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Christie In The News

By Art Gallagher

Governor Chris Christie has everyone talking.

On the left, the State Democratic Party released a video trying to knock the Governor’s rising approval ratings down a peg or two.  It’s not working. 

On the self-proclaimed right, Paul Mulshine and  Steve Lonegan knock Christie, and the national conservatives who have embraced the Governor, every chance they make.  That’s not working either.

Detractors of Christie’s policies, on both the left and the right, would have much more success if they argued their issues on the merits, rather than personally attacking.  If their issues, and not their political agendas were what they really cared about.

From the center-left media elite, The Record’s Charles Stile says the Fringe party is not Christie’s cup of tea:

Like so many in the media elite, Stile doesn’t understand the Tea Party.  We’ll find out on November 2 if they are the “Fringe” party.  I don’t think we are.  As the Republican Party establishment has been shocked by the wave that the real mainstream, as represented by the Tea Party, has made throughout the primary season, I think Stile and the rest of the media elite are going to be shocked on November 2.  They will find that it is they that are on the fringe and have been for quite sometime.

There’s a better chance of seeing Governor Christie mingling with President Obama at the private dinner reception in Cresskill on Wednesday than finding him on stage with Sarah Palin or any other Tea Party gathering, for that matter.

The pugnacious, rant-and-ramble governor may sound like a Tea Party activist from time to time, and Glen Beck may be smitten with a severe case of political man-love, but in reality Christie wants as little to do with them as possible. He prefers the high ground of the GOP establishment, perched at a safe distance from the roiling Tea Party tide.

 

I didn’t know that the President was dining in Creskill tomorrow night. Attention Bergen County readers: avoid Knickerbocker Rd.

 Christie may not be a Tea Party celebrity like Sarah Palin or Glen Beck.  But he gets it.  His “Put Up or Shut Up” message to the GOP establishment is what will bring the GOP and the Tea Party together. Palin and Beck may be the instigators on the fringe.  Christie is the bridge.

Stile doesn’t get Christie anymore than he gets the Tea Party. “Put up or shut up” are not the words of someone who “prefers the high ground of the GOP establishment, perched at a safe distance from the roiling Tea Party tide.”
 
Pundits of every persuasion are trying to put Chrisite in a box. He’s not conservative enough for Mulshine or Lonegan, so he must be a RINO.  He’s not as strident in his language as Palin or Beck so he must be establishment, a Whitman Republican.

Christie can’t be put into a box because he is not an ideologue.  He doesn’t just think outside the box.  As we have seen with his Education Reform Agenda, he breaks the box.

When Christie was seeking the GOP gubernatorial nomination last year he said that while he is his own man, two of his heroes or role models were Ronald Reagan and Tom Kean, Sr.  When we discussed that in April of 09, I admit that I was skeptical.  Having watch him govern for 9 months, his description of how he would govern makes a lot more sense to me than it did at the time.

If this very funny video, courtesy of NJ.com , Christie describes how it is that he managed to balance the budget with a 9% spending decrease and no new taxes.

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Posted: October 5th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Chris Christie, Uncategorized | Tags: | 2 Comments »

2 Comments on “Christie In The News”

  1. Firesign58 said at 10:23 am on October 6th, 2010:

    Lonegan is not happy with Christie because of Christie’s continued support of NJ’s Cap and Trade program, participation in the RGGI energy rationing auctions, and his support of a type of illegal alien amnesty. Christie is miles ahead of where we would be with any other candidate however. He’s done, and will continue to do, great things. Balancing the budget in the face of Democratic slush-fund manipulation before he got into office — that was a feat few could have accomplished. Much is right with our Governor. Perhaps while he is out campaigning for Republicans elsewhere, he’ll see more of the Tea Party’s positive influence on government and politics. I trust he will be persuaded to change his mind on some of the policies he still supports which make no sense in a smaller-government, decentralized state.

  2. Insider 982 said at 8:45 am on October 7th, 2010:

    You are right Christie is not an idealogue.
    He does not like the Tea Party and he HATES Sarah Palin.

    Wether that turns out to be good or bad for NJ time will tell.

    He is not an idealogue because he thinks that whatever his great mind thinks is good is good as opposed to haveing accepted a world view governed by a set of principles.
    This is why he is all over the place in his policies. I call this the ideology of the narcisist.

    We shall see.