A "Garden State" Shutdown

So Democratic senator Jon Corzine of New Jersey has shut down the state government because he can't reach a budget compromise with the fellow Democrats who control the state legislature.

We already know the upshot of a Democratically-led Congress' foreign affairs agenda: Unilateral disarmament. This is what the domestic side might resemble . . . government shutdowns in the absence of tax increases.

I'd be nervous if I were Senator Robert Menendez (appointed to serve the remainder of Corzine's Senate term), running this fall against moderate Republican Tom Kean, Jr. Might make it hard for him to hold onto that hard-won six point lead -- especially when he really should be leading by much more, given the state's leftward tilt.