But Chris Christie is a serious, small government conservative:
Gov. Chris Christie arrived at his son’s baseball game this afternoon aboard a State Police helicopter.
Right before the lineup cards were being exchanged on the field, a noise from above distracted the spectators as the 55-foot long helicopter buzzed over trees in left field, circled the outfield and landed in an adjacent football field. Christie disembarked from the helicopter and got into a black car with tinted windows that drove him about a 100 yards to the baseball field.
I hope this hothouse flower runs, because he’ll be crushed by any serious media attention.
Aimai
Drove him one hundred yards? Wow.
SiubhanDuinne
May I be the first, if hardly the most original, to observe: IOKIYAR.
Valdivia
I still can’t believe this jerk pulled out of the tunnel project and wanted to keep the money. Hate him.
Sorta OT–Jim DeMented is also thinking of running and praying about it. WTF is up this month?
JPL
What serious media?
EconWatcher
Christie got into some minor trouble while he was US Attorney for staying in hotels that were more expensive than the DOJ travel policy allowed, etc.
I kinda defended him at the time, because I’ve had to travel quite a bit under such policies, and it’s often not easy. But it sounds like we’ve got a pattern here. And the car taking him the last hundred yards is a nice touch.
Even our supine press may hit this hard, because he’s been so sanctimonious about supposedly overprivileged public employees.
WyldPirate
So where in the hell is this country going to come up with a serious media that directs its attention at anything in an honest manner? This media you speak of has been missing for the better part of 2-3 decades now.
PeakVT
Speaking of Christie, one of Klein’s stunt bloggers had a good, though depressing, post about yet another stupid move by Christie.
amk
Typical do-what-I-say-not-what-I-do rethug.
bkny
are you kidding? the ‘serious media’ luvs them some chris christie. he tells it like it is, doncha know. (someone on hardball actually said that last nite)
OzoneR
@EconWatcher:
LOL
grandpajohn
I’m with JPL , What serious media attention,Why would the the media take note of a budget cutting laying off public workers repugs personal excesses in spending taxpayer money, whey they have fake pictures of dems in underwear ads to pontificate about.
mk3872
Have you seen the size of Christie? The man is just enormous.
stuckinred
@mk3872: He needs the girth to intimidate 120 lb school teachers.
jomo
He was honestly very effective and (yes) telegenic at getting in peoples faces – and seeming to fight for his beliefs. He argued well – and people seemed to like that. He was sought after Republican who had gotten the benefit of the doubt for being competent. But good god – he has made one incompetent decision after another. He is not getting the benefit of the doubt any more. And the optics on this thing are horrible. Being brought to a high school game in a helicopter – whisked 100 yds in a limo to the stands? The folks in NJ hate this guy more and more with each passing week,
bayville
In defense of Gov. Flintstone…it was a playoff game.
More photos here.
stuckinred
That chopper may need outriggers!
superdestroyer
Who cares who the Republicans nominate? No one is going to beat President Obama. The only election worth paying attention to is how many seats the Democrats will pick up in the House. The House elections are the only elections that will have any effect on policy. The Presidential election is a done deal and the Republican Primary races are irrelevant.
Mark B
Motherfucker. I’m actually even more outraged by the car ride than the helicopter ride. He could sell the copter ride as necessary because he’s a proud dad with a busy schedule. But having a car driven to the spot ahead of time to cart him 100 yards? Extremely fucking lazy and wasteful.
Mark B
To be fair, CC might have had a heart attack if he actually had to walk 100 yards.
shortstop
@Mark B: I’m sure he’d defend it as a security issue, because DFHs, with our sick devotion to solving problems through violence, are known to attack people when they’re walking 100 yards near children’s sports events. Apparently he was safe from the progressive threat once he reached the stands.
cd6
Give a nobel prize to whoever designed that helicopter
gene108
I’m not surprised Republicans want him to run for President. Christie is effectively Patient Zero, with regards to wing-nut governors wanting to slash education budgets and destroy social safety nets, in order to pass tax breaks for the wealthy.
JPL
@Mark B: It was a medical necessity. He would have a heart attack if he walked that far.
R. Porrofatto
From the Star-Ledger
I doubt if Gov. Extra-Chrispie will be given any media scrutiny that isn’t fellacious.
JPL
@Mark B: Ah.. I’m not the fastest typist.
shortstop
@superdestroyer: Lower those expectations! Slap ’em down! Down! Down!
Just Some Fuckhead
@Aimai:
You don’t stay that grotesquely overweight by walking everywhere.
