The old people’s friend took Frank Lautenberg early this morning:
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), the last World War II veteran in the Senate and the chamber’s oldest member, died Monday morning. He was 89.
In a statement, Lautenberg’s office said he died at 4:02 a.m. “due to complications from viral pneumonia.” He is survived by his wife, Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg, four children, two step-children and 13 grandchildren.
Christie will appoint a replacement, then call a special election.
Xenos
Booker was smart to get moving early. Any idea about who would get Christie’s blessing to run as an incumbant?
SiubhanDuinne
RIP indeed. He was a good man.
Alex S.
1. RIP
2. Now here comes a test of character for Gov. Christie.
3. I bet Lautenberg would have lived a little longer if he had run for reelection. Many people need a reason to keep going.
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
I’ll say it. 89 year olds shouldn’t be in the Senate. I don’t blame the voters. I blame him for not retiring.
Just Some Fuckhead
I fully expect Chris Christie to appoint a no-nonsense, centrist Republican to this vacant seat – someone we can all rally around, someone who can bring the right and left together and get things done.
gocart mozart
Springteen as a place holder?
In my dreams.
jon
@Just Some Fuckhead: Senator Christie. Get used to it. The man has ambitions, and that’s a decent starting place and will allow him to just explore the Running for President game in 2016. He’s smart enough to know that finishing second in the primaries is the best move for that election anyhow.
mistermix
@Just Some Fuckhead: Someone who’s just had lap band surgery?
Alex S.
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Christine Todd Whitman?
NickT
Thanks for your service, Frank Lautenberg. You will be missed.
This will provide a very interesting insight into how Christie’s thinking has evolved over the last six months or so.
gocart mozart
@jon:
‘cept it’s considered bad form to appoint yourself, not that Christie would care but the voters might.
shortstop
@Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS): I’m with you. They can never seem to let go of the job, can they?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Alex S.: She has expressed a disturbing lack of faith, but it wouldn’t surprise me a bit, if it happened, to see her fall in line with Mitch.
maya
@Just Some Fuckhead: THE perfect appointee?
ruemara
ARGH! I liked Lautenberg and I am so pissed he’d leave an opening for a Republican at this point in time, with their overarching strategy of doing whatever is wrong for everyone else but good for the party, a chance to appoint a seat in the Senate. Sunovabitch. Retire, find over things to do, get to know the longsuffering people in your life you’ve called family. RIP, but can we get people to stop doing this?
Cassidy
Well, we’re about to find out if Christie plans on running in 2016. This should be fun.
maya
Try again
SiubhanDuinne
@maya: Bad link. You fix.
cmorenc
Cory Booker is in the strongest position to take the seat in Nov 14 or perhaps even as soon as the special election The question is whether Christie can come up with a sufficiently pseudo-moderate GOP replacement to make the contest seriously competitive, and yet not outrage the GOP wingnut base as a RINO turncoat like Christie (how they see him).
jon
@gocart mozart: Bad form and Christie go hand-in-hand. He’s got ambitions, here’s an opportunity, and it makes sense for him to go after Booker as a sitting Senator. He can only appease his base by being in charge. He also needs to do something in Washington so he’s not known for hugging Obama. Of course there are risks, but his biggest risk is naming someone else, having that someone else be beaten in a special election, having Booker be that person who wins, and losing all appearance of having clout and power. There’s always money in that District of Columbia banana stand, and he needs it.
Just Some Fuckhead
@jon:
ZOMG, I nearly fainted when I read that. That sounds awesome. It rolls off the center of the tongue nicely.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS): @shortstop: I tend to agree, I think Robert Byrd, for examaple was absolutely determined to die in office, but Lautenberg had already retired once, in 2000. He came back to the Senate to replace Toricelli when the latter was indicted. They hated each other :
I remember an article about feuds between same-state, same-party Senators. Lautenberg and Toricelli were at the top of the list, followed by Thad Cochrane and Trent Lott, who didn’t speak, and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, which struck me as odd because I can’t imagine either one of them working up the energy for a feud with anyone.
Tom Q
@gocart mozart: In fact, I believe the history of govenors “appointing themselves” (technically, stepping down after having made deals with their lieutenant governors to apppoint them) is that they’re always defeated in the next election — even a VERY popular governor Wendell Anderson in Minnesota in the 70s was quickly turned out. Voters just don’t seem to think the process is quite kosher.
