By Thomas P. Ryan

Imagine that you walk into an electronics store to return an item you had recently purchased but with which you were having difficulty. Instead of listening to your concern politely, the person at customer service berates you for not knowing how to use the item. Or, you are attending a back-to-school night and you ask your child’s teacher a question. Instead of addressing your query, the teacher begins to shout at you and tells you that he is in charge and doesn’t have to answer your question.

You probably would go right to that person’s supervisor to complain about how you had been treated. You would be right to do so. And yet, we have a governor who thinks his office gives him the prerogative to call elected officials, reporters and everyday citizens whatever he wants, just for exercising their right to question his policies. His advisors, his party leadership and much of the press allow him this latitude with only passing disapproval.

Recently, Democrats approved a budget using the governor’s own revenue estimates and allowing for a tax cut only if he was able to produce the revenue he had projected. The governor was having none of this accountability talk applied to him. He called the Senate Budget Committee chairman, Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), an “arrogant SOB.” The Democrats use his projections for growth, which are the most optimistic of any state, and he thinks a Democratic leader is “arrogant.” And in a fit of pique, when a reporter asked him about the special legislative session the governor himself had called with only 48 hours’ notice, he berated the reporter for asking an “off-topic” question and referred to him as an “idiot.”

In February, Gov. Christie had an exchange with Washington Post reporter Jonathan Capehart about same-sex marriage. When Capehart challenged Christie’s assertion that his position was the same as that of President Obama, Christie shot back: “I used to be a prosecutor. I’m not going to be cross-examined by you this morning.” Christie’s own words seem unambiguous: He doesn’t have to answer questions challenging his statements. Arrogance?

In June 2011, a woman called in to a television program on which Gov. Christie was taking calls. She asked: “You don’t send your children to public schools. You send them to private schools, so I was wondering why you think it’s fair to be cutting funding to public schools.” He responded: “You know what, first of all, it’s none of your business. I don’t ask you where you send your kids to school. Don’t bother me where I send mine.” The exchange was typical Christie: Before he gives his answer, he attacks a citizen for having the audacity to question his policies. In this case, it should be noted that the caller had simply stated a fact and wanted to ask the governor if he thought that it was fair that public school funding should be cut. Only a few days before the phone call, it had become common knowledge where Christie’s son attended school when the governor used a brand-new state helicopter to take him to a high school baseball game in which his son was playing.

In March, Christie referred to a veteran of the Navy SEALs as an “idiot” when he repeatedly interrupted Christie’s answer to his question about the controversial merger of Rutgers-Camden with Rowan University. “I apologize if I came across disrespectful to the governor,” William Brown, a second-year law student at Rutgers-Camden, later told the New York affiliate of Fox News. Politico reported Brown told the TV station that he was simply trying to draw Christie’s attention to a petition that has some 10,000 names of South Jersey residents who disagree with the merger. While Brown graciously apologized, the governor’s subsequent remark on the exchange was to call Brown “a jerk.” One man was reflective and showed maturity; the other was obstinate and petty.

If Gov. Christie the politician were to meet Gov. Christie the YouTube reality show character, would he condemn the actions of the latter, just as he has condemned the cast of “Jersey Shore”? Yet he promotes this crime-free, yet unflattering “Tony Soprano” image of New Jersey with his tactics of intimidation and public humiliation of anyone with the courage to stand up to him.

When this governor doesn’t like what someone says to him or he doesn’t get his way, he is in a foul and foul-mouthed mood. It is time his outbursts be called what they are: temper tantrums from a 49-year-old man who alternates among bullying, ranting and insulting elected officials and everyday citizens. Maybe the governor believes he is entitled to his own set of personal behaviors, however disrespectful of others, but he should spare us his crudeness.

Thomas P. Ryan of Lawrence Township is a retired teacher of history and economics. During his teaching career, he was also a local union president for several years.

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