John Puma
An institution critical to the survival of representative Democracy, a “serious media,” unfortunately, does NOT exist in the USA.
dr. bloor
@Mark B:
In the very least, he’d have missed the first four innings.
Shrillhouse
Fat Jesus couldn’t walk 100 yards? Does he wash himself with a rag on a stick?
bk
At least he didn’t wear a codpiece.
Bizono
Fiscal conservatism on display, doncha know?
4tehlulz
His throne was then carried from the car to the velvet-lined bleacher by eunuchs.
Snarki, child of Loki
@EconWatcher:
Oh, the MSM is going easy on Christie. They left out the palanquin lofted on the shoulders of four burley young “bucks” to carry His Majesty, OverLard of Joisey from the limo to his Little League SkyBox.
Poopyman
@bk:
Who could tell?
SiubhanDuinne
Peggy Noonan looks drunk.
In other breaking news, grass is green, water is wet . . .
Warren Terra
@Aimai:
It really is the car with tinted windows that’s the capping touch on this little display of elite power. Well, that and the fact that the only reason he couldn’t leave the office in time to be driven, and so took the copter, was that he didn’t want to curtail his meeting with a delegation of Iowa Republicans there to contemplate him running for President.
@EconWatcher:
I thought there was some much more interesting mini-scandal about him approving promotions and bonuses for an attractive woman subordinate in the US attorney’s office, allegedly inappropriately?
gbear
The helecopters are not laughing, they’re groaning.
Jay in Oregon
@Just Some Fuckhead:
To be fair, Han Solo stepped on his tail the last time he walked to a personal appearance.
gbear
Do you know how hard it is to find a golf cart with tinted windows?
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
sweet buttery jaysus, where are your values.
sure, he wants to drown the government in a bathtub, but this was about the children, his children. since ” what about the children” and “i am only doing it for my children” trumps “drown government in a bathtub” once the “what about the children” is invoked, none of the other, lesser values matter.
its moral darwinism (as conservatives understand darwinism) that once a bigger ethical dog has to eat, the rest of the dogs are on their own. you can’t expect people to exhibit all their values at once, and balance them when they are conflicting, that is panty waist soseeallism.
JPL
@gbear: You really think he could fit into a golf cart.
El Cid
NANCY PELOSI MADE US ALL PAY FOR HER TO HAVE HER OWN AIRLINER AAAAAAAAARRRRGH SHE WENT TO SYRIA LOGAN ACT AAAAAAAAAARGH
Mary
Can you imagine how embarassed his kid must have been?
I hate to be a thin-skinned pearl-clutcher but do we have to keep harping on his weight? There are so many more productive things about him to mock.
Valdivia
Gotta love when Cook is telling Republicans they’re screwed.
El Cid
@jomo: It’s shocking that one’s skill at being a large confrontational loudmouth is not necessarily correlated with governing decisionmaking.
Amir_Khalid
If you physically can’t manage a 100-yard walk, and I’ve been in that situation lately, you don’t need a limo; you need a wheelchair. If you think you’re too important to have to walk that far, you’re an entitled ass undeserving of public office.
I have heard of this Chris Christie. Isn’t he the governor who attacked Bruce Springsteen’s liberal politics not long ago, over an innocent letter that Bruce wrote to his local newspaper? That kind of breathtaking petulance wouldn’t become a eight-year-old, let alone the state’s highest official.
ant
yes, Chris Christie is a fat ass. But I think he’s got skillz when it comes to connecting with voters.
I hope us liberals aren’t caught off guard by him some day thinking that fat jokes are an effective strategy to convince “independent” voters of why they shouldn’t vote for him.
I recall some bitch at work who use to chant “barack HUSSEIN obama barack HUSSEIN obama barack HUSSEIN obama” all day back in 2008.
That was all she had on obama. I don’t think she helped her team with that.
Svensker
@Mary:
His kid apparently goes to Delbarton in Morristown, an elite private prep school. My guess is that most of the kids there are used to their parents being complete assholes.
bkny
@bk: you’d never see it under all that blubber….
SteveinSC
Fixed.
gnomedad
@Valdivia:
Who needs tunnels when you have a chopper?
shortstop
@Mary: Yeah, I’m not a huge fan of the weight comments, either, except insofar as his weight makes him present a visual that many voters will innately reject. Sort of like Mitch Daniels’s unusual shortness resonates negatively (whether they admit it to themselves or not) with a lot of voters.
In other words, I’m not above being secretly glad that asshole Republicans’ physical shortcomings might hurt them electorally just because I don’t personally make fun of those shortcomings or think that they should actually affect voters’ choices. You have to admire my deep sense of ethics, huh? ;)
Earl
@Just Some Fuckhead:
You don’t stay that grotesquely overweight by walking anywhere.
