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Timing is everything

A call to revive New Jersey's death penalty as Democrat hopes die

Perhaps it was the funereal atmosphere Tuesday among Democrats in Trenton that inspired state Sen. Robert W. Singer's over-the-top oratory.

Amid a doomed, Democrat-led effort to override Gov. Chris Christie's cuts in their party's proposed spending plan, Singer, an Ocean County Republican, implored his Senate colleagues to "open your hearts" -- and resuscitate New Jersey's death penalty.

The motion by Singer, whose district was rocked in January by the shooting death of a 27-year-old Lakewood police officer, was tabled, enabling the chamber to get back to the business of executing Steve Sweeney's hopes.

As fate (and the implacable Republican opposition) would have it, every last one of the Senate President's 25-plus attempts to override Christie's line-item vetoes died.

It was all an "absurd façade," NJ 101.5's estimable Jim Gearhart told his morning drive-time audience Wednesday, characterizing the Senate session as an attempt to gather "campaign material."

Speaking of which, the state GOP has unleashed a new radio ad promoting Christie's (apparently override-proof) spending plan for 2012.

"The New Jersey comeback," the governor proclaims, "has begun."