CHRISTIE'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN IS OVER

IT’S OFFICIAL, CHRIS CHRISTIE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OVER

  

In the space of forty-eight hours, Chris Christie has gone from contender to crater in the GOP presidential sweepstakes.  

How?  Yesterday he actually trumpeted his signature on a pro-illegal alien bill making it easier for illegals to attend NJ colleges. Yesterday he fell under well-founded suspicion of stooping to embarrassing and possibly felonious political thuggery.   I think the two will just about do him in.

Christie actually signed the bill granting in-state tuition status to illegal’s last month.  But for some reason he chose yesterday to make a public show of signing a replica bill all over again in a prepared photo-extravaganza.   Surrounded by Hispanic activists and elected officials, he said of the aspiring young illegals, “You’re an inspiration to us because in you we see all that our country can be.   In you we see, most importantly, infinite possibilities of the human spirit.”  How cutting tuition payments in half from a whole class of students who should not be here in the first place relates to the “…infinite possibilities of the human spirit,” was left unexplained.  Perhaps we need to ask his speechwriter.  Bear in mind that New Jersey is a cash-strapped state.

Christie never made a secret of his fondness for Hispanic illegals.  He attended amnesty rallies, and while Federal Attorney for New Jersey did little to enforce immigration law in a state swamped with illegals.  As one would expect from a kid from Newark, he has a devout “We are a nation of immigrants,” mentality, with a chip on his shoulder to match.  His is a mentality one see’s up and down the New Jersey political spectrum, and in both parties.  This should not be confused with the FDR Blue Collar mentality of yore. Ethnic groups of the past vied with each other on just how American they were.  Today the game is different.  Today they vie with one another for how inassimilable they remain and how much they can get for their votes.  Christie actually believes that Republicans can sail to victory on a wave of Hispanic support.  So his misguided acquiescence in the machinations of the Hispanic amnesty lobby seems like good strategy to him.  The fact that his allies in this, view the wallets of remaining middle class New Jerseyians as the great piñata doesn’t trouble him.  He is on his way to DC. 

Except, he’s not.  The rank and file of the GOP has had enough.  They’ve finally awakened to the reality that the immigration reform movement on both sides of the isle is nothing more than amnesty at their expense.  It’s all about more and more Democrat voters and more and more cheap labor, driving down American wages.  So Christie has chosen his side and I believe that it’s the wrong one if he actually wants to be President.

And today the kettle popped on a New Jersey story that has percolated for months.  North Jersey Democrats have been alleging that the Governor’s minions within the New York and New Jersey Port Authority deliberately tampered with traffic patterns, in order to punish the mayor of a small city, and by extension his whole population.  At first blush this sounded silly, but as time went on it began to seem possible.  The accused covered their tracks so artlessly as to make them selves seem all the more culpable.  Personalities emerged who seemed capable of just such idiocy.  Could the Governor’s Office have done the equivalent of slashing someone’s tires?   

It seems incriminating emails between persons on the Authority and the Governor’s Office suggests just that.  While a full investigation is still pending, the emails heavily suggest that people close to the Governor actually closed traffic lanes to a whole community in a fit of election year pique.  And more egregious, the Mayor in question was a Democratic whose offense was to remain loyal to his own gubernatorial candidate.  

Neither I nor anyone else can as yet make the case that Christie ordered anyone to do this.   But given the names on the emails, the culprits are people who have been intimately associated with the Governor for some time.  What does that say about Christie’s judgment?  What does it say about his taste in associates?  And what does it say about the governing spirit and tone that the Governor tolerates among his aides? 

I briefly worked in the NJ Governors Office.  That was long ago.  I have been a Gubernatorial appointee for two entire terms - Sixteen years.  All Governors have both policy people and political hacks serving in their office.  The hacks among other things, are there to enforce his will.  Some hacks of my acquaintance, were true cretins capable, without supervision, of anything.  But if they wanted to stay, they all had to know the Governor’s ethical limits.

It is very hard for me to believe that Governor Christie had no idea that some of the people around him were capable of such an act as has come to light.

So along with colluding with La Rasa, Chris Christie is guilty of doing the one thing national Republicans will not tolerate.  Chris Christie is guilty of governing like a Democrat.  He tolerates people who punish the opposition like some third world dictator.  His people are willing to punish taxpayers for the “Sins” of their elected officials.  He has no colleagues, only minions.   He sells out his voters in collusion with other bosses for his own short-term gain.   He does not respect the equality of the Legislative Branch.  He is a deal making Jersey boss in GOP clothing.

In short, he is an unacceptable mess from the point of view of national Republican voters.