This cracks me up:
In New Jersey, Mr. Christie’s politics-be-damned approach to the storm seemed to represent a moment of high-minded crisis management for a governor frequently defined by his public diatribes and tantrums. Mr. Christie locked arms with Mr. Obama, flew with him on Marine One, talked with him daily and went out of his way to praise him publicly as “outstanding,” “incredibly supportive” and worthy of “great credit.”
But in the days after the storm, Mr. Christie and his advisers were startled to hear from out-of-state donors to Mr. Romney, who had little interest in the hurricane and viewed him solely as a campaign surrogate, demanding to know why he had stood so close to the president on a tarmac. One of them questioned why he had boarded Mr. Obama’s helicopter, according to people briefed on the conversations.
It did not help that Mr. Romney had not called Mr. Christie during those first few days, people close to the governor say.
The tensions followed Mr. Christie to the annual meeting of the Republican Governors Association in Las Vegas last week. At a gathering where he had expected to be celebrated, Mr. Christie was repeatedly reminded of how deeply he had offended fellow Republicans.
“I will not apologize for doing my job,” he emphatically told one of them in a hotel hallway at the ornate Wynn Resort.
His willingness to work closely with the president has cast a shadow over Mr. Christie’s prospects as a national candidate, prompting a number of Republicans to wonder aloud whether he is a reliable party leader.
“It hurt him a lot,” said Douglas E. Gross, a longtime Republican operative in Iowa who has overseen several presidential campaigns in the state. “The presumption is that Republicans can’t count on him.”
A real Republican would have let his state drown while berating Obama.
? Martin
Party first!
MattF
An example of what happens when, in fact, both sides do it.
japa21
Another installment in the ongoing serial “As the Republicans Turn” AKA “Damn the country (or state or county or city) what have you done for ME lately.”
Redshift
Of course! How can you blame Obama if you let him do good things for the voters?
Maude
Christie may be a S.O.B. but he’s my S.O.B.
He did a bang up job during Sandy. He also followed up.
He got kicked in the head and that had to hurt.
He didn’t understand just how depraved the Republican Party has become. He’s starting to get an idea now.
scav
ah, the party faithful do rather elevate faith over governance, country or anything else. They just rather sometimes confuse themselves with the totality of the electorate which can come back to bite them ohhh, has it happened in living memory? ? ? ? let me think . . .
Scott S.
I say let ’em keep it up. Christie is probably the closest thing the GOP has to a sane politician, and the wingnuts are going to stiffarm him while nominating Santorum, Trump, or Gingrich in 2016.
Scott
I never cared for Christie’s bullying press conferences, but he did the right thing here.I think he really didn’t like Romney, regardless of the VP stuff, and he just took care of his people.
Good for him.
Zifnab25
@Maude:
We’ll make an Arlen Specter out of you yet, Mr. Governor!
ArchTeryx
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the elephant always flies above the Stars and Stripes. Always – until Sandy.
And the fact they’re now calling Christie a traitor over the fact that he refused to let the elephant fly over all else, is a perfect example of wingnut projection. Their own dark mirror.
cathyx
They need to beat him into republican compliance. They need a candidate who will do as he’s told. Perhaps Christie will wake up to the sickness that is the republican party.
NotMax
An elephant never forgets.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Poor Chris Christie, so close to Obama, so far from God.
And by “God” I mean the angry and spiteful deity who enjoys drowning people, at least in the imaginations of human beings who resemble their object of worship a little too closely for everyone else’s comfort.
japa21
However, this does polish his credibility with what sane Republicans there are out there as well as moderate Dems. If he survives the primaries he might be difficult to beat (and yes I know all about photogenics and he is overweight, etc. but a lot of the country didn’t think a black guy with a funny name would be able to win either.)
japa21
Another installment in the ongoing serial “As the Republicans Turn” AKA “Damn the country (or state or county or city) what have you done for ME lately.”
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Scott S.:
Only a Republican would look at the shark from Jaws and think “We’re gonna need a smaller boat!”.
japa21
However, this does polish his credibility with what sane Republicans there are out there as well as moderate Dems. If he survives the primaries he might be difficult to beat (and yes I know all about photogenics and he is overweight, etc. but a lot of the country didn’t think a black guy with a funny name would be able to win either.)