FTFY…
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
God, it’s embarrassing that this asshole is our Gov. It’s further embarrassing that he still gets touted as some kind of lumi-fuckin’-nary.
And on an even more frustrating OT note….:
House Dems blink, half vote with entire GOP against raising the debt limit without cuts. Meaning the only question is how much we’re going to negotiate to give away for the GOPs gov’t cuts fetishism, and how much we enable the bullshit ‘this is all about job creation!’ line Boehner’s crowing about.
There just is never any win to be had anymore, is there?
Just Some Fuckhead
Don’t they make personal scooters for fat people who are too lazy to walk? Why can’t Christie just get himself a lil scooter?
GregB
Austerity for thee, chopper rides for me.
stuckinred
@Just Some Fuckhead: And you can qualify with no OUT OF POCKET expenses at the Scooter Store!
Warren Terra
Can we can it with the fat jokes? The thing with the car is about the entitlement, not the exercise. I have complete confidence that Christie is fully capable of walking 100 yards with no particular difficulty – the fact that he chooses not to do so is what interests me.
Cliff in NH
here is what it cost in 2004, I’m sure it costs more now according to this quote from:
blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2011/05/31/chris-christie%E2%80%99s-helicopter-ride-to-home-plate/
I Don’t think the car part is true based on this series of pics:
northjersey.com/multimedia/photogalleries/122909219.html
Warren Terra
@Cliff in NH:
I don’t see how you could discern anything about whether there was a car from those photos.
susan
His “style” reminds me of third world dictators. Which, I guess, is exactly what we are becoming.
maya
He had to take the limo from the helicopter onto home plate because home plate was too far off San Diego to get him aboard any other way.
Cliff in NH
@Warren Terra:
well the story from 2 other sources doesn’t mention a car, and the photog following taking the pics doesn’t have a pic of a car ..
Just sayin’
Ed in NJ
@ant:
The only skills Christie has is connecting with the media, who like confrontation in order to sell papers, get ratings and page views.
As for the voters of NJ, I don’t know anyone, left or right, that still feels Christie is doing a good job. The best I can find is “well, NJ is a mess, so he has to make tough decisions”. But no one likes the decisions he’s making, nor do they like the constant attacks on public employees and corporate giveaways.
Bender
Of course, no media outlet will ask The Fat Man about it to his face, because they know that he’s got 20 statistics to quote back to them about how much less he’s spent than any Democrat who’s held the office, and he wasn’t using the ‘copter to get blowjobs from his Israeli boyfriend like Democrat governors, but rather to watch his son play America’s Game, because fathers love their sons — got it, jackasses? The NJ journos are tired of getting their asses handed to them.
Warren Terra
@Cliff in NH:
The former point – the car not being mentioned in other reporting about the trip – is interesting. That they didn’t show him riding in a car really isn’t interesting. I’m guessing he rides in cars several times a month.
stuckinred
This is going to be just like when he was in Florida for the blizzard. He’ll tell everyone to go fuck themselves.
martha
I think there’s a very funny 1, 2, or 5 minute stand-up routine here that doesn’t even have to mention his weight that could eviscerate him and the Republicans at the same time. Too many great images here begging to be combined into something really funny. Jon? Stephen? Bill? Anybody?
Fred
Yea but to be fair, that 100 yards was uphill…both ways.
Redshift
It also reminds me of the guy the Newt-era people put in charge of the Smithsonian. He cut budgets for exhibits and unimportant stuff like that, while adding a layer of vice president types and giving them (and himself) limos so they wouldn’t have to walk from one side of the Mall to the other.
ChrisNYC
I dislike Christie a lot but this pumping him up as a “star” is nonsense. The wingers hate him because he was pro-choice (later switched), supports gun control and didn’t breath fire on the “ground zero mosque.” If he were super popular in NJ, maybe he’d get the GOP money behind him at some point, a la Romney but, Christie’s turning out to be a disaster. I just think he’s irrelevant.
burnspbesq
@Svensker:
So? What does that have to do with anything? The misuse of state resources would still be misuse of state resources if his kid went to West Windsor – Plainsboro South, the public high school whose district includes the governor’s official residence.
For the record, Delbarton is a Catholic school and, as a graduate of a truly elite high school in New Jersey, I am here to tell you that academically it is not all that. WWPS is a better school. Draw from that whatever conclusions you choose to draw.
JRon
Alabama impeached their governor (Hunt), partly over this sort of public funds misuse. He took a state helicopter to go to his home church on Sunday. Not a lot different imho.
