Issuing tough words in the wake of Newt Gingrich’s dramatic South Carolina victory, Gov. Chris Christie said on Meet the Press that Mr. Gingrich has “embarrassed” the Republican Party in the past and that he doesn’t know “whether he’ll do it again in the future.”

Mr. Christie, who was himself widely courted by top Republicans to enter the GOP presidential race earlier in the primary season, told NBC reporter David Gregory that he believes “Newt Gingrich has embarrassed the [Republican] Party over time.”

Mr. Gregory then asked the New Jersey Governor to explain what he meant.   Mr. Christie, who has publicly endorsed Mitt Romney for president, replied:  “He [Gingrich] was run out of the Speakership by his own party.  He was fined $300,000 for ethics violations.  This is a guy who has had a very difficult political career at times and has been an embarrassment to the [Republican] Party.”

(more…)

TRENTON, N.J. – Take a look inside a typical public employee union contract – including teacher contracts – and you’ll find provisions that give public servants a payout for any unused sick or personal leave time they have banked.

Sometimes the payouts come incrementally, like at the employees’ 10^th anniversary. More often they come at retirement. The payments are almost always based on the employees’ current or final salary, rather than the amount they were making when they banked the unused day off.

While these might seem like innocent, well-deserved bonuses, they are, in reality, ticking financial time bombs that threaten to blow a hole in the budgets of schools and other government entities.

That’s the case in New Jersey, which is on the hook “for an accumulated $825 million in unused sick days,” according to Syracuse.com. That’s the cumulative amount owed by all levels of state government, including school districts. “This works out to an average of $250 in property taxes per resident,” writes the HudsonReporter.com.

(more…)

Mitt Romney’s weekend interview in the Wall Street Journal seems to add weight to conservative doubts about his candidacy.

Romney doesn’t seem to get it: the 2012 election is about the size and cost of government.

We already have a “smart” president with ambitious plans who thinks he knows better. That hasn’t worked for our economy, and has damaged trust in our democracy.

Romney says “America doesn’t need a manager,” but his plans reflect what the Journal euphemistically calls “positive technocratic thinking.”

Though Romney may be more “sober” than his rival Newt Gingrich (or, less charitably, more timid than the former Speaker), he evidently shares with Gingrich an enthusiasm for what the federal government could do, if only he were put in control.

Given that Ron Paul’s radical foreign policy is a non-starter, and that several other candidates–however well-meaning–could not manage the mundane task of qualifying for the Virginia ballot, or withstand the media scrutiny of a long campaign, Republicans are feeling new doubts about the current field.

They are all better than Obama; the question is–are they the best Republicans can offer?

As Republicans have wrestled with that question, a few have floated the idea of a “brokered convention,” at which the party’s nominee would be chosen through back-room negotiations and contested ballots instead of the pro forma roll calls of recent decades.

Given Romney’s struggle to provide the clear alternative to Obama that Americans so desperately need, the party should consider whether a brokered convention is feasible as a fallback option.

Here, then, are the top ten Republicans who could be nominated at a brokered convention. Some declined to run earlier, and should reconsider; all would provide a stronger contrast to President Obama than Romney or Gingrich is providing at the moment.

***

10. Rep. Eric Cantor

The Whip united the caucus against the disastrous stimulus in 2009. In the debt ceiling debate, he reportedly held out against new taxes in any final agreement. Moreover, he has made clear that his vision for the country’s future is plainly different from Obama’s.

***

9. Sen. Jim DeMint

The conservative stalwart has provided key support to Tea Party candidates, and has challenged the compromise politics of the Republican establishment.

***

8. Gov. Bobby Jindal

Recently elected in a landslide to a second term, he has fought political corruption and brought competence and leadership to a state long lacking both. Despite a rocky national TV debut in 2009, Jindal is a ruthless and effective campaigner.

(more…)

From NationalJournal:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to give Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney his endorsement in the race for GOP nomination, a major coup for Romney that could help him solidify his front-runner status and build an aura of inevitability around his campaign.

(more…)

From Politico:

Ken Vogel and I both have sources telling us that calls were made on behalf of a mystery candidate to various early states to determine presidential filing deadlines.

The calls were made by representatives of the law firm Baker Hostetler – a firm that employs lawyer Mark Braden, who represents Sarah PAC, her political action committee.

(more…)

From the Associated Press:

A person close to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he is not running for president, despite pressure from donors and others in the Republican Party establishment.

The person, with direct knowledge of the decision, spoke on grounds of anonymity Tuesday to avoid pre-empting the governor’s early afternoon announcement.

Christie had spent the past week reconsidering his long-time refusal to run for the White House as GOP leaders clamored for another option in the search for a Republican to take on President Barack Obama next fall.

(more…)

From Reuters:

Republican Chris Christie discussed a possible run for president with top advisers over the weekend and needs to decide by week’s end, a Republican familiar with the discussions said on Monday.

