The take-no-prisoners style of New Jersey's new Republican governor, Chris Christie, is getting national attention from both sides of the aisle.
Conservative pundits love his approach to fixing the budget in New Jersey, where the per-person state debt load is the highest in the country.
But his in-your-face, blunt style also is creating friction, especially with public employee unions. He's criticized public workers for taking what he says are overly generous benefits at a time when at least one in 10 New Jerseyans are out of work.
Christie makes no apologies for his brazen approach. He says he was elected to take action and that's what he's doing.
Political experts suggest Christie might be taking advantage of the hard economic times to do what he wanted to do anyway — reduce the size of government.
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