Chris Christie apparently called some Republicans bigots (via) at a Ramadan evening dinner at Drumthwacket:
He said that two of his actions have “drawn the ire” of some conservatives around the country. The first was the nomination of a Sohail Mohammed, a Muslim attorney, as a superior court judge. Conservative web sites have criticized the appointment, saying Mohammed has defended terrorists and will employ shariah law. But Christie called Mohammed a friend and said that those who create hysteria about his appointment because are “bigots.”
[…] Christie also noted that he has been called out for his relationship with Imam Mohammad Qatanani, who is often described online as a “Hamas-linked cleric.”
“The fact of the matter is that in all my interactions over the years with the imam, he has attempted to be a force for good in his community, in our state, with law enforcement, with those of us who have gotten to know and work with us over the years,” said Christie, who worked with the Muslim community as a U.S. Attorney in the aftermath of Sept. 11. “So I hope what you see is a consistent strain of conduct. I will judge people based on their relationships with me and how they conduct themselves.”
Christie is to Muslims as Bush was to Mexicans: both understood that a set of generally religious and conservative brown people are a natural fit for the Republican party. But neither can get any traction with the xenophobic base, for whom having an object of brown hatred is far more important than winning elections. Christie’s got a tougher row to hoe than Bush, since he’s a Yankee and the current Republican party is a hell of a lot less tolerant than it was when Bush was elected. Even though this remark hasn’t made much impact, and the video is now private on YouTube, the winger blogs are lit up like a Jersey refinery over this. If Christie keeps this up, his next gig will be guest appearances with Snooki in the “remember when” show at some boardwalk casino.
nitpicker
Guess he won’t be the VP…
4tehlulz
I don’t want to see the article comments, do I?
MattF
@nitpicker: … and that’s why Republicans won’t win. Christie is a natural politician– he takes over a room when he walks into it, big, fat, ugly, smart. Romney should be begging him to take the VP spot, but it’s clear that Christie isn’t even being considered.
Steve
There are very few positive comments you can make about Chris Christie, but yeah.
The Other Bob
@4tehlulz:
Not unless you like to read both anti Islam, racist and crazy conspriacy nonsense.
The Other Bob
Don’t give Christie too much credit for saying what every person elected to office and frankly every American should say. Just becuase he isn’t the worst of the worst, does not mean he isn’t still one of the worst.
victory
Christie doesn’t want to go down with a sinking ship. He knows better and will bide his time until 2016. Little does he know, though, is that he is faaaar too “Librul” for the right wing base to go any further that his current station in life.
Litlebritdifrnt
This is a great feel good story for a Friday morning. The campaign to raise $250,000 to rebuild the Joplin Mosque has already raised $265,000
http://www.indiegogo.com/joplinmosqueofficial
Chris
@The Other Bob:
This. Same for Bush and McCain being tolerant of Muslims and Mexicans. In the year 2012, two generations from King’s “I have a dream speech,” it’s the absolute minimum you should be able to expect from a politician.
The fact that today’s teabaggers are on average too extreme to even do this is a testament to their own fucked-up-edness more than Bush, McCain or Christie’s worth.
Karen S.
The only real value of something like thia is witnessing the righties gnashing their teeth over something like this. As others have already pointed out, Christie’s behavior as a non-bigot in this regard is the minimum of what we should expect not just of politicians, but of each other nowadays.
El Cid
This is indeed an advanced and praiseworthy view for a man of 1843.
Legalize
@Karen S.:
Definitely. I trolled it at my favorite wingnut blog.
jrg
I predict that refusal of GOP leaders to call all Muslims terrorists will result in the butthurt philharmonic singing yet another encore of “Don’t tread on Meeee!/No taxation without representation!”, who’s finale will sound something like the 1812 Overture, but with federal buildings instead of cannons.
…And, naturally, it will be the libruls fault.
Bex
@MattF: “He takes over a room…” That’s the reason Rmoney won’t pick him.
the Buhjaysus
Christie, “Listen you dumb hay-seeds, not all muslims are terrorists. Now where’s a teacher I can punch?”
gypsy howell
Mika was sucking Christie’s cock hard today on Mourning Joe.
