The Christie administration submitted an application for up to $400 million in federal education funding that rejected key points the New Jersey Education Association and the governor’s own commissioner of education, Bret Schundler, hammered out last Thursday.
In discarding the compromise, Christie publicly scolded Schundler for agreeing to the deal without his approval...
Christie, who has engaged in a sustained attack on the NJEA since last year’s gubernatorial campaign, was unfazed by the union’s reaction. He minced no words in blaming Schundler either, stressing he will not budge from his core beliefs on how New Jersey’s schools can be improved...
Schundler did not return calls. His spokesman, Alan Guenther, referred questions back to Christie’s office.
The governor said he only learned of the Schundler-NJEA compromise after reading about it in the press. He tore into Schundler on the telephone Friday, one person familiar with the conversation said.
I'll admit to feeling some puerile glee at watching Christie smack down Schundler, who has been Christie's point man on the single most defining issue of his term so far. But this really is bad - now that's he's shown he is willing to sacrifice the pride of his own cabinet whenever a talk radio blowhard gets fired up, who's going to work for the guy?
The last thing a clear mental lightweight like Christie needs in his administration is a bunch of yes-men, but that is exactly what he's going to get after this fiasco. This is Bush all over again: Schundler is just like Paul O'Niell or John DiIulio.
And speaking of Bush - from the same piece:
“This is my administration, I’m responsible for it, and I make the decisions,” Christie told reporters during a news conference in West Trenton. “I’m sure we’ll have disagreements in the future. Hopefully, we’ll just handle them a little differently.”
Hmm, that sounds familiar...
"I'm the decider!" Never forget:
No comments:
Post a Comment