Christie may look like a beached whale, but he won't hesitate to screw New Jersey

Governor Christie on July 2 enjoying Island Beach State Park -- closed to the public during a government shutdown -- looks like a beached whale, but he still is capable of hurting New Jerseyans before he leaves office in January (Photo credit: Andrew Mills of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com).

At an unapologetic press conference, Christie noted he was staying in the official Jersey shore mansion for New Jersey governors on July 2.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Despite an overwhelming Democratic majority in the state Legislature, New Jersey's GOP bully has ruled the state with an iron fist for nearly 8 years.

And yet, The Record of Woodland Park and other big and small news outlets just don't get it.

Today's banner headline in The Record screams "stealth veto," a reference to Governor Christie secretly taking language out of the state budget so he can divert hundreds of millions of dollars from polluters into the general fund (1A).

ABC's "Good Morning America" referred to Christie vacationing with his family on a beach closed to the public as "Beachgate," and other media claimed the governor's in-your-face explanation generated an "international firestorm" of protest.

But even as Christie is rated the most unpopular governor in the nation, he simply doesn't give a shit.

With little media scrutiny, the GOP thug has successfully used more than 500 vetoes to assert his radical conservatism, and thwart the will of the Democrats who rule the state Legislature and the public.

At the same time, Christie exploited Trenton reporters like The Record's Charles Stile to write story after story heralding his "reform agenda." 

Stile even touted him as a "bipartisan compromiser" poised for a White House run.

Years ago, another reporter, Dustin Racioppi, wrote a story exposing Christie's vetoes when they passed the 300 mark, but never touched the subject again.

The Record has ignored what many suspect -- Christie set a veto record in the course of becoming the worst New Jersey governor ever.

Liar-In-Chief

@GovChristie even had the balls to tweet that the final budget he signed early Tuesday "delivered 2 full terms of unprecedented pension stability, fiscal responsibility & tax relief" -- when nothing could be farther from the truth.

And in a front-page column on Wednesday, the gullible Stile, still in the dark about Christie's latest diversion of funds, quoted Democrats as praising the budget as the best they have ever gotten.

Today, Staff Writer Scott Fallon reports Christie's stealthy budget editing could mean only $50 million of a proposed $225 million state settlement with Exxon Mobil Corp. would go "to a state fund used to restore land and water affected by hazardous waste" (1A). 

"The veto follows a pattern by Christie, who had diverted almost $300 million from the polluters of the Passaic River ... to the general fund," Fallon says.

Not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars in mass-transit money Christie grabbed to repair roads and bridges after canceling Hudson River rail tunnels in 2010. 

Thunder Thighs

Photos of Christie roasting in the sun on July 2 showed he has two enormous thighs and lots of belly fat, yet reporters never asked him what happened to the weight he lost initially after lap-band surgery in February 2013.

In April 2015, he told a friendly Matt Lauer on "Today" the surgery is "the best thing I've ever done for my health" and "I wish I had done it years ago."

After Christie first took office in 2010, only "60 Minutes" asked the obese governor how much he weighed (he refused to answer, of course), and whether he was healthy enough for a White House campaign.

Comedian David Letterman guessed Christie weighed 400 pounds:

Guess how much Governor Christie weighs

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