Bloggers on the right and left are blasting N.J. Senate President Steve Sweeney for comparing opponents of the proposed merger of Rutgers-Camden and Rowan universities to a "lynch mob."
Sweeney, a West Deptford Democrat whose district includes Rowan, made the characterization during an interview published Sunday in the Gloucester County Times.
"Sweeney should apologize," says Save Jersey, a conservative blog that recently celebrated Ronald Reagan's birthday.
"Sweeney should be made to apologize," says Blue Jersey, a liberal blog that celebrates pretty much anything anyone says about Chris Christie. So long as it's bad.
Now, I witnessed the rally at Rutgers-Camden last Thursday that drew Sweeney's ire.
His characterization of it is off the mark, if not, the grid.
The event (see video below) was more of a pep rally than a protest. And it certainly didn't look anything like a "mob," much less one bent on violence, racial or otherwise.
As Sweeney himself told the Times, Christie's announcement of the merger – contained in a report by a gubernatorial advisory committee on higher education – was poorly handled.
And then some: Sweeney and the other big boys who see the merger opening the floodgates of funding for higher education in South Jersey clearly have been taken aback by the pushback.