"Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad."

[PCIntern]

Bosworth and Longfellow were right on the mark there. The insanity of what the Christie Administration attempted to perform in the State of New Jersey is unusual even by Rethug standards. Shaking down whole batches of mayors and other elected officials is eventually going to get you in some measure of distress, often of the Federal level, since career prosecutors spend their waking hours dreaming of scenarios which will catapult them to the top of their profession. Faced with run-of-the-mill cases year after year, once in a while there is the Big One.

Now you would think that someone who had worked in the Office would know this, and they do. But, and it is a big but, there is a psychological/psychiatric component which comes to the fore in these cases and someone with, say, an impulse-control disorder, might have a problem with judgment and "just do it".

While it is true that former Senator, the "good" Dr. Frist was rightfully pilloried for making a diagnosis of a comatose woman by television, those of us who do not sit in the armchairs of power are more than entitled to a clinical impression of an individual. To argue the opposite is to state that all people are fully rational and sane until proven otherwise by competent medical personnel following a textbook evaluation, review of systems, and history. I'm not so certain that those who would opine that point of view would ascribe that tenet-of-practice to the naked adult who was running around a junior high school. Instant dismissal of such an individual as some form of "nuts" followed by mandatory incarceration of some sort would be demanded well before some doctor showed up on the scene with a battery of tests.

And so it is with this crowd: you can see what you know was occurring: the sudden brash insults ("What are you, stupid?&quot , what people stated occurred (shakedowns, threats, cutting off of funds), and the lame excuses and confused verbiage which is emanating from the mouths of the accused. It is classic low level "you sure have a nice store window there, shame if anything happened to it" elevated to dangerous heights: "You sure have a nice town there, shame if traffic prevented ambulances from getting through." It is a complex combination of narcissism, rage, self-loathing, sociopathy, and other points on the axes. It is bad enough for individuals who have to deal with these people on a daily basis, it is impossible for a population to do so.

A favorite phrase from my father of blessed memory comes to mind: Tinhorn Mussolini

[Berlum]

1. Tinhorn Mussolini (R)

[Fumesucker]

3. Il Douche

[arely staircase]

6. lol nt

[Berlum]

10. DUzy !

[adirondacker]

11. DNA?

[nikto]

2. Christie...

The Human Titanic.

[mdbl]

4. I would have to disagree with the quote....

"The insanity of what the Christie Administration attempted to perform in the State of New Jersey is unusual even by Rethug standards."

Things started getting totally weird the day those weirdo Repugs sent a bunch of bullies to Florida to terrorize the election commission during Bush V Gore. Stomping and banging on the door like a lynch mob showed me then, what the puky repuglicans were all about. It's just gotten worse from there. Christie's thugs are no surprise since the country is now run by a bunch of fascists. I remember even then, asking my co-workers why they were voting their boss into office. Since all they cared about was someone who might need an abortion, they put someone like Dick Cheney into office. It's funny how the only thing that springs people into action is being inconvenienced on a bridge for a couple of hours. The complete trashing of our democracy?? Well that's just not that important.

[PCIntern]

5. no argument with the importance of the sequelae but

this was a whole state, not an election commission's office. something had to go terribly wrong here...and it did.

[Bluenorthwest]

9. Gee, that election theft involved their Governor, Sec of State, the US Supreme Court

and that's way more than 'an election commission's office'. It was a whole State.

[PCIntern]

12. You of course missed the point

which may be your point.

I will say it again: yes, the sequelae of the FL invasion by the rethugs was enormous, but this crowd in NJ tried to hose many many individuals all over the state and thought that they could get away with it. Someone had to talk...there were too many people involved. In your example, it was a strong-arm tactic surgically placed. And very transparent to the Nation.

[Bluenorthwest]

13. No need to be insulting, I just do not agree with you that Republican corruption is unusual

You said it was 'just an elections commission office' and that is simply not the case.

[PCIntern]

14. I apologize

we must be talking at cross-purposes

[enough]

18. I never saw that faux-mob event in Florida as a manifestation of insanity or weirdness.

It was a purposeful tactic carried out in an organized and coordinated manner with a remarkably clear-sighted understanding of how to achieve a desired goal in a volatile situation.

[mdbl]

19. Sorry but I won't legitimize dark behaviour

I won't give a pass to those weirdos who thought it was a good idea to carry out whomever you credit with that calculated plan. They are still culpable, and in my opinion, total weirdos.

[madaboutharry]

7. Another great post from PCIntern

[PCIntern]

17. Thanks!

I'm honored...

[Bluenorthwest]

8. I don't think it is all that unusual, but that makes things uncomfortable for the 'Bipartisan

Center' and others who spend hours and photo ops to try to sell this criminal and the rest of the GOP to us. It's not just Christie and his crones, it is the Third Way types who refused to resist his corruption that are to blame.

[Nay]

15. I agree that Christie has turned out to be easily diagnosable by the

rest of us as a classic nut. No need for a doc, except to suss out exactly where in the manual he is described. When Christie is in trouble, he doubles down on the nuttiness because his mental illness requires that he do so.

Those of us who have been on the planet for a while have met people like Christie; neighbors, coworkers, perhaps even spouses. We know the signs, we know how they respond to stress, etc. and Christie is a textbook case.

What frightens me is that some Democrats in NJ were praising this fellow. Now THAT'S scary.

[djean111]

16. This, to me, is why Christie never seemed like presidential material.

He has a small-time organized crime persona. More Paulie Walnuts than Tony Soprano The huge money people on a national level would annihilate him if he tried his shakedown tactics on them. He doesn't really seem to be bothered with a political agenda of ideas - it is all just about fealty to him, personally.

That being said, it always made me laugh that the Freepers do not like him - he is a double-dealing bully and I would have thought he would appeal to them.

"It's not just Christie and his cronies, it is the Third Way types who refused to resist his corruption that are to blame."
The Third Way types have really got me questioning whether being a Democrat means the same thing as it did 20 years ago. I cannot support third way "Democrats".