The $400 Million Incompetents - #444

#444 BRET SCHUNDLER
FORMER NEW JERSEY EDUCATION COMMISSIONER UNDER GOP COCKSUCKER #320 (GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE)

In New Orleans, GOP Cocksucker incompetence got people killed. In New Jersey it just cost them $400 million bucks.

Schundler is finding out the hard way three nasty little traits of the GOP Cocksuckers--Wait, who I am kidding? He's a GOP Cocksucker himself, he already knows them. His problem is another GOP Cocksucker got to turn them on him first.

The traits he fell afoul of are:
1. Nothing bad is EVER a GOP Cocksucker's fault. Even though they are incompetent.
2. GOP Cocksuckers NEVER admit error.
3. GOP Cocksuckers will turn on their own kind in a New York minute, especially if possible jailtime is involved. (See GOP Cocksucker #47 [JACK ABRAMOFF] for examples. For you folks in New Jersey, check out the hilarious example of GOP Cocksucker #34 [TERRENCE WELDON].)

GOP Cocksucker #320 cost the state of New Jersey $400 million in federal education grant money, when he overruled an application made by Education Commissioner Schundler for a grant in the 'Race to the Top' program.

Christie overruled the application because ithad been worked out with the hated New Jersey teacher unions and because it didn't agree with Christie's views of education. He submitted a different application that was more to his liking.

However, the Christie application had errors in it, errors big enough to disqualify New Jersey from getting any grant money. If they had simply left it alone, NJ and not Ohio would have gotten $400 million for schools.

An enraged Christie immediately blamed the Obama Administration, saying a bureaucrat in the Department of Education was inflexible and would not accept a "verbal representation from Schundler when they were down there."

The Department of Education, mindful of Christie's blustering past and general ridicule of Democrats, gleefully released a videotape of the incident the next day. In the tape, the soft-spoken bureaucrat in question pointed out the error to Schundler and asked him for the correct information. Schundler's aides at the table, all four of them, looked stunned and started frutilessly rummaging through binders and briefcases.

Now Christie was even MORE furious because his incompetence had not only cost New Jersey $400 million but thanks to the federal Department of Education, everyone now knew about it. He was angrier still because the Obama Administration had shoved it right back into his face and there was nothing he could do about it. Instead of admitting he'd fucked up, Christie trained his guns on Schundler, demanding his
resignation and then claiming Schundler had lied to him about the facts of the meeting.

Now it was Schundler's turn to get pissed, as Christie's efforts to throw him under the bus would affect any future chances he had of employment. Schundler reversed Christie's hold on him and following the principles of judo, used Christie's own considerable weight against him, telling the Associated Press, "In fact, I was very direct with him [Christie] that we didn't get the panel the numbers." Schundler produced a sheaf of e-mails that he said backed him up.

Asked by the Bergen Record if he thought the governor had ignored what he's said about the meeting, Schundler calmly hit Christie with the verbal equivalent of a spiked baseball bat in the guts: "I don't think the governor ignored what I said. I think the governor gets rolling … and a lot of stuff gets said."

Here's where the people of New Jersey are right now:

First, they are $400 million poorer when it comes to education, losing out to Ohio all because of Christie and Schundler's incompetence.

Second, they are faced with the amusing spectacle of two snakes trying to bite each other to death. This does not take much of the sting out of having to pay another $400 million bucks, but it is funny to watch.

Third, this affair gets better and better. For example, Schundler, a big swinging dick of the Far Right, claims he wanted to be fired instead of resign so he could collect unemployment. (This is after speaking out against it for years.) At first, the Christie Adminstration said 'sure, no problem,' now Christie's chief of staff is heatedly denying Schundler's claim that such a thing ever happened.

Fourth, while the state has a Republican governor, it has a democratic legislature and State Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono has said that the New Jersey Senate Oversight Legislative Committee has now invited Schundler to testify about this controversy.

With thanks to the Bergen Record, NorthJersey.com, NJ.com, the Associate Press and TPM Muckraker.

S. Olson