Delaware Punchline

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I was a guest on this week’s WHYY First to talk about my thoughts on the 10-year anniversary since 9/11, and the cartoon I drew for Newsworks.org:

Check out my column here.

Watch the full episode. See more First.

This week, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie sent House Majority Leader Eric Cantor running away with his tail between his legs. Christie stood up against Cantor’s suggestion that in order to appropriate disaster relief funds for Hurricane Irene victims, Washington would need to match the amount in spending cuts.

“We don’t have time to wait for folks in Congress to figure out how they want to offset this stuff with other budget cuts,” Christie said in his usual, straight-forward way. “Our people are suffering now, and they need support now.”

Hope Obama is taking notes. This is how you deal with the tea baggers – call them out and stand up to them. Or you can cowtail to them by halting EPA regulations on smog standards, leaving in place an ozone standards that EPA administrator Lisa Jackson recently described as “legally indefensible.”

RELATED: More Hurricane Irene cartoons

Last week, New Jersey Democrats were unable to override 39 items cut out of the state’s budget though Governor Chris Christie’s line-item veto. The governor vetoed some bills outright, including one that would have imposed a “millionaire’s tax.”

Other items vetoed out of the budget included funding for legal programs for the poor at Rutgers and Seton Hall, $1.5 million for staff at the state commission for the blind, $6 million to help low-income families afford day care in the morning and after school and during the summer and $7 million to help those near but not under the federal poverty level afford expensive AIDS medications.

He also used his line-item veto to block funding in the state budget for clinics like Planned Parenthood that provide family-planning services.

Here’s what the Courier-Post had to say:

In using the line-item veto to cross out dozens of specific appropriations — a few large, but mostly small — primarily for services that help the poor, the sick, those with disabilities and others in need, Christie may have balanced the budget on his terms, but he also hurt people. He has to know that.

Personally, I think this will all blow-up in the governor’s face, and New Jersey remains a fairly progressive state, especially on social issues. But for a man who is interested in the national spotlight, these cuts are the perfect launching pad.

So The Rapture failed to materialize, and the world is still here. So when you get a chance, send a “thanks for saving my existence” note to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Just don’t ask him if he’s running for President…

[ View more cartoons about Chris Christie here ]

I was out shopping for groceries for Mother’s Day Sunday morning when I found out one of my cartoons was featured on this week’s “Meet the Press.” At least I got a chuckle out of Doris Kearns Goodwin:

Here’s the cartoon, originally drawn for WHYY (along with my op-ed):

So New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is challenging President Obama to come to New Jersey to collect the $271 million the state owes for the canceled Hudson River tunnel project.

Yeah, let’s see how this turns out.

Joe Biden voiced amazement in a speech to the Atlantic Council that the plans for the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound remained secret. There’s a reason Obama has been keeping Joe busy hosting budget talks…

[ via News Journal ]

Thought I’d share my segment from Friday night’s edition of First, WHYY’s Delaware weekly news broadcast. I talk about my cartoon about the death of Osama bin Laden and pulling our of Afghanistan, and somehow transition to the cartoon I drew about Eagles first round draft pick Danny Watkins.

Here’s the video:

Watch the full episode. See more First.

And here are the cartoons:

For WHYY

For The Philadelphia Inquirer