I sure love me some Mike Lupica. He's the best sports columnist ever-though there are some other good ones-and I love when he branches out into politics. I think he basically gets the diagnosis for Christie right here.
"Here is what a political insider, one who has worked on both sides of the Hudson River, said Sunday:"
“[Christie] is twice as bad as Giuliani. [Giuliani] was a bully, too, but he understood politics and there were certain things he wouldn’t do. Christie has been on a continual roll and he thinks he’s invincible. And once you think you are invincible, you’ve got a problem.”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/lupica-christie-hoboken-tale-smells-arrogant-empire-article-1.1585018#ixzz2r8Qfkhbp
"Again, the press loved the bullying ways. They didn't just excuse it or downplay it, they celebrated it. So wouldn't Christie's office and his appointees simply view that as permission to go bully more people?"
"Here is what a political insider, one who has worked on both sides of the Hudson River, said Sunday:"
“[Christie] is twice as bad as Giuliani. [Giuliani] was a bully, too, but he understood politics and there were certain things he wouldn’t do. Christie has been on a continual roll and he thinks he’s invincible. And once you think you are invincible, you’ve got a problem.”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/lupica-christie-hoboken-tale-smells-arrogant-empire-article-1.1585018#ixzz2r8Qfkhbp
Guliani sure had a novel explanation for why he was sure that Christie is telling the truth-he didn't know anything about shutting down the GWB it was all Bridget Kelly and a few others: if he had known it was true he never would have mocked the journalists who asked him about it.
What Giuliani doesn't consider is arrogance-not surprisingly as arrogant as he is. . Christie was so arrogant that he thought he could get away with anything. A very good piece in Media Matters suggests that the Beltway press-rather than the NJ press-shares a lot of the blame in making him so arrogant. The press again and again made it sound like Christie's bullying is a feature not a bug. He's a 'straight shooter', etc. What we have again is in line with what Krugman always talks about: The Very Serious People in the media can't just admit that today's Republican party is woefully dysfunctional, they've got to insist there are reasonable people in the Republican party that unreasonable people in the Democratic party won't do business with.
"New revelations in the days since suggest that the scandals reflect a culture of bullying and retribution that's become pervasive inside the governor's office. Over the weekend, the Democratic mayor of Hoboken, Dawn Zimmer, alleged that two senior members of Christie's administration threatened to hold Hurricane Sandy relief money hostage from the city until the mayor approved a redevelopment plan favored by the governor. Christie's office denies the charge; an editorial in the state's largest newspaper, which endorsed Christie three months ago, calls the extortion allegation "believable."
"Zimmer hasn't been alone in alleging payback. According to Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, after he failed to endorse Christie's re-election last year a series of meetings he had scheduled with previously supportive Christie officials were abruptly canceled and never rescheduled. And Elizabeth, NJ's longtime mayor, Christian Bollwage, claims that after he opposed parts of Christie's legislative agenda in 2010, the state retaliated with collective punishment for Elizabeth locals by closing the city's only Department of Motor Vehicles department."
"Question: Who was instrumental in convincing Chris Christie's political team that the governor was invincible? The Beltway media."
"And so who might deserve some of the blame for the bullying abuse of power sponsored by Christie? The Beltway media."
"It's certainly possible Christie and his staff would have behaved just as arrogantly and boorishly without the adoring press clips during his first term. But it's also easy to imagine how the indulgent Christie press might have created a sense of invincibility within the governor's inner circle. You can see how Christie's crew may have interpreted that lavish media praise for the governor's bullying personality (he's a Straight Shooter!) as a green light for increasingly outlandish behavior, such as deliberately choking off traffic on the nations' busiest bridge and thinking they could get away with it."
"By the way, can you imagine the media's reaction if, as U.S. Senator, Barack Obama had angrily wagged his finger in the face of Illinois voters during town hall meetings, or if he had flown in a $12 million, state-owned helicopter to attend one of his daughter's baseball games? Christie did those things and the D.C. press never flinched as journalists built him up as an "authentic" leader."
Only if you think that Washington is not nearly dysfunctional enough do you want Christie anywhere near the White House. Luckily at this point the big question is less whether he runs in 2016 but if he makes it through his current term.
No comments:
Post a Comment