Cris (without an H)
Keep this up, Republicans!
trollhattan
Christie did seem to handle the storm and aftermath pretty darn well, and continues to do so, but let’s not get carried away with the notion he’s forever a changed man. I remember a time Rudy was “America’s Mayor.”
Suffern ACE
@trollhattan: Yep. And didn’t he use one of those press conferences to basically lay any blame for people stranded in AC on the Democratic Mayor of that town? (Turned out, only few dozen people out of a few thousand stayed behind. Clearly, that mayor didn’t do his job.)
Tony J
Christie’s a bully, a fraud, and generally a shitty human being, which is why he was so very, very popular on the Right before Sandy made him choose between doing right by his Party and doing what he had to do to stand a chance of winning any election at all in New Jersey.
ISTM, Christie wasn’t exactly a friend of environmentalist causes before nature dumped a hurricane on his state, and it was very much in his benefit to turn coverage of the Federal response to Sandy into a ’24/7 Barack and Chris Show’. He needed to put acres of newsprint and oceans of TV coverage between his copious backside and any questions about how his prior record as Governor might have made NJ more vulnerable to Sandy.
Shorter – Bad guy did what he had to do to have a hope of re-election, because – that’s – his job.
Culture of Truth
I read that article. It’s chock full of crazy; also petulant whining. I don’t claim to speak for all of “the american people,” but they’ve made it pretty clear they want this – opposing parties working together, especially during a damn disaster!
Anyway I don’t think it really will hurt him, even in the primaries, long-term.
As an aside, I honestly don’t hate CC but I’m not convinced he was all that during this crisis; yes there was some hugging and I know the storm was not his fault, but did the poli sci professor who gave him an “A plus!” lose power for over a week or hear CC mock his transit troubles? To pundits it’s all about appearing to be a leader rather than, you know, actually leading. rant over.
burnspbesq
When Christie and Booker get into it next year, there will be heads ‘splodin at every point on the political spectrum. I can’t wait.
PaminBB
Christie took a look at the calendar, and decided that 2016 is his best shot – he’ll be re-elected to a second term soon, and then will run for Pres. Mitt getting elected in 2012 would mess the timing up. If doing his job was not also beneficial for him, things likely would have been different.
Suffern ACE
@japa21: The “everybody who doesn’t agree with me is a bunch of morons” spiel will get a little old after six months as well.
Aaron deOliveira
@Maude: That was an eye opening moment for me. Christie showed real leadership chops.
Kerry Reid
Maybe that woman who talked about how her nail lady just didn’t get why electing Mittens was so important for the economy should have a come-to-Jesus meeting with Governor Christie.
Also, I would like a list of the names and addresses of all the top GOP donors posted in every ER, fire department, and police department across the country, as well as with FEMA. Next time J.P. Morgan McFuckhead’s home in the Hamptons or lush California estate is threatened by hurricanes or wildfires, let the fucker fight it himself and treat his own injuries. Same with auto accidents or any other life-threatening situation. I’m sure these guys and whatever Legal Trophy Whore they’re banging (forever and ever in the eyes of GOD until something younger, hotter, and dumber rolls around — but no gay marriages because EWWW!) wouldn’t want dirty filthy union EMT plebe hands all over their bodies.
Maude
@burnspbesq:
Christie can handle Booker easily. Booker is a bit whiny.
@PaminBB:
No, Christie is not a fake. He is himself.
He is an odd mix in what he has done. In some ways he has harmed the vulnerable in the state and in others he hasn’t.
He’s not a back stabber, he stabs you in your face.
I don’t agree with his policies, but I like him.
J
Clearly Christie’s first duty was to do everything in his power to impede efforts to help NJ, the better to attack Obama for letting the state down. The higher the toll of death and destruction, the better should have been his guiding principle.
RalfW
Shorter Douglas E. Gross: I hate America. Well, most Americans anyway.
