Today's Chris Christie Lesson in Government

The New Jersey governor takes it to Obama over the failure of the supercommittee:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ripped President Obama for the failure of the debt supercommittee calling the president "a bystander in the Oval Office" in comments Monday.

“I was angry this weekend, listening to the spin coming out of the administration, about the failure of the supercommittee, and that the president knew it was doomed for failure, so he didn’t get involved. Well then what the hell are we paying you for?” Christie said in Camden, N.J. “It’s doomed for failure so I’m not getting involved? Well, what have you been doing, exactly?”

Christie was contrasting the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements, saying both stemmed from "anger" with government's inability to respond to the financial crisis. But while Christie said "both parties deserve blame for what's going on in Washington, D.C.," he pointed the finger squarely at Obama for failing to strike a budget deal.

“Why the president of the United States refuses to do this is astonishing to me. If he wanted to run for Senate again and just be 1 of a 100, I’m sure he could have gotten reelected over and over again in Illinois,” Christie said. “He’s the one in Washington and he’s got to get something done here. And it’s not good enough just to say, ‘Well, I’ll get it done after the election.’"

Obama never wanted the supercommittee to succeed because that would have meant big entitlement cuts that would have imperiled his election. He had hoped the Dems would shame the GOP into agreeing to immediate tax hikes in exchange for nebulous future spending cuts that would never be enacted. He didn't get that when the GOP thankfully recognized their duty to their constituents and held strong.

Now he owns the budget crisis, and that will be an anchor on his campaign.