Chris Christie picked the wrong guy to call a liar

[brentspeak]

http://www.salon.com/news/new_jersey/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/09/02/chris_christie_schundler

Chris Christie picked the wrong guy to call a liar

Thursday, Sep 2, 2010 12:45 ET

By Steve Kornacki

You can certainly understand why Chris Christie threw his education commissioner, Bret Schundler, http://www.northjersey.com/news/082710_Gov_Chris_Christie_fires_NJ_schools_chief_Bret_Schundler.html">under the bus last week. After all, it was Schundler's department that botched the state's "Race to the Top" application, costing New Jersey five points on its application -- the difference between $400 million in federal money and nothing.

But Christie, the state's first-year governor, didn't just fire Schundler for incompetence: He called him a liar. Loudly and repeatedly. He felt this necessary because when the news of the botched application first broke last Wednesday, Christie http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/08/gov_christie_blames_washington.html">publicly blamed the Obama administration, claiming that Schundler had supplied the data that was missing from the application -- budget numbers for the years 2008 and 2009 -- in advance of his formal hearing with the federal Department of Education. The real blame, Christie insisted, was with Obama's army of inflexible bureaucrats.

snip

This argument quickly unraveled when a videotape of Schundler's hearing was released, showing that the education commissioner and his team were blindsided by the error and unable to provide the missing data. When that tape emerged, Christie changed gears, branded Schundler a liar and fired him.

"Don't lie to the governor. That's the message," he http://www.nj1015.com/Christie-s-Message--Don-t-Lie-to-the-Governor--SCH/8048809">declared.

But there's a problem with that version, too: Schundler didn't lie to Christie, and now he's http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/ex-education_chief_bret_schund.html">going public with e-mails that prove it. The e-mails, between Schundler and Christie's communications director, show that Schundler was upfront with the governor's team about his failure to provide the feds with the correct data. And in a separate personal account of last week's events released with the e-mails, Schundler describes a phone conversation with Christie on the morning that Christie blasted the Obama administration...

[Historic NY]

1. Oh boy this could get really interesting....the blob is a jerk.

:popcorn:

[givemebackmycountry]

2. BUT THEY LOVED HIM!

He was after all "A FISCAL CONSERVATIVE" and how can one have a problem with THAT?

:sarcasm:

Fat fuck.
I hope he finds his ample ass in the fire.
And soon.

[Swamp Rat]

3. k&r

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Best part: "Governor, stick to the truth, there might be a videotape."

Talk about a set-up.