Rathskeller
Party first. It never changes.
kindness
Notice how these Republican fuckers are all too willing to use their own people as cannon fodder and get bent out of shape if you mess up their facade.
Notice also that none of these same fuckers would ever ever consider allowing their own family (and mistresses) to be used in such a manner.
How do they get new Republicans?
burnspbesq
@Maude:
Wanna bet a package of Tastykakes on that? The peculiar behavior of places like my hometown (voted for Scott Garrett six times? what are ye, daft?) notwithstanding, Jersey is fundamentally a blue state. Passaic, Hudson, Essex, Union, Middlesex, Mercer, Atlantic, and Camden are going to give Booker an advantage that’s going to be hard for Christie to make up.
quannlace
Keep pushing that ideological purity above all us, Repubs. Christie is very popular right now; whatever our politics, new jerseyan’s are giving him big props for the way he handled After-
Sandy. You know, doing the job he was elected to, petty politics be damned.
But God forbid the wingnuts would consent to back a candidate that would actually appeal to a broad base of voters.
Maude
@burnspbesq:
Don’t agree. We shall see. This state has been changing.
It’s way too soon to predict, but I bet my Twinkies that Booker muffs it. Booker isn’t a liberal at all.
WereBear
I think the idea of competence, itself, is so alien to the wingnut mind they figure Christie can’t possibly be a Republican.
Maude
@WereBear:
WIN
Bokonon
Doesn’t Christie know that he should have confronted Obama on the tarmac, shouted at him and waved a finger in the President’s face … the way Governor Brewer did in Arizona?
And then Christie should have refused to engage with the President, dismissed him and taken his case to the media instead. Christie should have held a press conference while Obama was touring the storm damage, in which Christie blasted the federal government’s response and demanded accountability. Maybe he could have mocked the President to boot and thrown down some harsh sound bites. “Your teleprompter won’t work HERE, Mister President”, Christie could have snarled. “The real people of New Jersey know when the federal government is failing them!”
See? That’s how it is done.
If Christie wants to play in the GOP’s big leagues, he needs to realize that confrontation and passion plays and media posturing come first. He has GOT to give up on that governing stuff (since that’s not popular at all with major donors anyway).
Spaghetti Lee
Douglas E. Gross? Is that like Doug E. Fresh’s evil twin?
gene108
@burnspbesq:
@Maude:
It’s not that Booker isn’t liberal or not liberal, it’s that he hasn’t made over Newark, New Jersey much at all.
Part of Booker’s problem is a terrible economy, which has hurt the poor more than anyone else and Newark has very rates of poverty.
Part of it is Booker’s a private school elitist, who wants to push for charter schools and other measures, rather than strengthen the government support systems that are already in place.
Booker’s friends with Maddow and has a glowing national reputation, but from what I’ve read opinions of him Newark are mixed.
In short, Christie will have material to run anti-Booker ads.
Christie’s reputation has weathered the worst of his decisions, such as off-setting the roll back of the millionaire’s tax by cutting $800 million from state education funds that led to the lay-offs of many teachers, attempts to merge Rutgers-Camden with Rowan University and a few other things I can’t thin of at the moment.
No one has a permanent sour attitude towards Christie and an improving economy will smooth over his rough edges.
Corzine’s rough edges were made worse by the economy in 2009.
Spaghetti Lee
@gene108:
Why does it have to be Booker than if he’s so flawed? No one else wants to put their hat in the ring? Holt, Sweeney, anyone?
Frankensteinbeck
@Tony J:
Which makes him a more reasonable, sane human being and a better leader than any other Republican governor in the US, and almost all Republicans in any branch of power. He’s being praised for jumping over such a low bar because the bar really is that low.
blingee
It’s almost as funny when you clowns talk about Chris, Fat Bastard, Christie as a serious candidate for 2016 as when you talk about Palin.
Not gonna happen…mkay. Even wrong on everything Cole says he’s a serious candidate so that should convince you right there that it’s not gonna happen.
danimal
As a Dem, Christie scares me. If he crushes the GOP establishment (and he’s the only likely GOP pol in a position to do so), they may slink off and reevaluate their “blame the victims/party above all/obstruction uber alles” types of dysfunction and actually compete for votes in Middle America over the next few years.
