Weinberg, Senate President Respond to Governor's 'Take the Bat Out' Comment
Governor's spokesman calls response a "ridiculous and over-the- top distortion."
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State Senate President Steve Sweeney and Sen. Loretta Weinberg both issued statements Thursday blasting Gov. Chris Christie for asking reporters to "take the bat out" on Weinberg for what the governor said was her hypocritical comments in a newspaper article.
“Most disturbingly, Governor Christie used the words ‘take a bat out on her,’ in his admonishment of the press corps to make hay over my pension. Frankly, considering I’ve devoted my entire legislative career to fighting for the rights of women – including battered women – I think his words continue to show the level of insensitivity and poor judgment that the Governor has demonstrated on women’s issues since getting elected," Weinberg, of Teaneck, said in a statement posted online.
Christie’s harsh words came after an April 3 Star-Ledger article quoted Weinberg as saying the governor has a double standard in criticizing his political allies. The article focused on Christie’s silence when political allies, namely Democratic powerbrokers, conduct business in ways the governor has attacked when done by others.
Weinberg, who is 76, revealed in a post on liberal blog BlueJersey.com that she collects a pension from a job she held with county government and a salary as an elected official. In the blog, Weinberg said it had been suggested that she start collecting her pension after suffering a "major financial setback" by investing with Bernie Madoff.
"To clarify, I’ve never attempted to ‘hide behind Bernie Madoff,’ as the Governor suggested in yesterday’s temper tantrum." Weinberg's statement said.
"Enough is enough. Residents rightly expect more from people in public office than horribly inappropriate statements, embarrassing temper tantrums and over-the-top bullying. It's time the governor started acting like a grown-up,” Sweeney, the West Deptford Democrat, said in a statement.
Christie Press Secretary Michael Drewniak dismissed the statements.
"It's a ridiculous and over-the- top distortion to deflect from Senator Weinberg’s pension double-dipping, and that's all," Drewniak said in an e-mail.
Political news website PolitickerNJ.com speculated Sweeney's comments could help unify the state's Democratic party.
Judy Distler
11:03 am on Friday, April 15, 2011
Take the bat out? Foul ball, Governor! Enough about pensions - should we penalize folks who have worked hard for years, retired (sometimes early as a cost-savings plan that is promoted by their employer), and then choose not to be put out to pasture, but to continue as contributing members of society? There is a work ethic here that should be applauded, not denigrated.
Keith Kaplan
11:36 am on Friday, April 15, 2011
Weinberg should be ashamed of herself. The PURPOSE of a pension was to ensure that those that dedicated their lives to public service didn't face poverty when they retired. Instead it's being used as a vehicle to double salaries - at the same time as we are facing an UNFUNDED pension crisis in NJ created by fraudulent borrowing (and non-funding) schemes by the same pols double-dipping into the trough!
While he should have used better words, the concept that the voters should stand up against such practices is absolutely correct!
JeffO
4:01 pm on Friday, April 15, 2011
Keith -- she's 76 years old. Apparently she was legally qualified to collect her pension around a decade ago, but she didn't start collecting until age 75. She makes $49,000 a year (or something like that) in a position the state considers "part time" because if it was "full time" they'd need to pay twice that. (Weinberg calls hereself a "full-time" legislator, which is probably true, but she's not getting paid any more than legislators who find the time to work at second jobs.)
I'm not sure how much her pension is based on her salary as a a state Senator, but a she still could have collected something by now based on earlier jobs with the county.
Under the circumstances I think this is a significantly different situation than that of Christie's friend and Democratic collaborationist DiVincenzo, who is is only 58, has a full time, $153,200 job on top of which he collects nearly $79,000 a year in retirement money, and has been out front in parroting Christie's calls for pension reform. It probably wasn't very smart of Weinberg to let herself be quoted in the Star-Ledger as pointing out Christie's curious silence in the DiVincenzo matter, but it should be noted that this was the crux of her statement -- the loudmouth's selectivity in who gets attacked and who gets a pass.
And, that observation as well as press coverage of DiVincenzo's awkward situation did have the salutary effect of forcing the obnoxious bully to criticize his crony.