Tea Party battles the 1 percent: How a Christie ’16 campaign could break the GOP

[DonViejo]

If he runs for president, Chris Christie will spark an all-out war for control of the Republicans. It will be ugly

ELIAS ISQUITH

It’s been more than a month since “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” completely destabilized American politics and transformed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie from the GOP’s 2016 front-runner into something more akin to a victim of radiation, someone other Republicans hope to avoid lest they too become contaminated. In the time that’s passed, we haven’t yet learned much about what really happened at the George Washington Bridge — or in the city of Hoboken — but we have learned this: Despite the scandals ongoing as well as those potentially to come, Christie is still running (unofficially) for president.

You’d suspect that a man of Christie’s ego and ambition wouldn’t give up on his dream of ultimate power until the odds were truly insurmountable, and Christie confirmed this suspicion when he appeared at the Economic Club of Chicago on Tuesday to fundraise for the Republican Governors Association and talk about the issues of the day. Before a large audience of Chicago’s richest “who’s who,” Christie spoke like a man who planned to reassure his nervous wealthy backers and reassert himself as the establishment’s favorite for the GOP’s next presidential nomination.

“You want income equality?” Christie pretended to say to Elizabeth Warren and Bill de Blasio, two of the 1 percent’s most-hated politicians. “That is mediocrity. Everybody can have an equal, mediocre salary.” Having established his class-war bona fides, Christie went on to implicitly address his audience’s concerns over his wavering electability, noting that Bill Clinton “was far from the perfect candidate” and insisting that despite the Tea Party’s well-established antipathy for him, they’d ultimately accept him as their nominee. “Parties tend to become pragmatic when they are powerless,” Christie said. “It’s time for us to get pragmatic.”

Christie even threw in an appreciative nod toward former President George W. Bush — who remains anathema to the public at large while still being a hero to many members of the establishment — saying the 43rd president was “grossly underappreciated” during his tenure and remains so still.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/02/15/tea_party_battles_the_1_percent_how_a_christie_16_campaign_could_break_the_gop/

[davidpdx]

1. Christie is Dubya's lapdog

Whoof whoof

[calimary]

2. It's telling. It tells you christie's taste is up his ass.

[KennedyBrothers]

3. Christie? Who's that?

He's fallen too far too fast to make a recovery.

[bigdarryl]

4. There's not going to be a Christie in 16