But the siren song of GOP campaign cash and free RW media is likely to seduce Mr. Christie into an uneasy peace with the whackaloons, and they will continue their descent into the abyss.
bemused
“Mean Girls” remade with cast of old, rich, white Republicans.
Woody
Here’s what infuriates me:
1. Chris Christie is two parts large-man bully, one part empathic son, three parts Slytherin. He will publicly berate schoolteachers (no emotional attachment/proves his I’M BIG cred), but genuinely performed his duties as NJ Governor when Sandy struck. He will have no problem returning to fulltime bully when it suits his purposes.
2. The reactions of the Romney supporters should leave no one here surprised, but (in a reality-based world), would anger media figures and Republicans alike: the people imperiled by a major hurricane are nothing more than props full-stop. These supporters are fully grandees who regard commoners as nothing more than useful but slightly dangerous livestock.
The GOP has finally found their true calling: to represent an aristocratic ruling class buttressed by a condemning state Church. In the name of FREEDOM!
gene108
@Spaghetti Lee:
I don’t know, who else would want to run at this point.
The general thinking about Booker is that, since he is a star on the rise the governorship would be the next step up for him.
I don’t know, who the Democrats have that could knock off Christie.
In a sense, the difference between Christie and Corzine is that the people Corzine pissed off because of his arrogant, heavy handed decisions were people likely to vote for him.
The people Christie’s pissed off aren’t going to vote for him, therefore Christie’s “pissed off the right people” on the left of the political spectrum.
For example, Corzine’s first bad PR decision was to force the state government to close for a week to push the legislature to raise sales taxes by 1%. The people, who would support Democrats are or know people, who work for the state, who had to either burn vacation days or go unpaid for that week.
The people, who vote for Christie, don’t particularly care that he gutted the education budget because they have the money to pay for extracurricular activities that used to be free and aren’t losing sleep because their local school district forced a few dozen older teachers to retire early and sacked some recent hires.
At this point Christie has a relatively safe 3%-5% buffer with regards to his margin of victory, in my opinion.
Unless the Democrats run a total screw up, Christie’s advantage will always be close enough to make Democrats think they have a shot, because as BurnsBPEsq points out, NJ is usually a Democratic state.
Republicans get elected as part of a backlash against the incumbent and not because the state generally favors Republican policies.
the Conster
The Republicans have a primary problem, and Chris Christie isn’t going to make it through, period end of story. The fundies demand anti-abortion, gay baiting, immigrant and Muslim hating red meat, and he’s not going to give it to them, and the Republican establishment isn’t in control of that scene any more. Nutjobs rule now, and they want to double down against any establishment control. It’s quite a pickle they’re in – I love it.
gene108
@danimal:
Christie should scare you, if he comes onto the national stage.
He’s a proponent of gutting the government safety net. He’s done it in NJ.
The worst excesses of a Republican administration, luckily for him, have been kept in check by a Democratic legislature.
He can run around and say he’ll be bi-partisan and most folks will think that means he won’t rip up the social safety nets that are in place – like Medicare and Social Security – when in fact that’d probably dominate his domestic agenda.
He’s the sort of guy Republicans need to head their Presidential ticket; someone, who can sucker the rubes into thinking he won’t do what the Party says it wants to do.
Plus he’ll reassure Main Street that he’s on their side because he’ll make sure all the people, who got free Obamaphones, will have to give those back.
nevsky42
Christie will fail (if he runs) the same way Giuliani failed in ’08; he has that flaming jackass personality that actually plays well in NY/NJ but is poison for national retail politics, esp. on the Republican side. I’d be surprised if he won a state in the primary…
Peregrinus
@bemused:
“Shut. Up!”