Christie, the New Jersey governor, has been wrestling with whether to jump into the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and is under strong pressure from many donors and party activists to do so.

(more…)

So just when everyone had concluded the Chris Christie matter — saying “Great speech at the Reagan Library, but he’s not gonna run for president” — the New York Post comes along with a story that says the New Jersey governor is seriously considering a 2012 run. Apparently the Reagan Library experience had a big impact on Christie, and others. He’s now being urged to go for it by Nancy Reagan, Henry Kissinger, former president George W. Bush, and former first lady Barbara Bush.

According to the Post story, even Christie’s wife Mary Pat is warming to the idea.

I don’t have anything to add to this in the way of a forecast. But it does give me a hook to weigh in on Christie’s speech. It was uplifting and inspiring. As many have commented, it was a Reagan leadership speech on exceptionalism, or “earned American exceptionalism,” as the Wall Street Journal editors put it. I agree.

There are a couple a points that I want to emphasize, though.

First, Christie gets the linkage between domestic economic growth, national security, and foreign-policy influence. This was an absolute key Reagan principle.

Reagan’s firing of the PATCO workers was heard around the world by the old Soviet Union. But it was Reagan’s tax cuts, limited government, deregulation, disinflation (with Paul Volcker), and free-trade policies that grew the economy by nearly 5 percent annually during the recovery period of the 1980s, with nearly 20 million new jobs added. That ultimately knocked out the Soviet Union. (Throw in deregulated oil prices, too. They decimated Soviet coffers.)

Second, at the Reagan Library, Christie talked about the New Jersey model, where in a tough war against government unions and teachers, divided government worked to reform the state’s pension and health benefits, cap property taxes, and hold down arbitration awards for union salaries. (Christie didn’t mention this, but he also stopped the millionaire’s tax in New Jersey.)

And while the governor said there was compromise on a bipartisan basis, and while he emphasized leadership in compromise several times in his speech, he noted that he balanced two budgets with over $13 billion in deficits without raising taxes.

So there’s compromise, and there’s compromise.

(more…)

From the Associated Press:

Chris Christie isn’t running for president but says he’s listening to those who want him to. Donald Trump opted out of a bid for the Republican nomination but hasn’t ruled out running as an independent. Rudy Giuliani’s aides are courting New Hampshire activists. And Sarah Palin says she’ll decide soon whether to join the field, even as she worries the White House might be “too shackling.”

Welcome to The Big Tease, when political stars stoke the hopes of supporters by hinting they just might join the presidential fray.

A few do succumb to the temptation—most recently Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who joined the GOP field in August after months of insisting absolutely he had no interest. Others milk their moment in the spotlight, boosting their national stature, broadening their fundraising base and laying the foundation for a possible future run.

(more…)

Viewed from outside of N.J., Gov. Christ Christie is seen a conservative champion, but it is worth recalling that he was actually challenged from his right in that state’s Republican primary for governor. While Christie certainly deserves credit for defying union bosses and for challenging N.J.’s highly activist court, the state still has a long distance to travel back in the direction of fiscal stability.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP), in partnership with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), has just released a new report entitled: “New Jersey’s Long Road Ahead: Taxpayers vs. Politicians and Unions.”

The report opens with some sobering statistics:

“New Jersey residents pay the highest property taxes in the nation—averaging $7,300 per homeowner.2The state has the highest per-pupil spending at $17,600 per student. The unemployment rate is 9.1 percent and continues to exceed the national average. The state’s long-term debt is one of the highest in the country.”

A key culprit here is the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), the power state affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA). While it has repeatedly cowed top elected officials in both major parties into supporting lavish taxpayer funded benefits, it would seem that the political climate has finally shifted in the direction of reform and fiscal renewal. NJEA demands did not sit well with the public.

That’s why Steve Lonegan, who heads up the NJ chapter of AFP, would like to see more done to scale back union power and prioritize taxpayer interests.

(more…)

I’ve made some uncannily accurate predictions in the past 3 years.

Back in 2008, as I ran for Vice President of the United States on the Libertarian Presidential ticket, I made a prediction I’m very proud of today. I said, “Voting for McCain is voting for four more years of Bush. But voting for Obama is voting for four years of Karl Marx.” How’s that working for you?

I also predicted that Obama’s entire Presidency would be devoted to saving the union- the teachers union, government employees union, and auto union. Sure enough, the White House now comes adorned with a union label. If you look closely at Obama’s forehead, you’ll find it’s stamped SEIU. Obama’s signature initiative Obamacare affects every American citizen, except union members. Real life under Obama is more shocking than fiction.