But AL’s a lot more progressive on these sorts of things than NJ.
MoeLarryAndJesus
The 100 yard limo wasn’t the worst part. In the 3rd inning he needed to take a piss so he forced an umpire to give him a piggyback ride to the bathroom. No word yet on who handled the unzipping or the Imperial Python, but I’m betting it wasn’t Christie.
PurpleGirl
Re Christie’s weight: PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY and he costs more to have his health covered. Isn’t it Arizona that is moving to charge smokers and the overweight more in Medicaid copays? Hasn’t that been something that is brought up periodically — that smokers and the overweight should pay more for their health insurance because they cost more to treat when they get sick? Isn’t he at risk for high blood pressure and diabetes? How do we know he doesn’t already have those conditions? Just saying.
Cliff in NH
@Cliff in NH:
Woops another source confirms the car… that truly is a outrageous waste.
news.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view/20110601nj_gov_chris_christie__uses_state_helicop…
Southern Beale
Memory Hole:
Six months ago Chris Christie abandoned the people of New Jersey during their time of need because his Florida vacation was more important.
YOYO conservatives. Their needs are always more important than yours. The idea of the “public servant” is completely alien to them. I recommend we not elect these people to office any longer.
burnspbesq
Just so we’re clear: Montvale, where the game was played, is about as far from Trenton as you can get and still be in New Jersey. It can easily be two hours each way in afternoon traffic. The helicopter would have made sense if Christie had needed to get back to Trenton for official state business. But he had to get back to Princeton to meet with the Republicans from Iowa who are urging him to run for President. The Republican Party should reimburse the state for the cost of this trip, and if it does, AFAIC there is no there there.
Howlin Wolfe
@burnspbesq: Svensker’s point was that the kids are accustomed to their parents being assholes, not whether the wasteful, hypocritical behavior was somehow more egregious because of where his kid goes to school. But your need to show off your Jersey bona fides apparently trumps reading comprehension.
bdbd
Shoot, I could drive him a hundred yards, and I don’t even play golf.
chopper
@Warren Terra:
so i assume the helicopter and the limo cost taxpayer money, what about the dude walking behind him playing the tuba?
Linnaeus
@stuckinred:
Didn’t he do just that several months ago? He was at some kind of Q and A forum, and a teacher asked a question that was critical of Christie, and Christie commanded the nearby state troopers to bring the teacher up to the state where Christie was at just so Christie could get in his face, or so I read.
burnspbesq
@Howlin Wolfe:
Svensker’s point is a non-point. My point, which seems to have plumb evaded you, is that where the kid goes to school is irrelevant to anything about this story. You are apparently too stupid to figure that out. Or did you miss the part where I said “So?”
ChrisB
@jomo: yes, we do.
It’s remarkable the helicopter could lift him.
@bk: He couldn’t see it if he did.
Similar to other jibes upstream I know but I needed to get my shots in. I hate the fat fuck.
And I’m glad he drove the 100 yds so we can lambaste him. One question though: if he took the helicopter from Trenton to North Jersey, how’d the limo get there? Was it sent there ahead of time?
Dog is My Co-Pilot
The car drove him 100 yards? Seriously? Good Lord, from pictures I’ve seen of him, he really needs to walk more.
Mary
@burnspbesq: Weird…I went to WWPHS (before it split into North and South). I had no idea the Christies lived in the area. Does that mean they’re not in the Governor’s mansion? Because that would presumably put them in Princeton High School’s district.
Anyway, back in my day a lot of parents sent their kids to surrounding private schools because they knew they couldn’t hack it at the enormous and very very competitive West Windsor-Plainsboro.
rikyrah
He’s a punk. plain and simple.
different church-lady
How can he run if he can’t even walk 100 yards?
Michael G
@Fred:
That’s only because he creates his own gravity well.
biff diggerence
If the Garden State doesn’t dump this worthless oinker next election, we’ll be taking our vacation bucks to Maryland.
mdh
@Aimai: 100 yds. In a black car. Not pretentious at all.
mdh
@burnspbesq: yes, truly elite. Thanks for keeping rankings of which high schools are the best at that exit.
Ken
Had to have been a heavy-lift chopper.
KXB
All that was missing was “Big Pimpin” blaring from the radio.
Not_Crispy
He couldn’t have just rolled those final 100 yards?
Califlander
Some nice photos of the event, including the chopper and the cars: photos.nj.com/4504/gallery/gov_chris_christie_takes_state_police_helicopter_to_sons_baseball_game/in…