You just knew Chris Christie's shellacking of the Democrats wouldn't be complete without some polish.
"Look at me," the Republican governor said Thursday, having just taken a bat to the budget proposed by erstwhile pal Steve Sweeney's party. "I'm beyond embarrassment."
He's right, yet again: The red faces belong to Sweeney and fellow Democrat legislators who owe their political existence, if not their livelihoods, to party poobahs North and South.
Their bosses bid them to render unto Christie the votes he needed to pass his pension and benefits reform plan for unionized state employees, and they did – presumably, with the anticipation of something in return.
But nothing is pretty much what Sweeney, and his fellow Southerners in particular, get in the wake of the Sherman's March of line-item vetoes Christie inflicted on their proposed spending plan.
Even some new jobs at the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, now under construction in the fabulous new George Norcross-ville section of Camden, were stricken by Christie's red pen. And elsewhere in the city, where Democrat Mayor Dana Redd recently lavished praise on Christie's "transformation schools" plan, additional money to re-hire firefighters and cops was rejected by the governor, who likewise refused to fund the Urban Enterprise Zone program.
And for good measure, Christie also cut $1.7 million for the Battleship New Jersey.
Talk about a sinking feeling.
"It is almost impossible to stomach some of the cuts he has made," Sweeney said. "I can only characterize it as cruel."
Mr. Senate President: What did you expect?