A year ago, while economists and Obama administration lackeys talked of a recovery, I publicly stated we’d never left the last recession and the worst was yet to come. I predicted that “Obama’s Axis of Evil” policies of taxation, regulation, government strangulation, unionization, litigation and illegal immigration would turn a serious economic crisis into The Greatest Depression Ever. It’s all unfolding before our very eyes on a daily basis.

As conditions got progressively worse during 2010, I predicted the Tea Parties would pull off one of the great landslide victories in U.S. political history that November.

(more…)

An investigation into New Jersey’s largest teachers union finds that the Internal Revenue Service has an outstanding lien against the New Jersey Education Association for $56,730.31 in back taxes.

The lien involves unpaid taxes from as far back as 2005, though most of the teacher union’s unpaid taxes are from 2009 and 2010.

The federal tax lien was issued against the NJEA on December 7, 2010, and has been on file with the Passaic County Clerk’s office since December 21, 2010.

The investigation was conducted by Education Action Group with the assistance of Mark Kalinowski, founder of North New Jersey Tea Party Group which is based in Passaic County.

The NJEA recently settled two other IRS tax liens totaling $16,581. One of those tax liens involved $13,885.76 in unpaid taxes, going back to 2005 and 2006. That lien was released by the Passaic County Clerk’s office on January 6, 2011.

The other lien, totaling $2,696, was filed on October 13, 2010 and was released by the Union County Clerk’s office on May 3, 2011.

(more…)

In 1978, New York City was crumbling and the leading indicator of America’s seemingly irreversible decline. The South Bronx, once a thriving middle-class neighborhood, had became a national symbol of urban horror. From 1960 to 1980, New York’s murder rate tripled. Out-of-control spending had brought the city to the brink of bankruptcy, leading to a state takeover of its finances. The city’s subway was plauged by crime, graffiti, and equipment breakdowns.

On July 13th, 1977, the city reached its nadir when a 24-hour blackout gave way to mass looting. Bushwick, a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn, was practically burned to the ground.

Then in 1978, Edward Irving Koch became New York’s 105th Mayor.

(more…)

From The New York Times:

New Jersey lawmakers on Thursday approved a broad rollback of benefits for 750,000 government workers and retirees, the deepest cut in state and local costs in memory, in a major victory for Gov. Chris Christie and a once-unthinkable setback for the state’s powerful public employee unions.

The Assembly passed the bill 46 to 32, as Republicans and a few Democrats defied raucous protests by thousands of people whose chants, vowing electoral revenge, shook the State House. Leaders in the State Senate said their chamber, which had already passed a slightly different version of the bill, would approve the Assembly version on Monday. Mr. Christie, a Republican, was expected to sign the measure into law quickly.

(more…)

Some media outlets in the state of Connecticut, as well as residents, are questioning the judgment of Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy, who is leading his Democratic-led state legislature on a whirlwind drive of dubious legislation that is creating an atmosphere of insecurity, and making the prospects of more private business and jobs in the state increasingly less likely. Questions of concern, if not outright criticism, are being drawn from state residents and conservative Republicans who view much of the legislation passed as rushed through, without sufficient debate, and endangering an already extremely vulnerable business climate in a state in which unemployment is over 9%.

Governor Malloy’s legislative agenda appears to be right out of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid “every day another stunning bill” play book. And much of the legislation seems, in one way or another, connected to Mr. Malloy’s close relationship with the public sector unions which worked hard to elect him.

The legislature passed the largest tax hike in the history of the state, and then secured a deal, though still “tentative,” with union leaders for $1.6 billion of the $2 billion in concessions needed to close the state’s budget gap. Many are skeptical of the “concessions,” since it appears little was really given up, from the private sector perspective, and the package relies heavily upon retirements. In addition, the governor said he would make up the difference primarily with spending cuts. However, in true Pelosi-Reid “let’s pass the bill on Christmas Eve” fashion, Mr. Malloy gave the news to lawmakers, Friday night before Memorial Day weekend, that he would, instead, make up the remaining hole in the budget with none other than projected “surplus” monies. Thus, the “surplus” is only to help the unions, who apparently couldn’t reach their $2 billion goal, not the taxpayers, who are bearing the brunt of the “shared sacrifice.”

According to a media blog of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy, the General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), which Governor Malloy said he would implement for his state, would erase 2012 projected surpluses which he and the state legislature are now relying upon to balance their two-year budget.

(more…)

What else can one say about this?

Governor Christie to Talk Global Climate Change with Scientists

Governor tells NJ Environmental Federation his original doubts were due to not having a “fully formed opinion.”

The Republican governor, who caused a stir when he told a town hall meeting he was unsure about the science of global warming, plans to sit down this week with a couple of climate change scientists recommended by the New Jersey Environmental Federation.

As I have noted, translated, the latter means a Castro toady and some of his pals.

Wait, lemme guess: his doubts arising from an unfully formed opinion have evaporated under further scrutiny, making this the first time further scrutiny led to siding with the global warming movement?