Ron
Christie represents a lot of what is wrong with the GOP in many ways, but this just shows he’s not part of the “totally batshit crazy wing” that seems to run the party now. It’s easy to say “this shouldn’t be praised, it should be expected” but the reality is that in today’s GOP, it deserves some praise for being willing to not go with the disgusting racist wing. As an aside, it always bothers me when people on the left make fun of Christie’s weight. Partially because I’m not exactly a lean person myself, but more because we should be better than that. I will happily criticize Christie for policy, for being an arrogant ass, but his weight shouldn’t be part of the discussion.
El Cid
@jrg: The “Butthurt Philharmonic,” performing live in concert with the Moron Rabble-Fapper Choir.
Todd
@gypsy howell:
Worst mental sexual image ever.
Shawn in ShowMe
Then Bush and Cheney also deserve praise. Or maybe they’re all just awful human beings who know how to count votes.
dr. bloor
Actually, this assumption is why they can’t gain any traction with either community.
Tone In DC
@El Cid:
LULz.
gypsy howell
@Todd:
It wasn’t a pretty sight.
Face
@The Other Bob: This. He’s still festering shit, he’s just not rancid diarrhea.
Balconesfault
I’m rooting for a Christie/Gaffney ticket in 2016.
Balconesfault
@Shawn in ShowMe: Well, given how many times Muslims bailed out his failed business enterprises, I’d think Bush in particular would feel some debt to them.
Punchy
He also takes over a buffet table, an airplane seat, and a health club-sized bathtub.
amk
@The Other Bob: egg.sack.lee. This boorish thug in so many other ways is unfit for a public office.
patrick II
@Ron:
If he gets nominated for vp or eventually prez his weight should be part of the discussion. He is just carrying too much weight not to worry about him keeling over before he finishes eight years.
Comrade Mary
As Chris Rock would say, “You’re supposed to, you dumb motherfucker. What do you want, a cookie?”
amk
@Litlebritdifrnt: Cool. WTG.
Culture of Truth
This whole notion of judging people by their actions and not their religion or ethnicity is dangerous liberal subversive treason
KXB
Christie’s approach reflects the realities of the NJ area. In percentage terms, NJ probably has as many Muslims as Jews. They are a diverse lot – mostly from South Asia, followed by the Middle East. You then add in groups that are often mistaken for Muslims, such as Sikhs and Hindus – and any NJ politician hoping for a future realizes that he can’t alienate these groups in a close election or for campaign contributions.
Culture of Truth
The real lesson here: On a long enough time horizon, Chris Christie eventually pisses everybody off.
PurpleGirl
@Litlebritdifrnt: I just looked and the total is over $272,000. It is a good story.
Litlebritdifrnt
@PurpleGirl:
It reminds me that there are more good people around than there are bigots. That is good to know.
Hal
Christie is still an asshole. His whole approach to Governing NJ has been to cut, cut, cut, and bully when people object.
He cops out on gay marriage probably entirely based on the possibility of running for President as a Republican, and claims that black people would have been better off during the Civil Rights movement if Civil Rights had just been put up for a popular vote.
Cause you know, white southerners in the 50’s and 60’s would have totally voted down segregation. Asshole.
japa21
And in the midst of all this we have my wonderful Representative, Joe Walsh, running around blaming the Fort Hood shootings on the administration not wanting to hurt the feelings of Muslims in the US, specially CAIR.
guy
The title of the post is a Jens Lekman reference, no?
Anonymous At Work
Frankly, for his bluster otherwise, Bush was a blue-blooded Yankee carpet-bagger. Bush was able to transform his attitude towards more Texan-like but Christie shouldn’t let his geographic location be a limitation. On the other hand, Christie’s weight, obnoxiousness, and belief that cursing out people is “winning the debate” *should* be limitations.
Davis X. Machina
He reads Nate Silver, too, is my guess.
Post-Romney-crash 2016 positioning as the sane-but-angry-but sane, non-God-bothering, non-Confederate, warrior against America’s real enemies — public employees.
‘Cut, cut, cut, and bully’ has a significant electoral constituency.
