With Chris Christie out of town -- he's on vacation in an undisclosed location – Democrats in the New Jersey legislature hope to override some of the line-item vetoes with which the Republican governor deftly disemboweled their proposed 2012 spending plan.
The odds against them look even bleaker than the prospects for President Obama's eminently sensible "grand bargain" to tame the federal deficit with a mix of spending decreases and revenue increases.
New Jersey Republicans, like their national brethren, are intoxicated by a holy elixir of punitive cuts for poor and working people and benevolent tax breaks for the better-off.
A force-feeding of this toxic cocktail will, they insist, be good for the rest of us: It will "create jobs." Evidence such alchemy actually works is, at best, elusive…but that won't stop the party.
The Trenton Democrats won't be deterred by reality either. Despite an impressive, if rather blank, wall of Republican opposition, starting today they'll try to restore some (job-destroying?) funds for seniors and other non-millionaires.
State Senate President Steve Sweeney, who got burned by his erstwhile ally's vetoes and later came perilously close to being hit by lightning during a live TV interview, may really believe a third time will be a charm.
Even if, like Margate's famous Lucy the Elephant, he's liable to be struck twice.