Senyordave
My prediction – Christie will be asked about the appointment, he’ll bluster and attack the press, ultimately appoint a moderate Republican, and the media will fawn over him, saying he’s showing other governors how to govern. Because Chris Christie is apparently the perfect governor, despite the fact that NJ has an unemployment rate more than 1% higher than the national average. Oh, I forgot, lastly he’ll attack the teacher’s union, not because their is any pressing issue but because it plays well with his constituents.
Maude
@cmorenc:
Booker is not in s a strong position. He has already said he won’t run for the US Senate and his stance on gun laws is abysmal.
Ed in NJ
@Maude:
What the hell are you going on about? Booker has already announced his intentions to run in the 2014 Senate race.
handsmile
NJ Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr., son of the former governor, would seem to be a likely Republican candidate for the special election (his ambition likely deters serving as temporary placeholder). Kean was defeated (53/44) by Robert Menendez in the 2006 Senate election.
I think Christie is far more interested in (and temperamentally suited to) an Executive position than serving in any legislature, even the “world’s greatest deliberative body,” where he’d be a junior member (in rank at least).
Any other Garden State correspondents hereabouts to supplement Maude’s efforts to inform the speculation?
Brian R.
@handsmile:
I wouldn’t supplement Maude’s speculations, but supplant them — Booker is definitely running for the Senate. I have no idea where Maude got her misinformation.
Taylor
No matter how things change, we can always count on Christie defecating on the teachers unions any chance he gets. It’s how he rolls.
Mnemosyne
@jon:
It makes no sense for Christie to appoint himself to the seat, though — there’s no guarantee that he would be elected in the special election and, if he calculates wrong, he just managed to maneuver himself out of two different elected offices.
He may run in the special election, but there’s no way he’s going to resign as governor so he can appoint himself to a temporary seat. That would be idiotic and, for all of his myriad faults, Christie’s not an idiot.
MomSense
@gocart mozart:
OMG that would be phenomenal. Senator Springsteen is music to my ears.
Death Panel Truck
N.J. voters elected a Democrat, and he died in office. Christie should appoint a Democrat to replace him (obviously he won’t), because the state’s voters elected a Democrat to that seat, and they deserve to be represented by a member of the same party.
gene108
@cmorenc:
In NJ Christie is very popular, even with Republicans.
The national outrage of his paling around with the President is meaningless here.
Booker would have to run a stellar campaign to win. Big money will be behind the Republivan candidate, no matter who it is.
Violet
How strong is the Tea Party in NJ? Will they be a factor in any Republican running?
Maude
@Ed in NJ:
He said he would run for the US Senate in Dec 2012, then he pulled back because Lautenberg hadn’t said he would retire.
Booker is to make an official announcement after the Gubernatorial election in November. That’s what the hell I’m on about.
The devil’s in the details.
Poopyman
@Just Some Fuckhead: “I’ve got this thing and it’s fucking golden!”
Maude
@Violet:
They are holed up with their weapons and refuse to come out until after Obama leaves office.
/Snark.
jon
@Mnemosyne: It would be MAVERICK. The base loves power, loves the taking of power, and he’d be seen as a team player. The voters in New Jersey seem to like him, so it’s not that big of a risk to appoint himself.
It would be a huge money election, so incumbency would help, too. It would involve the voters, but he’s a guy the other party votes for. Cory Booker doesn’t have that advantage. He has some other disadvantage, but as long as Christie once hugged Obama, those who bring out that disadvantage will do so with just enough distance from Christie to allow for the ugliness to not be directly related.
gene108
The GOP has decided “executive” experience is most important in becoming President, to counter what Kerry did as a Senator.
The Senate would be a step back for a GOP gov with Presidential ambitions.
Amir Khalid
@MomSense:
But unlikely, alas. Back in ’01, there was talk of drafting Bruce to run for the US Senate. He said, “If nominated I will not run, if elected I will not serve.” Right now, per his website, he’s touring with the E Street Band at least through September. A lot of fans are going to be pissed off if he has to refund their ticket money to serve in the Senate.
eemom
Y’all are definitely on to something with Springsteen, the unrequited love of Christie’s life.
shortstop
@Maude: And he said last month that he’s “unofficially running” (exact quote). That’s quite a bit different from your statement: “He’s already said he won’t run for the U.S. Senate.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@gene108: The Senate would be a step back for a GOP gov with Presidential ambitions.
Especially one trying to walk the tightrope Christie is with non-fundie, tax-disliking, bipartisan-curious tote-bagger-suburbanites, starting with his Beltway fan club, though I don’t think he’ll ever lose Tweety and the Davids.