Doggerelo
Christopher Christie has a big mouth
What he says is just what he means
He’s befriended some Muslims and that has led
To some unpleasant right-wing scenes.
So Christie says that those folks are just bigots
And that really makes them pissed.
That’s the trouble with someone who means what he says,
He irritates folks that he’s dissed.
nevsky42
@Comrade Mary: Yeah, it’s like praising an eight-year-old for not crapping his training pants.
And personality-wise, Christie would be toxic for veep because he’s that special brand of *sshole that is actually a plus in NJ/NY but doesn’t play well nationwide. Call it Giulianitis…
Gex
Frankly, I don’t think Christie or W. mean shit when they say those things. I think every now and then someone with an R has to say something not genocidal about Muslims so they can point to it the way they point to random “left” blog comments to dispute other accusations.
Gex
Also I can tell when a guy is trying NOT to get tagged for VP.
Gex
@Hal: They just wanted to wait 150 years because the North hurt their fee-fees. But no, the goddamn North thought a century was enough time for them to get the fuck over it. How foolish the North was, since the South was really just about to do that.
Hill Dweller
Christie is easily the most overrated politician in this country. Ryan takes second on that list.
Both, for whatever reason(s), enjoy adoration from the press. Every mistake they make is explained away/ignored.
As with someone like Perry, once they get on a national stage, and face real scrutiny, their shine will quickly wear off.
Holden Pattern
1) Per Chris Rock, does Christie want a fucking cookie for making this barest-minimum-of-decency statement.
2) The GOP has a problem where they can’t satisfy their xenophobic bigoted white male base AND expand the outreach to other groups. They propose to solve this problem in the following ways:
– Policy lock-in: destroy the ability of government to function, take over the courts for a generation or more, create multiple formal and informal veto points (sixty votes in the senate, supermajority requirements in the states, Calvinball changes to long-standing norms, the mighty Wurlitzer, campaign finance by the richest).
– Voter lock-in: Make it harder for everyone who isn’t a xenophobic bigoted white person to vote, so they reduce the voter base in a way that gives them power in excess of their actual policy position.
– Lie like motherfuckers about everything, dog whistle when you can’t lie.
The Dems aren’t really very good about dealing with most of this, because they are beholden to the same class of people the Republicans are — the rich — and even more so now that there are almost no campaign finance rules for the wealthy and large corporations. So we will probably see some progress on social issues[*], because those issues aren’t important to the financiers, but probably very little progress on economic issues — probably a slow roll-back toward the Gilded Age, rather than the preferred Republican position of an immediate reversal of all of the 20th century that doesn’t involve advances in weaponry.
[*] Advance in social issues may not apply for areas in which the rich boss gets to control the lives of his poor employees on “religious” grounds. The Lord of the Manor and all that.
Comrade Dread
Well, his national career is over now, so that’s good news, I suppose.
Basilisc
I think he’s sending a message to Romney: “If you pick me, you better be prepared to deal with the kind of s-tstorm that will happen after I give this speech.”
And now Romney is no doubt thinking, “Uhm, rather not Chrissy, but thanks for the heads-up.”
Philo Vaihinger
On behalf of every Franco-American I say to you, “Fuck you, mistermix.”
Your own bigotry is so oblivious and casual you let it hang out in a complaint about Republican bigotry!
Warren
@guy: Indeed it is.
burnspbesq
There’s a lot not to like about Christie, but there is a layer of basic decency hidden under all that blubber.
burnspbesq
@Philo Vaihinger:
I sure hope that’s snark, because if it isn’t, it’s breathtakingly ignorant of basic American colloquial English.
Maude
@burnspbesq:
I don’t think so. The actions he has taken in the budget truly harm people with no or low incomes. His cuts have been cruel.
The situation with the halfway houses shows that money is the most important thing to him.
It’s for NJ that he doesn’t come out with harsh statements about Muslims.
Citizen_X
Ooh, brave, brave Sir Christie!
Philo Vaihinger
@burnspbesq: You mean like “Awfully white of you”?
Or calling the turkey’s butt “the pope’s nose”?
Or even “worked like a n****r”?
Yeah, basic American colloquial English.
How many Poles does it take to change a light bulb?
I forget.