TRENTON — Senate President Stephen Sweeney went to bed furious Thursday night after reviewing the governor's line-item veto of the state budget.

He woke up Friday morning even angrier.

"This is all about him being a bully and a punk," he said in an interview Friday.

"I wanted to punch him in his head."

Sweeney had just risked his political neck to support the governor’s pension and health reform, and his reward was a slap across the face. The governor’s budget was a brusque rejection of every Democratic move, and Sweeney couldn’t even get an audience with the governor to discuss it.

"You know who he reminds me of?" Sweeney says. "Mr. Potter from ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ the mean old bastard who screws everybody."

This is not your regular budget dispute. This is personal. And it could have seismic impact on state politics.

Because the working alliance between these two men is the central political fact in New Jersey these days. If that changes, this brief and productive era of bipartisan cooperation is over.

"Last night I couldn’t calm down," Sweeney said. "To prove a point to me — a guy who has stood side by side with him, and made tough decisions — for him to punish people to prove his political point? He’s just a rotten bastard to do what he did."

It is a law of nature that Democrats and Republicans fight over budgets, like dogs chasing cats. And both parties are playing to their ideological scripts in this dispute.

But Sweeney’s beef with the governor goes much deeper. He feels the governor has acted in bad faith.

So Christie took the Democratic plan, and pruned it with his line-item veto, without talking to Sweeney. When Democrats saw it, they considered it a declaration of war. It gave no ground to their priorities, and it came with a condescending lecture.

"He’s mean-spirited," Sweeney said in the Friday interview. "He’s angry. If you don’t do what he says, I liken it to being spoiled, I’m going to get my way, or else."

And: "He’s a rotten prick."

The truth is that in New Jersey, the governor has all the power in a budget fight. He simply vetoes any budget line he doesn’t like, and it disappears.

The bigger political question is whether Sweeney and Christie will ever find common ground again on big issues. Education reform is next, though it’s likely to wait until after the November elections.

That leaves time to cool off. But Sweeney may benefit from a continuing fight. The party’s liberal base is furious at him over pension and health reform. And unless he regains their trust, he’s not likely to win the party’s nomination for governor or U.S. Senate, as he hopes.

For now, Sweeney will have to content himself with making Republicans pay some price for this budget. He plans to schedule override votes on these line-item vetoes.

The Republican Bobbleheads will side with the governor again, and the vetoes will stand. But individual legislators will have to go on record supporting each of these ugly cuts.

Yes, this will be all theater. And yes, it will be all partisan. Sadly, it seems Trenton is reverting to form.