Tag Archives: Chris Christie

national news, political news

GOP hotshot speaks for other GOPers

Chris Christie said something the other day that other distinguished Republicans reportedly think in private but are too chicken to say it out loud.

Christie, a former New Jersey governor, ex-presidential candidate and former confidant of Donald Trump, said this to radio gabber Hugh Hewitt:

“January 6 was a riot that was incited by Donald Trump in an effort to intimidate Mike Pence and the Congress into doing exactly what he said in his own words last week: overturn the election. He wanted the election to be overturned.”

There you have it. The truth spills out, again … this time from a Republican of some note.

Chris Christie said what a lot of Republican are thinking about January 6 (msn.com)

Perhaps the ex-governor is trying to restore his reputation as a tough talker who doesn’t give a damn about the consequences. Or perhaps — and this is likely a stretch — Christie is just plain fed up to his eyeballs with the incessance of The Big Lie that Trump keeps repeating, that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Good grief! It was the most secure election in history. The guy Trump hired to ensure its security said so — and then got fired for telling us the truth.

I am glad to hear Gov. Christie say out loud what he should have said all along. If only other Republicans — and that includes the voters out here in the cheap seats — would agree with the words of wisdom.

And then act on them.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national security

Party of ‘truth’?

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Chris Christie might run for president in 2024. He also has written a book on how he believes the Republican Party, of which he is a member, can redeem itself.

The former New Jersey governor says the GOP must become “the party of truth.” And the “party of solutions.” He has written a book that explains why he believes what he does.

Wow! How can I plow through this.

The once-Grand Old Party has become the party of lies, deception, conspiracy theories. How it reverts itself, or squirms out of the grip of the 45th POTUS is beyond me. Yet that is what Chris Christie wants to see happen.

Good luck, governor, with that tall task.

Donald Trump has so perverted the party, it might take a generation or three to get itself back on track. The biggest obstacle to that occurring happens to be that most Republicans have bought into the Big Lie that Trump has been telling about the 2020 election, that it was “stolen” from him through “widespread voter fraud.” Umm, no. It wasn’t stolen.

I wish Gov. Christie well on his effort. I don’t plan to switch allegiances if he succeeds. I just want the GOP to rid itself of the cult following that has developed with POTUS 45. I want there to be two viable political parties arguing policy, philosophy and what is good for the nation we all love.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

No truer words, Gov. Christie

ā€œNo man, no woman, no matter what office theyā€™ve held or wealth theyā€™ve acquired, are worthy of blind faith or obedience.”

Do you know who said that? If not, I’ll tell you.

Those words come from former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a one-time foe of the 45th president of the United States, who became an ally of his duringĀ  his term in office, and who now seems to be reverting to his former truth-telling self.

Christie spoke Thursday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, site of a symposium on the future of the Republican Party.

Of course he is right about blind fealty to an individual. No political organization can survive if it attaches itself to the whims and wishes of one person, which the GOP has done as it gloms onto the dictates of the twice-impeached former POTUS.

Sadly, given the climate in which we now are living, the Kool-Aid swilling cabal of loyalists are winning the argument within the once-great Republican Party.

Christie also said this at the Reagan Library: ā€œPretending we won when we lost is a waste of time, and energy and credibility.” Ah, yes. Credibility. That’s the biggest and most important “waste” cited by the former New Jersey governor.

Christie Decries Focus on Lying, Conspiracies in Stinging Rebuke of GOP (msn.com)

Then again, the former Liar in Chief, the chief purveyor of the Big Lie, has zero credibility anyway … at least among us who saw him for what he was when he entered presidential politics in the summer of 2015. We saw him as a phony and a fraud, but someone quite capable of hijacking a political party — which he continues to do.

I fear Gov. Christie is piddling into the wind while trying to persuade the GOP of the dire need to change course. My bigger fear is that the truth he is telling will be translated into another lie that the cultists who adhere to POTUS 45 will use to their perverted advantage.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Chris Christie tells is like it is?

I suppose you could surmise that former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is still angry at getting canned as Donald Trump’s presidential transition boss.

Christie once campaigned against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, saying some mighty unkind things about the eventual GOP nominee along the way. Then once Trump vanquished him, he lined up behind the nominee. He worked hard for his election. Then the president-elect asked him to lead the transition into the Oval Office.

Oops! Then the newly elected president replaced him with Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

Christie now has written a book titled “Let Me Finish” in which he says that Trump has surrounded himself with “amateurs” and “grifters” and “weaklings” and “convicted and unconvicted felons.”

