Welcome to the party, Steve Sweeney (Opinion)

After a year of crushing liberty and economic one-person rule, State Senate President Steve Sweeney is finally saying enough is enough when it comes to Phil Murphy's tyranny.

Sweeney is arguably the most powerful person in New Jersey government just under Murphy and he is just now expressing concern for our lack of freedom to live as free people in this state.

Maybe the crippling regulations didn't affect the iron workers union, which is Sweeney's main job, so it didn't catch his attention much. Perhaps some of his constituents have made enough noise that he feels obliged to do something.

Sweeney has been oddly quiet about the autocratic rule that Murphy has exercised over the state. The two are famously not close pals but they are of the same party and we would guess that's part of the reason for his, up to now, quiet complacency.

Sweeney is claiming that the Republicans in the state Legislature are trying to "bang him over the head" to get him to relinquish most of the power over to our representatives, where it belongs. He said he would like to start a reasonable dialogue with the governor to get him to put the brakes on his iron-fisted control.

As we've seen with this governor, whether it's loud protest or quiet conversation, he's not listening to anyone. He's only interested in his legacy, and right now his legacy is that he has ruled over the state with the highest percentage of COVID deaths in the nation.

He is going to stick to the playbook that he's been following and claim he is just listening to the "experts" and doing what is best for the state of New Jersey. What's best for the state of New Jersey is for him to be voted out in November and Sweeney has nothing to do with that unless he's really serious and looks to replace him in a primary race.

It's too late for that and too late for Sweeney to make any difference now. The damage has already been done. Let's just hope it's not irreversible.