This is what happens when you put Republicans in charge

Today New Jersey, tomorrow the nation.

Yesterday I wrote about Chris Christie's "The Dog Peed On My Homework" tactic in blaming Barack Obama for his own administration's failure to provide the correct information in applying for $400 million in money for education reforms. He painted the screwup as one of Washington bureaucrats being unwilling to make a phone call.

As it turned out, not only did said Washington bureaucrats ask for the missing information, but there's video to prove it here and here.

And here Christie was basking in the warm glow of being metaphorically fellated by Joe 'n' Mika the other morning and press coverage like this. He's even been mentioned as a potential GOP presidential candidate in 2012, which would almost be worth it to watch the double standard of the media in obsessing about Christie's girth compared to their relentless coverage of Bill Clinton's.

And now this.

So today Christie did what all good thugs do -- he pushed his loyal servant under the bus by jettisoning his Education Commissioner, Bret Schundler -- another formerly-fellated Republican who was touted as a GOP messiah not so long ago. Schunder is a particularly interesting case to me, because I remember when he was Gary Hart's Union County campaign manager in 1984. I remember because I volunteered for Hart's campaign and Schundler invited me to run to be a delegate -- something I had to decline because of my $12,500 salary which paid for my apartment and commuting into Manhattan every day. Then I turn around, and suddenly Schundler is a conservative Republican.

Chris Christie apparently hasn't learned anything about the price of lying from Schundler's experience. After a failed run for governor in 2001, he tried again in 2005, and got caught right before the primary using a photoshopped image of himself in a photo actually taken at a 2004 Howard Dean rally in a campaign ad. Schundler lost the primary to Doug Forrester, and that was the end of Bret Schundler, rising star. He floated the trial balloon last year of running for mayor again at the scene of his former glory, but Schundler's time had come and gone, and he cited financial reasons for dropping out.

So now Schundler is out of a job, reduced to asking to be fired so he can collect unemployment -- something that ordinary working people don't get when they are fired for cause. So here is Bret Schundler, conservative Republican, who went from Gary Hart supporter to a lucrative position on Wall Street, begging for what the Great Minds of His Party regard as something akin to welfare. Schundler says he needs the money because he has a kid about to start college and a mortgage. I guess he's shilling for Sharron Angle and the rest of the Republicans who seem to think Americans are getting rich on unemployment. The top rate for unemployment compensation in New Jersey is $560/week, which may sound like a lot if you are in Alabama or North Dakota, but in New Jersey, it is not going to pay for a mortgage payment, property taxes, and put a kid through college. So one has to wonder what Schundler did with all the money he made at Salomon Brothers after his foray into Democratic politics in 1984.

So it's all here -- Republican politics in a nutshell -- incompetence, thuggery, lies, and hypocrisy. And Americans are going to put these people in charge of the entire country again?