game Change 2012" reveals the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that went into Romney's choice for a running mate in his ultimately failed bid to unseat President Obama last November (A-1).

Christie love affair

The book tackles subjects -- Christie's record, style and weight -- The Record's adoring editors and reporters have largely ignored in their effort to groom the GOP bully for a second term as governor, as well as a presidential run in 2016.

"The book makes fun of Christie's weight at every turn," according to the story, but it also reports on "the garish controversies lurking in the shadows of his record" (A-6).

Readers may be doing double takes, trying to recall when, if ever, The Record has discussed Christie's "spending as U.S. attorney, lobbying activities, steering contacts to donors and allies..., a 1994 defamation lawsuit" -- all deemed "a potential political nightmare," if Romney chose Christie as a running-mate.

Ignoring new poll

Another Page 1 story on the battle between Christie and Democratic challenger Barbara Buono reports in the first paragraph that "some polls" put the GOP bully ahead of her "by more than 30 points."

But that ignores this week's Fairleigh Dickinson PublicMind Poll that shows Christie's lead has narrowed to 19 points in the run-up to Tuesday's election, as reported by The Star-Ledger. 

Is The Record deliberately ignoring the Fairleigh Dickinson poll?

A-2 carries two more embarrassing corrections.

An editorial on A-9 urges a "no" vote on a constitutional amendment to raise the minimum wage -- a move Christie vetoed.

The Woodland Park daily claims it would "lock small businesses into automatic increases."

Small businesses? Are McDonald's and Walmart "small businesses"?

Utility pole update

The big Hackensack news today is the arrest of a 73-year-old man on charges of sexually abusing three children (L-6).

On the same page, a photo keeps readers abreast of North Jersey utility pole news, this time in Franklin Lakes.

The photo shows six PSE&G crewman repairing a downed utility line. No wonder our rates are so high. And where were they after Superstorm Sandy?

A Better Living cover story reports on the crappy food served at sports arenas, and the exorbitant prices paid by inebriated fans who can't get enough harmful animal antibiotics and growth hormones (BL-1).

JFK assassination, immigrant students and retail

Most but not all of the residents of Clinton Place in Hackensack took down their Halloween displays today, above and below. From the looks of The Record's front page today, you'd think a zombie editor was at work in the Woodland Park newsroom.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Look out, readers, it's the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy -- one of the saddest days in American history, right up there with the murders of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy.

Instead of exploring why we still have so much gun violence and such a strong racist reaction to President Obama, The Record's front page asks, "Where were you that day?"

The sub-headline uses this phrase: "JFK's assassination."

Doesn't that mean the assassination belongs to John F. Kennedy? If so, that is incorrect, another Page 1 screw-up missed by six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton. 

50 years ago?

Most of The Record's readers can't remember where they were 50 days ago, let alone a half-century earlier, so what's the point of this journalistic exercise?

The anniversary is on Nov. 22, so it's not clear why The Record is marking it today, 21 days early.

The only other stories on A-1 today are process stories -- the blow-by-blow on allowing illegal immigrant students to pay lower in-state tuition rates, and the public financing of the huge entertainment and retail complex called American Dream.

Is this Editor Marty Gottlieb's concept of breaking news or local news?

Booker and Buono?

The swearing in of Cory Booker as the state's first African-American U.S. senator is on A-3 today, but no one thought to ask him if he will be campaigning for Barbara Buono, the Democratic state senator who is an uphill battle with the GOP bully, Governor Christie (A-3).

In Local, Deputy Assignment Flunky Dan Sforza played trick or treat on readers again, and readers were tricked.

Eight Law & Order or court stories appear in the section.

Simply mediocre

Better Living has another lukewarm restaurant review from Staff Writer Elisa Ung, this time of Bistro du Saigon in Fort Lee (BL-10).

You know the place is forgettable when Ung spends the first half of the review talking about everything else but the food.

There are only two words you need to know to find great Vietnamese food in Bergen County: Simply Vietnamese, a BYO in Tenafly.