As GMD's resident New Jersey exile (Could I really be the only one? Here in Vermont that seems unlikely.) I continue to follow with great interest the exploits of Governor Tony Soprano Chris Christie.
I've already posted about his little Fort Lee traffic scam, and that's turning out to be the gift that keeps on giving.
My question tonight, and I'll just throw it out for discussion, is this:
Will either the scandal, or his transparent lies about having nothing to do with it:
(a) have an adverse effect on his presidential prospects, or
(b) he never had any shot at getting through the Republican primaries anyway?
And question 2: regardless of your answer to question 1, how much fun are you having seeing this guy get exposed for the bully he is?
I think the idea that this guy had a shot at the presidency is a great example of how clueless the punditry is. Yes, he fills the first prerequisite of being a Republican Presidential candidate, in his being an unabashed, outspoken asshole, but he simply can’t compete with the crazy that’s going to be on display in the GOP primary.
I’ll choose (b). Christie couldn’t tie himself into enough knots to make him acceptable to the base; who, after all, have the only real power in the Republican Party these days.
As for Question #2? The answer is TOO MUCH FUN!
I don’t know why Americans are so drawn to bullies, but they are. Some sort of a John Wayne fixation, I suppose.
The Tony Soprano reference couldn’t be more apt.
Maybe this latest will give some of those fairweather Dems a little pause.
As someone who lived under the heavy hand of Mayor Richard J. Daley, I don’t need a party label to spot a bully.
He’s a loud-mouthed bully. One thing that Mittster wished he was. There are plenty of clips of him bellowing at teachers and other public employees, shaking his fist and his finger.
The GOP base loves bellowing bullies. Hate radio is all about bullying. He is sufficiently anti-gay and his teacher-bashing plays well with misogynists. I think that misogyny appeals to the Republican base even more than racism.
He’s got plenty of time to weather this, and the GOP establishment is pushing back against the tea-and-douchebaggery. His being a bullying asshole will help him round-up the tea-baggers. Let’s face it, the whole movement is nothing but a national temper-tantrum, and whiners are impressed with bullies.
…the man behind the curtain.
politics have no place in our democracy – oh, wait…
I pick:
(a) Adverse effect on presidential prospects
The 5:00 CNN report of the evening greeted me with none other than the aggrieved in the matter (actually it’s the residents & travelers), the mayor of Ft. Lee talking with Wolf Blitzer about the incident. Story has legs & it’s not going away!
He claimed he was concerned about how far Christie would take things in his campaign of retribution & agreed with the question from Blitzer that there should be a federal investigation.
And I agree there should be one — this was not a spitball thrown from the back of the classroom or even the typical political shenanegans to harm a rival. It was a very big deal & still is.
*emphasis
Wow! I wonder if watching Soprano reruns is Christie’s equivalent of “required reading” for staffers.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/09/…
In High School, I worked at the LEE THEATER in Fort lee, right near the George Washington Bridge, so I was quite amused at Christie’s ‘bridge action’–In ’65-’66, we used to catch buses at the bridge to go over to Manhattan to do ‘under-age’ bar-hopping. Doesn’t Christie know, as a Republican, about the FLOW OF CAPITAL?
More New Jersey asshole shit. I was so glad to get out of that state when I went to college in Ohio in ’66 (another asshole state, but better than Jersey…I think). God, to think of a fat New Jersey Republican in the White House–there goes the neighborhood! And the environment. Imagine the Connecticut River like the Passaic and Hackensack rivers. And the CARP, instead of the Eagle, as our new National Symbol. And The Sopranos in the Cabinet. Scary stuff.
Applies a lot more to local elections, and in areas that are basically single-party. Chicago ain’t going GOP anytime soon, anyway.
In presidential politics, especially, machine politics has been on the wane since Nixon-Kennedy and the boob tube were introduced into the elections. 1960 was the last election it had any major influence in presidential elections, when Daley delivered the dead vote for JFK and winning Illinois.
Here in Georgia, what’s left of “machine politics” comes from the churches. The black churches do a great job of getting people to the polls, but part of that is the ghost of Jim Crow, when blacks couldn’t vote. There are still elderly voters that get dressed up to go vote, they see it as a sacrament, something they endured indignities for. (The percentage of blacks that vote is higher than the percentage of whites that vote in Georgia, despite the higher rate of poverty).
And many of the white preechurmen (virtually all of them are men) dogwhistle the tea-bagger and GOP agenda – every effing Sunday, trashing the party of the homosexuals, the lazy, the gawdless, most Vermonters, New Yorkers, and Massachussans.
Sure, they don’t like your Yankee asses, but they’ll most definitely take a Christie over a Hillary.