The next time some lefty tells you we need to move away from acrimony, ask them to condemn Joe Coppola and the Bergen County (NJ) Education Association for this memo:

The Bergen County Education Association sent out the combative memo to supporters this week. It closes with a mock prayer that reads:

“Dear Lord … this year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman Billy Mays…. I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor.”

Christie reponded to the fake prayer at a news conference in New Brunswick Friday.

“To have the leader of the union send out an email to 17,000 members to tell them to pray for my death just goes beyond the pale,” Christie said.

When the death wish joke became public, the union backpeddled.

“Obviously, it’s inappropriate. I would never wish anybody dead,” said Joe Coppola, who is President of the BCEA. Coppola signed the firey memo which also encourages union members to “get some dirt” and “go public” with attacks on Christie and the state’s Education Commissioner, Bret Schundler.

Any lefties here wanna try to defend this?

Union leaders emphasized that the fake prayer was a joke and was never intended to be made public. Christie wasn’t convinced.

“So private prayer for my death would have been okay, but public prayer for my death would have been wrong,” he quipped.

Come on, lefties… explain this away.

Hat Tip: Weekly Standard