Er, maybe. There’s another option, and that’s that he’s seen the New Hampshire Senate fold like a cardboard suitcase on withdrawing from the RGGI regional cap-n-trade energy tax and has decided to throw in with the go-along-to-get along crowd. In his defense, and not much of one, one could say as Andrew Dice Clay once did about a famous painting I won’t mention here as it would make the gag’s crudeness too obvious: he needed the money.

(more…)

Several current and prior Connecticut Republican lawmakers have joined the Roger Sherman Liberty Center, a conservative think tank, in a lawsuit against Governor Dannel Malloy and Democratic state leaders. The suit challenges the constitutionality of the new budget, passed last week by Mr. Malloy and the Democrats, which includes the largest tax increase upon citizens in the history of the state, as well as an earned income tax credit for those who pay no taxes.

Mr. Malloy, who likes to refer to himself as the “anti-Christie,” urged his lawmakers to pass his budget, based on his philosophy of “shared sacrifice,” without the $2 billion in union concessions that he used to balance it, arguing that he and the state unions, who largely helped to elect him, would engage in “talks,” behind closed doors, to achieve the concessions. The lawsuit asserts that, according to Connecticut’s constitution, the state’s expenditures must match its revenues, a requirement that was violated when the budget was adopted with the $2 billion hole.

Once the budget passed, Governor Malloy said he was giving union leaders a deadline of Friday, May 6th to come up with a concession package, a date that came and went with no agreement. Talks between the governor and union leaders apparently continued through the weekend and Monday, but on Tuesday, Mr. Malloy announced that he will move on to “Plan B,” in which he begins more than 4,700 layoffs and cuts to various state services and programs. However, even with this announcement, both the governor and union leaders say they will continue to engage in “talks” to close the budget gap, a situation which suggests that “Plan B” is still not final. In fact, the secretiveness of the negotiations has been as much of a news item as the content of the talks, with union locals holding strictly verbal briefings on the concession meetings for union members, without distributing any paper handouts containing information.

Regarding the failure to reach an agreement, the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) issued the following statement:

(more…)

“The Donald” for President? Would any Republican have considered the idea of a “President Trump” six months ago?

On both sides of the political aisle, people are doubting Trump’s “seriousness” as a candidate.

Democrats are snickering and mocking Trump- and not just about his hair. White House adviser David Plouffe touts that he “hopes” Trump is the Republican candidate- kind of in the same way Democrats say they “hope” Sarah Palin is the candidate, implying that both are easily beatable.

The skepticism regarding Trump’s seriousness has been further heightened- in both Republican and Democrat political classes-by Trump’s recent focus on whether the president was born in this country. Both Republican strategist Karl Rove and Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren have openly criticized Trump for bringing the potentially toxic issue front and center once again, asserting that he is simply playing right into the hands of the Democrats.

Pundits claim the only reason why Trump could be running is because the Republican field of candidates is so weak. In fact, this past week’s Public Policy Polling survey, of the national 2012 presidential race, shows President Obama maintaining, or slightly increasing, his share of the vote over his Republican opponent, whether that individual is Huckabee, Romney, Christie, Rand Paul, Gingrich, or Palin. Donald Trump was not included in this survey.

Another recent poll of New Hampshire Republicans, by the same organization, has Mitt Romney as a front-runner among likely Republican primary voters, with 27%, Donald Trump, with 21%, and Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich tied for third place, with 12% of the vote.

And the most recent national Republican poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling, shows Trump in the lead, with 26%, Mike Huckabee, with 17%, Mitt Romney, 15%, and Newt Gingrich, with 11%. Another poll, conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, has Trump tied with Huckabee, at 17%, behind Romney, at 21%, among Republican primary voters.

(more…)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Michael Barone to talk about Paul Ryan’s budget, how Republicans can appeal to minorities and the 2012 election.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Ryan steals march on Obama as fiscal crisis looms
Comparing the Ryan and Obama budgets
Prominent Democrat: Obama should address entitlements
GOP shouldn’t panic if whites become a minority
Michael Barone at the Washington Examiner

Follow Brad on Twitter
Follow Ben on Twitter
Follow Michael Barone on Twitter

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by Mark Hemingway to discuss the Obama’s launch of his 2012 campaign and who the GOP might nominate to face him, then Pej talks about the KSM trial.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Obama Kicks Off Re-Election Drive With Appeal to Grass-Roots Backers
Slate: Military Trials are ‘Cowardly’ and ‘Stupid’ Except When They’re Not
For 2012, is Boring the New Awesome?
Chris Christie, bringing sexy back
2012 Iowa Race Is a Crapshoot
Mark Hemingway at the Weekly Standard
Pej: The Obama Administration’s Very Grudging Admission

Follow Brad on Twitter
Follow Mark on Twitter
Follow Pej on Twitter