No stranger to salty language in describing the actions of Gov. Chris Christie, state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-20) of Elizabeth applauded state Senate President Steve Sweeney's (D-3) public and profane excoriation of Christie in the aftermath of the governor's $900 million budget cuts, and said Sweeney is on his way to building a legitimate and defining contrast brand.  

"Right now he's my hero," Lesniak said. "I thought his lashing out at Governor Christie, while some of the language was over the top, most of it was deserved. It wasn't bottled up frustration; it's someone who's been totally scorned, who had good faith intention to work with the governor and got kicked in the face and spat upon. His actions in the budget were those of someone who was working in good faith."  

Although he supported Sweeney for senate president in 2009, Lesniak has been critical of some of Sweeney's tactical decisions even as party progressives find in the gay marriage-abstaining, public pension-reforming South Jersey Senate prez a Stonehenge-sized target.   

"I thought last year we should have our own budget and I thought this year the millionaire's tax should be in the budget," Lesniak admitted.  "Folks (like Sweeney) who sought a kinder and gentler mode of conduct, found out you can't negotiate with someone as mean-spirited as Gov. Chris Christie."  

Following the governor's budget cuts, Lesniak himself called Christie an "asshole" in an email that circulated among friends and allies and that trickled finally into the ranks of gleeful GOP operatives.  

"I just called him a lot worse," Lesniak told PolitickerNJ.com. "I called him cruel and mean-spirited. That's worse than 'asshole.'"  

Other power player Democrats who supported Sweeney and assisted in booting former state Senate President Richard Codey (D-27) off the Senate command chair similarly praised the Senate president this week.  

"A man," North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato Sr. was heard to remark at Pal's Cabin earlier today when someone asked him about Sweeney.  

But critics of the Senate president's say Lesniak and Adbuato are merely trying to cover up their wrong-headed move in backing the ginger-footed Sweeney to begin with, and quietly called into question the judgment of a leader who trusted Christie not to make the deeper budget cuts he exacted last Thursday.  

Lesniak doubled down.   

"This was a crossing of the Rubicon for Steve Sweeney," said the Union County power-broker. "It absolutely put him in play as a statewide candidate. He tried to do what people want us to do in Trenton, which is compromise in good faith. For that, quite frankly, he got hit over the head by a two-by-four. By stating what he did in no uncertain terms, it put him on the same terms with Chris Christie."