By David Cruz
Correspondent
It’s been almost five months since Gov. Chris Christie faced the New Jersey press corps. In that time New Jersey residents have had to rely on the governor’s monthly radio call-in show to hear him answer questions from a reporter. In those 140 some odd days of press avoidance, Christie has not missed this call-in show once. Critics say the governor likes this environment so much because he gets a lot of, let’s just say, softball questions, like “White lights or colored?” “Rudolph or Frosty?” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town or Charlie Brown Christmas?”
The governor actually answered more questions about Christmas than he did about any other state issue. But he did take almost 25 minutes to lay into — in no particular order — reporters, the newspaper industry, a variety of Democratic lawmakers and anyone who thought he was being greedy for linking his ability to get a book deal to raises for judges and legislative staff.
“People are acting like this is some long-standing New Jersey tradition. It’s not,” said the governor. “This law came into effect in 2008. Gov. Corzine put it into effect. Interesting. The law he passed says you can’t derive income from any activity. But you can take passive income from investments from anything. Now I wonder why Jon Corzine passed that law when he was a former CEO of Goldman Sachs and he wasn’t taking a salary, getting all of his money from passive income. From investments. Right?”
“Obviously the haters out there made it personal. About me,” he lamented. “Not only haters in the Legislature but haters on this radio station.”
Christie said judges and other government officials are long overdue for raises and said linking his book deal to the raises wasn’t his idea. But the governor saved his biggest insults for newspaper publishers, who lobbied hard to kill a bill that would have allowed government to post legal ads online, rather than in newspapers, something he says costs New Jersey taxpayers $80 million.
“It costs $910 to get foreclosed on in New Jersey, for the legal ads. So you’re getting foreclosed on and here’s a bill from the Star-Ledger because they got to put Newhouse’s grubby hands in your pocket,” he sniped. “The richest man in New Jersey who’s worth $18 billion. That’s who we’re fighting for. Gannett, a multi-billion dollar company, which bought the Bergen Record and its papers, and what was its first act? They sent out warning letters that they’re going to lay people off. These are the people who Sen. [Loretta] Weinberg is fighting for. Gannett, a multi-billion dollar international corporation. They are just another special interest feeding — like pigs — at the government trough.”
If anything, the governor’s performance this week proves that he can communicate with great passion and still not have anything new to say.