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Saturday, January 18, 2014

Chris Christy and Why Paul Ryan Looks Better Every Day

     I mean he doesn't look good and his fiscal policies are truly ugly. Still one doesn't have too hard a time understanding why.

      "Rom-denfreude (noun) — The pleasure Mitt Romney loyalists are taking in the struggles of Chris Christie."

       "Several former Romney donors and staff told POLITICO that their alumni network has been buzzing over revelations that Christie’s staff was involved in lane closures on the George Washington Bridge that caused massive traffic jams, and were allegedly politically motivated. Some view it as a vindication of Romney’s decision not to tap Christie as his running mate, while others have merely watched in amusement."

     Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/mitt-romney-new-jersey-governor-chris-christie-bridgegate-george-washington-bridge-102300.html#ixzz2qmnF0JKH


      Matt Katz has a new piece where he deems to tell us what 'the 5 myths of Chris Christie' are. I'm not overly impressed by the list. Like number 2 claims that his image as a bully who can't keep his anger in check is a myth:

      "YouTube doesn’t lie. The governor, ice cream cone in hand, did go after a heckleron the boardwalk in Seaside Heights, where Snooki and The Situation once rumbled. He did call an assemblyman “numbnuts” and an assemblywoman a “jerk.” I’ve been a target, too. When I asked in December about a mysterious traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge, Christie laughed me off, sarcastically joking that he set up the traffic cones himself, before talking over my follow-up."

     "But the governor has more than one bullet in the rhetorical chamber, and he knows when to keep the gun in the holster. After the release of those bombshell documentsindicating that his closest advisers ordered the traffic jam, Christie talked at a news conference for nearly two hours and didn’t yell at a single reporter. He has steadfastly avoided questions on controversial policy matters, such as the defunding of Obamacare and immigration reform. Asked about the pope’s criticism of trickle-down economics — fraught territory for the most high-profile Catholic Republican in the country — Christie replied: “No reaction.”
     "At the same time, he has Clintonian charm. He handles schoolchildren better than any politician I’ve seen, and he makes adults cry at his town hall meetings when he recounts his dying mother’s words to him: “There is nothing left unsaid.” Christie is emotional. Dismissing him as an out-of-control bully misses the full picture."
     I disagree. That he's not a bully in every situation should hardly be a surprise-no one ever is. Obviosuly there's times when that is not possible. A bully is someone who picks on people to the extent he can get away with it. Obviously he couldn't have gotten away with it the day after these surreal revelations broke. 
    Katz then claims that Bridgegate won't diminish his 2016 chances. That is a rather incredible claim, certainly the way he words it. To say it won't diminish his chances at all is rather extreme. I mean it's one thing to say it doesn't kill his chances-I'm not at all sure I agree but it's possible to make a plausible sounding argument to this effect-but to claim it diminishes them not an iota is absurd. Is Katz his new campaign manager after he had to fire the last one?
    If it doesn't in any way diminish his chances there's something truly wrong with this country. However, I don't buy it. It does suggest to me that much of the Very Serious Media doesn't want to give up on Christie yet and are inclined to accept his narrative of wha ot happened where the only real victim is Christie because Bridget Kelley 'lied to me.'
    If Katz hasn't assumed that Christie is wholly innocent what makes him so sure that this won't be even the slightest ripple in his life? I mean there are 20 subpoenas out right now on high ranking brass in Christie's office. Christie's stooge over at the Port Authority has promised to give up everything he knows as long as he gets immunity.
     None of this is going to in anyway diminish his run in 2016? I'e got to see Katz here as just another cog in the David Brooks-Bob Woodward VSP media machine that's determined to believe certain things. Chrstie is a reasonable Republican and he's going to be a major candidate in 2016 and a little pesky fact like that he monstrously abused his office to settle political slights and scores just doesn't matter.

     I got to say that Romney's chairman is making a lot more sense here: than Katz

     "Frank VanderSloot, one of Romney’s national finance chairman, said he found it “peculiar” that Christie declared he “could care less about” presidential politics in the week before Election Day, when he was dealing with the fallout from Sandy."

    “I could understand him saying ‘right now, this is more important to me than that,’ but that’s not what he said,” VanderSloot said. “That wouldn’t cause me not to vote for him, of course. But this other deal would,” he said of the bridge scandal. “It suggests that he made some really bad choices as to some people that he appointed into positions of responsibility, at the very least. I think it’s really bad news.”

     "One operative who helped Romney during both of his presidential campaigns said that, even though Christie has denied any knowledge of his aides’ involvement in the lane closures, his staff’s involvement raises questions about his judgment, which dovetail with concerns flagged by Romney’s vice presidential vetters."

   “There is a concern that where there is smoke there is fire,” the operative said. “And this isn’t just one plume of smoke, this is several.”

  Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/mitt-romney-new-jersey-governor-chris-christie-bridgegate-george-washington-bridge-102300.html#ixzz2qmvPoT9F


   
     
        

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