“@burnspbesq:
Scott Garrett makes me seriously reconsider my stance on a few commandments.
aimai
@Maude:
Oh, if only the Czar knew what the Cossacks were doing? That old line again. Christie knows exactly how crazed and hateful his party is–its his fucking party and he was dancing to their tune just a few months ago at the all out hate fest that was their convention. Not only that, but he was leading the charge with insulting attacks on the President. Christie may have stepped up as his State’s Governor but that’s just his job. Sure, he could have fucked up like other Republican governors. But mere competence in crisis isn’t the same as some kind of “on the road to damascus” conversion. Christie is, personally, an asshole and when and if he decides to run for the Presidency on the Republican Ticket–frankly I think he’s going to try to get taken on the Democratic ticket as VP–he will go right back to kissing their asses, Jersey style.
BTW my favorite quote in that article is the one where they sigh and give him a pass because all that emotionalism he showed Obama was just some kind of “Jersey” thing, where men wear their hearts on their sleeves and cry easily.
aimai
Tony J
@Frankensteinbeck:
Exactly. The whole GOP has become so detatched from reality that it’s somehow a really big deal when a Republican Governor doesn’t actively impede Federal relief efforts in his own state and then go on Fox to blame any deaths on Teh Gubbiment, re-election be damned!
Hearing some Democrats lionise Christie for doing what he’s supposed to do makes me come over all Chris Rock.
1badbaba3
Christie is toast. Any Republican who doesn’t call Obama names is toast. Obama can destroy just with proximity. Wherever Obama is, ALL Republicans must immediately move to the opposite side, and do so with haste (‘cos you don’t want to get any on you), lest you be refudiated. Refudiated with extreme prejudice. This is non-negotiable, and while Chris Christie may be big, he’s not big enough to take on the wingnut wing of the Party AND the big money crazoids too. It would take a transformational figure with scads of charisma with a killer political instinct and mad oratory skills the likes we’ve not heard in our lifetimes. And Governor Christie is no Barack Hussein Obama.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@blingee: I just realized that the only thing worse than a paid troll is a volunteer.
MikeBoyScout
Clearly Ruth’s Chris Christie is another victim of Obama Mind Control.
blingee
@Evolving Deep Southerner: Who? Where? You a Fat Bastard Christie lover as well? I’ll add you to my growing list of hopelessly dillusional.
redshirt
It’s like the Repukes have become some Anti Wayne and Garth:
Party on Wayne! Party on Garth! GOP all the way!
Also, it really is remarkable. So many times I’ve thought – that’s it! It can’t get any crazier. And it always does. For years/decades now, predictably.
Discussions of the day on the Repuke side:
1.How old iz Earth?
2. How big a traitor is Christie for working with the President? Worst Ever?
Meg
I guess when Mitt Romney bragged about his own bipartisanship in MA, it was all a joke.
redshirt
@Bokonon: Nice nice, very nice. :)
Patricia Kayden
“A real Republican would have let his state drown while berating Obama.”
I hope you were not trying to be ironic because that’s the truth.
Christie still has lots of time to berate President Obama in the next 4 years to please his Rethug brethren.
redshirt
LOL. I can already see the Repuke primary ad in late 2015 –
Dark, ominous scary music. Suddenly an obese man in extreme close up, sweating. Then the camera pulls back to reveal Christie standing next to President Obama.
(Voice Over) “Chris Christie believes in Obama’s plans to destroy America. America can’t survive another 4 years of Obama. America can’t stomach Chris Christie. Keep Christie in New Jersey.”
End with scary jump cut montage of Christie and Obama hugging and Christie being hugely fat, with even more ominous music.
blingee
Wrong on everything Cole is what I call a Republicrat. Former Republican who claims to now be true blue Democrat yet reads Greenwald and thinks they could vote for Fat Bastard Christie.
earthworx
So republicans can’t count on Governor Christie? It seems more that America can’t count on the republican party.
Disinterested Observer
Meh, Rudolph Guiliani was lauded in how he handled 9/11. Until New Yorkers reminded the country about the rest of his record.
Christie has his own Mike Brown- the NJ Transit appointee who drowned 25% of the train fleet by parking it in a flood zone. Wonder when he’ll be asked about that?
It was a while before Rudy 9/11 was asked why he put the NYC Emergency Command center in the WTC after it had already been hit by terrorists.
Mike G
It really is all about the politics with the Repukes.
They don’t think the government should do anything except dole out favors and loot to campaign donors.