Violet
How about one of the Jersey Shore crew? Senator Snooki?
shortstop
@gene108: Righto. There’s zero advantage to Christie’s presidential ambitions if he becomes a junior member of the Senate now.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes, that dance is far more easily achieved as a guv than as a senator, who gets every vote, including procedural stuff, exploited by future opponents.
shortstop
@Violet: John McCain is ALL OVER THAT.
Violet
@shortstop: Yeah, Snooki loves John McCain. Hey, at least she’d provide some entertainment.
Shortstop
@Violet: He loves her, doesn’t he? Didn’t he tell some reporter she was a “very attractive young lady,” or something like that? And this after he publicly called his wife a “trollop” and “cunt” for “shoveling on the makeup.”
jon
@shortstop: Does Senior Senator or Junior Senator make any difference? I’m sure Rand Paul won’t be bringing it up as an issue. Was that even used against John Kerry?
And Christie would still have been a Governor and have had some Washington experience, too. Why wouldn’t that be a case of “I know how to run a state, and I’ve seen firsthand how crappy things are done in DC. So vote for me for President so I can fix things!”? Sounds like he has the perfect stump speech.
liberal
@Maude:
Any position he’d take on guns laws pales in significance compared to the fact he’s a total shill for Wall St.
Violet
@Shortstop: It started when someone told Snooki that taxes were going up on tanning salons “because of Obamacare”. McCain tweeted her that he would “never tax your tanning bed” and the love affair was off and running.
Ed in NJ
@gene108:
I agree that Christie is popular here, but Republicans are not. Christie is kept in check here by a Democratic legislature, and a Republican has not been elected to the US Senate since 1958.
Christie has no coattails because Governor’s elections are off-year here. My guess is he selects a moderate Republican placeholder like former Governor Kean, or Joe Kyrillos, who lost the last election in a landslide and won’t run again.
And to whoever above asked- there is no Tea Party presence in NJ. Most Republicans here are of the fiscally conservative/socially liberal kind. At least where I am. in the heart of suburbia, there is not the visceral hatred of Democrats and one of the reasons Christie is so popular is because of the perception that he calls out the craziest elements of his party.
Davis X. Machina
@jon:
The ads write themselves. “He’s the fighting general America needs to wage war on the nation’s real enemies — its own public employees.” In crab-bucket America, that should play well.
I’d be shocked if he didn’t run. Yeah, he’s got problems, but the rest of the field isn’t exactly Dan’l Webster and Henry Clay
Shortstop
@Violet: Lord, lord, somehow I’d missed that. And I was eating when I read your comment, too!
Xecky Gilchrist
Aqua Teen Hunger Force! They’re from Jersey. Senator Frylock, for preference.
Taylor
Oh please.
The theory I’ve heard is that, while a US Attorney, Christie got the goods on Sweeney and Norcross, and he has that to hold over them if they ever bark too loud (Sweeney’s obvious theatre notwithstanding). A lot of Democrats are pretty fed up with how ineffectual the so-called lords of the fiefdoms have been in countering him. Corzine got more opposition.
I agree that Kean Jr is the most likely choice for replacement. People still seem to have fond memories of his father, and it puts him in a good position to fight Booker for the seat. Christie’s got more important fish to fry.
Shortstop
@jon: In this case, I used “junior” to mean “on the bottom rung of the incoming Senate” — i.e, low-power newcomer — not the more recently elected of the state’s two senators. I should have said “freshman.”
But being on the lowest tier doesn’t solve the problem of a Senate paper trail, which, as Jim notes, unthreads Christie’s needle and more than obliterates any advantage he’d get from saying he has a little national legislative experience. There’s just no advantage and a lot of risk to Christie if he takes this job, and that’s not even counting the general disgust from the electorate if he appoints himself. That won’t be seen as maverick by anyone who’s not already a big fan.
Jay C
@gene108:
Hence their enthusiastic nomination of the (then-serving-only-half-a-term) Governor of Alaska as VP candidate in 2008….
Jay C
The NJ State Constitution gives Big Chris an out – or at least some breathing room – when it comes to replacing a Senator: it specifies that (temporary replacements notwithstanding) the vacancy must be filled by election – no later than the next general election – for NJ, that’s this November 5 . If said vacancy occurs within 70 days of that election, then it’s the NEXT general (i.e. Nov. ’14). Or (just to make things more fun) the Gov can call a special election whenever.
Myself, I think Christie, for political and practical reasons, will go the Deval Patrick route: appoint a non-running placeholder to keep the seat warm for a few months, and then
schemework to get his own creature elected in the fall. Or, maybe himself…..Jim, Foolish Literalist
Watching Glenn Politico Thrush on MSNBC, you see the full Beltway fantasy of Chris Christie: He’ll appoint Cory Booker to prove that he’s a mavericky maverick Republican!
