If Christie’s the new darling of the far right, where does that leave Steve Lonegan?
Should we care?
That’s the question that Bergen Record Columnist Charles Stile asks this morning at NorthJersey.com.
Stile is wondering how Lonegan is reacting to American For Prosperity benefactor David Koch’s declaration that Governor Christie is “my kind of guy” at the super secret corporate donors meeting in Colorado last June. That was the meeting where Christie told the tale of how he saved Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver’s position by lining up Assembly Republicans to vote for her had the Democrats staged a coup to prevent the pension and benefits reform bill from being posted.
Strangely, Lonegan who is never shy with the press, rebuffed Stile’s inquiry four times in two weeks.
Stile probably hasn’t noticed that Lonegan’s rare pontifications about Christie have been positive since April of this year. That is when Christie prevailed upon Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips to get Lonegan to tone his rhetoric down, as reported at the time by the now defunct TheStateNJ.com.
Lonegan’s focus has been on co-opting and controlling New Jersey’s Tea Party movement and attempting to destroy Tea Parties he can’t control, if The Bulldog Pundit, Gene Hoyas’ body of work over this summer is accurate.
Hoyas has been white knighting for the Bay Shore Tea Party Group which has suffered ad hominem attacks from conservative websites that Hoyas says are Lonegan mouthpieces. Hoyas’ smoking gun that Lonegan, and Senator Mike Doherty, are behind the attacks is that they haven’t publically called for the conservatives sites to stop picking on the BTPG.
All of this nonsense, from Stile’s piece this morning, to Hoyas and other purists fighting all summer, to Lonegan trying to control Tea Parties, if he is, are gifts to the Democrats who are on track to keep control of the legislature in Trenton.
Stile could have written about the current and ongoing rifts within the Democratic party, rather than suggesting to his readers that Christie is more “far right” than Lonegan. Instead he attempted to tweak Lonegan into reigniting a battle that he surrendered months ago. We should expect that from Stiles as a center-left opinion leader.
But Hoyas and other conservatives fighting with each other, as well as the ongoing ideological Inquisition of RINO hunters is nothing more than a circular firing squad.
Now that they have wasted the summer, it is time for all the ideological purists to stop fighting over which angel does a better dance on the head of a pin and get to work electing candidates who are right and center-right.
Posted: September 18th, 2011 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Bayshore Tea Party Group, Chris Christie, NJ Media, Steve Lonegan | Tags: Bayshore Tea Party Group, Charles Stile, Chris Christie, David Koch, Gene Hoyas, Senator Mike Doherty, Sheila Oliver, Steve Lonegan | 12 Comments »