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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA few things to remember about Chris Christie
...from the peerless Charlie Pierce:
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Nevertheless, the storm has been a godsend to Christie. Unlike public school teachers and veterans, the storm was an enemy that actually was worth bullying. He got great credit for "working with" the president, as if he had any choice. What was his alternative? Leave a couple of million constituents foundering in the surf? He got a ridiculous amount of credit for summoning up the grace to thank the president for helping his state climb out from under the wreckage. (And, yes, it is a measure of how far dow the rabbit hole the national Republican party has fallen that, a) Christie gets credit for doing something that has been obvious to every politician since Pericles, and b) that he took heat within his own party for it.) Now, though, with everyone in the Beltway pretending that a new era of bipartisanship has descended upon the place, and that a new governing coalition has sprung up literally overnight, you can almost see the next part coming.
There always is a serious faction of Democrats who have a sweet tooth for tough-daddy Republicans -- and, yes, I'm looking at you, Matthews, and you, O'Donnell, and you, too, Rendell -- and Christie now fits that bill admirably. You don't have to be clairvoyant to predict that people are going to confront what appears to be yet another field full of extremists contending for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, and then you will have Chris Christie, who "took on his own party" over storm relief, and who "worked with a Democratic president" in the aftermath of a horrendous natural calamity. Plus, he is "honest." He "says what's on his mind." And he likes Springsteen! I can write Mike Allen's piece in Politico for him right now.
The fact is that he's still the same guy he always was. Somebody who would pull the wings off flies if he thought it meant 15 minutes on CNN. Someone who almost never picks on anyone his own size. Someone who kicks down, always. Someone who was OK with federal storm relief, but ostentatiously refused federal money for another tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York. He's still the same megalomaniac who stunned the party in Tampa by giving a keynote address at the Republican National Convention in which he barely mentioned the nominee. He's the guy who put the bully in the bully pulpit. And he has not changed, any more than Washington has. Be advised. The aurora's rising behind him.
The rest: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Chris_Christie_Is_The_Same_Chris_Christie
GeorgeGist
(25,326 posts)on a hockey mom.
no_hypocrisy
(46,267 posts)He's not about to get bitch-slapped by someone who will call him out on stupid insults.
WCGreen
(45,558 posts)"Sandy the aurora is rising behind us ...."
Very Cool.
Very, very cool.
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)Kind of sad when you think about it.
Bryant
NewJeffCT
(56,829 posts)with each other that when one prominent Republican disagrees with the daily talking points, it becomes newsworthy in a "man bites dog" sort of way. Christie has now done it twice over the last three months now, and did it once before a year or two back when he called out the GOP for being in an uproar over Christie appointing a Muslim judge.
So, three times in three years he's gone against the party line.
Auntie Bush
(17,528 posts)I think he's a conniver with an ego as big as his body. Everything he does is an act and an attempt to get Dems to vote for him in the future...he's so transparent!
rivegauche
(601 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Flashmann
(2,140 posts)Interesting...I said the exact same thing,yesterday,albeit in a vulgar and loutish manner....Got flamed and had a post hidden for my effort......But I still stand by what you say,as well as what I said.......
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)"Someone who almost never picks on anyone his own size."
He can't FIND anyone his own size to pick on.
UnrepentantLiberal
(11,700 posts)uponit7771
(90,370 posts)Bucky
(54,087 posts)at least not without tearing themselves apart.
mountain grammy
(26,663 posts)Tommy_Carcetti
(43,226 posts)Actually, he's not likely to be your friend at all.
Chris Christie is all about Chris Christie. While that's refreshing in the face of the Republican Party, he'll turn around and do the same to us.
hay rick
(7,652 posts)It's ironic that he's getting credit for not being an idiot in his handling of superstorm Sandy. Two years ago he took a lot of heat for going to Disney World during a huge snowstorm. Story here: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/gop-strategist-whiny-chris-christies-snowpocalypse-absence-inexcusable/
Some old dirt on Christie here: http://www.bluejersey.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=17194
My favorite Christie story remains (from the article) this one:
And when Chris Christie went the wrong way down a one way street, causing an accident, sending the biker he hit to a trauma center - then didn't get a ticket when he identified himself as US Attorney - he did nothing wrong.
barbtries
(28,817 posts)not that i would ever vote for a republican, but i did watch his entire press conference yesterday. with the rest of them i can't stand to listen for more than a few seconds.
Pisces
(5,602 posts)is speaking the truth about his own sides inadequacies. Not for 1 minute do I forget his core principles are against mine,
but I would rather have someone willing to compromise, willing to speak truth in a disaster time.
This guy could get some gun control issues put on the table. He may be an ego maniac, but right now he is helping the
dems in a big way. He is saying what needs to be said and some Repubs are listening.
xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)Pisces
(5,602 posts)bigtree
(86,013 posts). . . thing of beauty, it was, even if he is a republican asshole.
DLevine
(1,788 posts)He is a bully. He does not care about the poor or disadvantaged. He does not care about his constituents. He only cares about himself. He is a piece of shit.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)but I don't think he's worth worrying about. He has no chance in hell of winning over the batshit insane GOP primary voters.
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)Damn, your threshold is low.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)leftyohiolib
(5,917 posts)stevenleser
(32,886 posts)I'm all for real conversions, if they are in fact real.
Right now with Christie we have a single instance of not even Democratic behavior, simply pragmatic behavior. I personally think it is all about 2016.
MotherPetrie
(3,145 posts)berni_mccoy
(23,018 posts)To be fair to him, there aren't many people his own size...
RomneyLies
(3,333 posts)Film at eleven.
Taverner
(55,476 posts)In the end, they're still fucking racists
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)One of my good friends is a teacher in NJ. The teachers of NJ will never forget that.
patrice
(47,992 posts)the time for a presidential candidate from the authentic Left who knows what s/he is doing.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,946 posts)Christie is shocked - shocked - that other GOPers would behave dickishly.
DinahMoeHum
(21,825 posts)The f** fool made his bed with the GOP - he can go sleep in it.
Exultant Democracy
(6,594 posts)during the republican primary that is. We need a little more sanity from our red counterparts and Huntsman fits the bill.
butterfly77
(17,609 posts)pissy ass Eric Cantor.
Cha
(297,934 posts)hope the Gov reads it!
Thanks Will
spanone
(135,919 posts)pacalo
(24,721 posts)much better than any Democrat could. We're doing ourselves a disservice to dismiss his turnaround remarks due to his past actions.
It is ingratiating to witness a brash, tough-daddy Republican coming to Jesus when his state is in desperate need of help from the federal government when the Republicans hold the purse strings. They want to "drown the federal government in a bathtub" so that the states will have more authority.
Then seeing the same Republican holding up a magnifying glass to his party's soullessness at a news conference is even more ingratiating, given that he himself has cruelly politicized his own state's educational interests for the benefit of that same party's wacky ideology.
What his thinking becomes after his state gets what it needs & is back to normal is anyone's guess. The fact is, NJ's reconstruction is going to take many years & Christie is currently running for re-election in a blue state, which is set for November 2013.