To be fair, Thrush discusses this as a possibility, not a prediction. Still stupid.
Shortstop
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He went on national TV and said that out loud.
jon
One thing is certain: Chris Christie will use this decision to his own advantage. Expect lots of meetings with Booker and others. And many press conferences where Christie will explain in great detail all the characteristics he wants in a Senator. He won’t say that the politician on the stage is the one with those characteristics, but he’ll definitely be providing a detailed list of them for the press to convey. And coincidentally, many members of his staff will carefully watch to see which items just happen to sound best to potential and likely voters in key demographics.
daverave
What? No love for Jersey’s own John Bongiovi, Jr.?!!?
Tokyokie
@Tom Q: My favorite example of that was J. Howard Edmonson of Oklahoma. He was elected governor at the tender age of 33 in 1958, and was enormously popular, but back then, Oklahoma governors were only allowed a single term. Then, only a few days before Henry Bellmon would was to succeed Edmonson as governor, longtime Sen. Robert S. Kerr died on New Year’s day, 1963, and Edmonson resigned, Lt. Gov. George Nigh assumed the governorship (he was governor for about a week before resuming the lieutenant governor’s post to which he’d been re-elected, then won election for the first of two terms as governor in 1979), and Edmonson replaced Kerr in the U.S. Senate.
Whereupon little-known state Sen. Fred R. Harris beat Edmonson in the special-election primary in 1964, then narrowly defeated former University of Oklahoma football coach Bud Wilkinson in the general. Edmonson’s once-brilliant political career was effectively over (although his brother Ed served in Congress for 20 years), and J. Howard died in 1971 at age 46.
Lurking Canadian
@Shortstop: Is the paper trail likely to be an issue? Will the Senate actually have any non-filibustered legislation to vote on between now and November?
alien234
Jon bon jovi anyone?
Don K
@Ed in NJ:
Not quite as far as when the last Rep was elected senator from NJ. Clifford Case (a liberal Rep but a Rep nevertheless) was re-elected in ’60, 66, and ’72, and was successfully primaried by Jeffrey Bell in ’78, allowing Bill Bradley to be elected rather easily.
gene108
@Taylor:
The other way I’ve read Christie’s better relationship with Norcross and Sweeney is Christie understands how to play the patronage game at the state level and pisses off the people who aren’t going to support him in the first place.
Corzine didn’t play the patronage game well and pissed off folks, who should’ve supported him, like government employees by causing the government to shut down to force a 1% sales tax increase.
Ken T
I think Christie’s best chance for further advancement is to run for reelection as Gov. He’s facing an unexciting opponent with little name recognition, so he actually has a pretty good chance. He also needs to be very careful in his choice of appointee, because of the potential for blowback if that person pisses off any of his supporters on either side.
I go with the prediction that he appoints a safe placeholder (Kean Sr. maybe, or Whitman). Kean Jr. could be risky. When he ran against Menendez in 06, he played very heavily on his father’s name, but when people looked into his own record he turned out to be much further to the right than Dad.
Zapruder F. Mashtots, D.D.S. (Mumphrey, et al.)
I wonder if Christie is thinking that this is the worst thing that could have happened to him right now. He doesn’t have much of a shot at coming out of this without pissing a lot of people off. Oh, well.
I’m not from New Jersey, but I heard about Lautenberg a lot, as I grew up about the time he began running in 1982, and we lived outside Philadelphia (on the Pennsylvania side). He had to run ads in Philadelphia to reach all the voters who lived in New Jersey but whose cultural and economic anchor was Philadelphia.
It’s funny, Senator Lautenberg always kind of reminded me of my father, if my father had been Jewish and a millionaire; they were both old, they had white hair and could be kind of crotchety, but they both cared a lot about the least among us. My father died 5 years ago at 91, and I liked knowing that Senator Lautenberg was still around, making noise and pissing off Republicans. In a weird way, it almost felt like my father was still around somehow, as long as Lautenberg was throwing elbows around. The good truly do always die young.
My father and Lautenberg would have gotten on wonderfully. My father loved to watch C-SPAN, and whenever I talked to him, we’d talk about how awful the Republicans are. The best quote I ever heard came from my father about 10 years ago: “I don’t understand what’s wrong with Republicans. They’re for everything that’s bad and against everything that’s good!” Well, I guess my father and Senator Lautenberg can sit around together and talk politics as much as they want to now…