Tea-Partying In New Jersey

New Jersey, the home of sane governance (yes, you read that correctly), is leading the way in righting the good ship America. First we elect Republican Chris Christie, despite his being outspent 4-1 by Crooked Jon Corzine. Then Christie came out swinging, and both the Democrats and the media were shocked, shocked to see a politician actually taking on the interest groups and making the hard calls:

Then there is Chris Christie. He’s also doing what he promised. He appointed a school-choice advocate to the howls of the teachers’ union. And he has announced a real spending freeze....

Announcing the freeze on $1.6 billion of unspent money, Mr. Christie was blunt: “Today, we come to terms with the fact that we cannot spend money on everything we want. Today, the days of Alice in Wonderland budgeting in Trenton end.”

But Jersey has just begun to rise up. Just days after a blizzard, with no purpose except to remind a certain Congressman that "we're still out there", a Tea Party broke out:

LONG BRANCH — Twenty-seven people who have been pretty unhappy with the way things have been going since the Obama Administration took over — some perhaps from before then — demonstrated outside the Broadway office of Rep. Frank J. Pallone Jr., D-N.J., Friday afternoon.

There were no good words for President Barack Obama or Pallone or any New Jersey Democrat now serving in Washington.

"We want to start over on health care and stop big government spending," said Bayshore group president Barbara Gonzalez, a 52-year-old Middletown resident who owns a small payroll service and describes herself as a conservative. "(Pallone) didn't listen to us last summer, and we want them to listen."

Now here comes the "party"!

The demonstrators said they were looking to give a "pink slip" to Pallone, who is running for re-election this year.

After standing along Broadway outside his office for an hour and a quarter, holding signs expressing anger and some derision, they took a large retirement sheet cake into Pallone's office, where five or six staffers greeted them and gave them constituent forms to fill out. Pallone was in Washington.

It was friendly at first, but then a sort of showdown started, with Tea Party members wanting to eat the cake inside the office with Pallone's staffers...

How much of a partisan hack is Pallone?

Frank Pallone has voted with a majority of his Democratic colleagues 99.2% of the time during the current Congress.

And a cap & trade hypocrite, to boot:

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.) is known as a supporter of everything green -- so why is he driving a huge Cadillac SUV around Denver? During the Democratic National Convention, when energy independence will take center stage?

Pallone snarked about yesterday's tea-party demonstration -through a spokesman, from his cozy DC digs. Don't get too comfortable, Frank....you never know who's sneaking up behind you:


State Republicans are taking a serious look at Monmouth County GOP Vice Chair Diane Gooch to run against U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch...


Gooch, who lives in Rumson and publishes the Two River Times in Red Bank, is married to Michael Gooch, the CEO of the New York-based brokerage firm GFI group who is estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars....

Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini (R-Ocean Twp.) confirmed last week that she has been mulling a possible challenge to Pallone, but she could get edged out if the GOP finds a challenger with considerable personal financial resources.

Two challengers, Frank?

Maybe - just maybe -you're not representing the people of your district very well after all...