A competent, functional response to a natural disaster, just like speaking French was with Kerry, is twisted into a liability with the Party of the Greedy and Stupid.
Kyle
You may not realize how much truth there is in this. When the wealthy enclave of Montecito, California burned up in a wildfire a few years ago, homeowners with super-premium Chubb Insurance were defended by a private fire brigade contracted to the insurance company.
LosGatosCA
Absolutely. Just like they’ve let all the unemployed go to Hell, while they sought to destroy Obama. Or would let women die rather than allow a life saving abortion.
Theire role models.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Kyle:
And I’m sure when it was all tallied up, that was cheaper than paying taxes for good fire protection?
Evolving Deep Southerner
@blingee: It’s got nothing to do with Christie, whom I’m ambivalent about.
It’s shit like this that reminds me of that expression about volunteers – including volunteer trolls. You get what you pay for.
Put me on whatever list you like. I’ve got you on one of mine.
Full Metal Wingnut
I’d consider voting for Christie. Will be the first time I vote for Republican. But I don’t trust Booker, and if him losing the governors race puts the brakes on his ascendancy I’ll vote against him.
Full Metal Wingnut
@trollhattan: Yeah but-the fuck did Giuliani really do beyond give canned speeches? I think Christie’s leadership here has been better than Giuliani’s.
Jamie
Rudy did jack-shit for NYC. I’ll give him minimally competent, for calmly encouraging people to walk the fuck out, take the bridges, just get out.
The rest of his career (after reminded that terrorist attacks aren’t a pass on that term-limit thing) has been to talk aboUt how awesome he was on 9.11.
And don’t get me started on the Disneyfication of Midtown, how he accelerated turning cops into numbers-driven pot sniffers while downplaying actual crime, etc. Fucking Rudy did all he could to ruin NYC.
Full Metal Wingnut
@Jamie: how much of the crime thing was Giuliani/Bloomberg and how much was Kelly?
priscianusjr
@Jamie:
What you said.
Jamie
@FMW,
I didn’t live there under Kelly, so I don’t have first-hand experience. I understand that a lot of the policing changes were Kelly “innovations”.
Ghouliani at least should have had an idea of whether those changes were, you know, good things or not. He thought that they were, and insitiutionalized them. If you want a theory, I propose that it is significantly more unpleasant to be a non-white person interacting with cops now than it was pre-Rudy, after controlling for crime rates and population changes (which I think both cut in my favor on that bet).
NB: I moved to the Hippy Coast three years ago, I may be looking through amber now.
pattonbt
How does this article make Christie look good (if you read the entire article)? In the first couple of paragraphs it states Christie, the day after Rupert Murdoch criticized him for being too nice to Obama in the disaster relief front, called Rupert Murdoch to apologize. Then the next day doing Murdochs explicit bidding by making sure to publicly praise Romney. If Christie were the man people try to make him out to be (not the shitstain R bully he is) Christie would have told Murdoch to fuck right off while his state and people were facing a one in one hundred year disaster.
Actually, if Christie were the man people are trying to make him out to be, he would have not even called Murdoch and basically called Murdoch an old fool and ghoulish for putting politics above the health and welfare of his people.
But noooo, Christie had to make sure to bow down to the biggest disease on the American body politic in the middle of the disaster relief. It showed exactly where his loyalty lies.
Fuck Christie and the party and aparatus he supports.
Death Panel Truck
@Maude:
And he will happily adopt their depravity, because he’ll know that’s the only way to win the primaries where only wingnuts vote.
Lather. Reince Priebus. Repeat.
Dream On
@danimal:
If Christie does crush the GOP establishment, it will only be with his huge fat selfish ass, sitting on any rival who gets in his way. Anyone who thinks Christie is admirable, or anything other then a fleecer of New Jersey’s social contract hasn’t been paying attention.
Bob h
Christie has an animal cunning, and I think he simply saw Romney as unlikely to win (maybe he read Nate Silver). So why gratuitously alienate the man you might need to ask for $30 billion?
Milwauken
Breitbart’s peeps understand satire very well, and they fear it. And nobody does satire better than The Onion.