Wow, man!

But wait! Didn’t Trump tell us he would hire only the “best people” who, as he does, know the “best words”? Gov. Christie doesn’t think that’s the case.

He writes that the people Trump has hired have “set loose toxic forces that may have made Trump’s presidency far less effective than it otherwise would have been. If this tragedy is ever going to be reversed, it is vital that everyone know exactly how it occurred.”

Well, so much for political alliances.

national news

Bannon offers spot-on comment on Sessions’s recusal

As a general rule I am not inclined to offer praise for a former Donald Trump policy adviser who has been portrayed as the Grim Reaper on “Saturday Night Live.”

However, Stephen Bannon has offered a spot-on analysis of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from anything relating to the Russia meddling matter in the 2016 presidential election.

Bannon said Sessions made precisely the correct call in backing out. He added that former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani also would have made the same decision had they been put in that position.

Why? They all had direct involvement in the president’s campaign and, thus, could not possibly be trusted to conduct a thorough, fair and unbiased investigation into Russian meddling in the campaign. The question of the moment is whether the president obstructed justice by firing FBI Director James Comey and whether his campaign “colluded” with Russian operatives who had dug up dirt on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Yet, Trump has been trashing Sessions for making that decision. He has said repeatedly he regrets selecting him as attorney general. Trump has disparaged the leadership at the Justice Department and the FBI.

The president doesn’t understand the complexities of conflict of interest. Sessions got it when he backed out of the Russia matter. Accordingly, Bannon — someone who hasn’t generally served the nation well — happens to be totally correct in his assessment that Trump is wrong to condemn the AG for acting properly.

I do have to chuckle when Bannon keeps insisting that he still admires and respects the president, saying he cherishes his relationship with him. He offers that caveat while reminding him publicly that he doesn’t understand why he is so damn wrong when he ridicules the attorney general.

national news, political news

Why should we care about one governor’s hubris?

I live a long way from New Jersey. I have no particular vested interest in public policy in that state, given that I live half a nation away, out here in Flyover Country.

However, I do care when that state’s governor agrees to shut down its government, closes its parks, and then takes his wife and children to the Jersey Shore for a little sunshine, surf and family fellowship.

Gov. Chris Christie remains defiant. He is chiding the media for reporting on the notion that the governor is using a public park that has been shut down to the very public that pays for it.

It’s the optics, dude! All politicians should be aware of how things look to those who are watching.

I suppose I care about this issue because Christie, the bellicose former Republican presidential candidate, thinks he casts a shadow that goes far beyond the state’s borders. He sees himself as a major player. He thinks he matters to the rest of the country.

On this score, he’s right. So now he gets all juiced up because the media are reporting on his public policy pronouncements and how they square with his actual conduct as governor.

Give me a break, Gov. Christie!

Christie said:Ā ā€œIf the Legislature would pass a budget then the park would be open.”

OK, fine. Here’s an idea, governor. Until the New Jersey Legislature does that very thing, stay the hell out of your state parks.

national news

Do as he says, not does in New Jersey

The dictionary definition of “chutzpah” is as unambiguous as it gets. “Utter nerve; gall,” says my trusty and tattered American Heritage volume.

That would describe New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to a “t.”

The Republican governor shut down the state government on Friday and then took his family to a state park on the Jersey Shore to soak up a few rays.

Did I mention that the state park system was closed to the public? Oh, I guess I just did.

Christie doesn’t get it.

This guy has ripped a page out of Donald J. Trump’s playbook, the one that instructs government executives on how to act and sound boorish while inflicting some hurt on the folks who pay the bills that run the government.

The beach was, of course, deserted. No member of the public could enjoy the park because of budget issues that created the government shutdown.

Christie’s response was typical of the blustering blowhard.Ā ā€˜ā€˜The governor has a residence at Island Beach (State Park),ā€™ā€™ he said. ā€˜ā€˜Others donā€™t. Thatā€™s the way it goes. Run for governor and you can have the residence.ā€™ā€™

There you have it.Ā Rank has its privileges, or so the governor would seem to suggest.

Except for this: The governor works for the residents of his state, not the other way around.

national news

Trump said he wouldn’t take vacations … honestly!

Watch This Video Where Donald Trump Says He’ll “Never Take Vacations” [WATCH HERE]

Take a look at this video. It’s only a few seconds in length.

It shows presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and a former Republican Party primary opponent, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Trump is pledging he’ll never take vacations. The job of president, he said, is too big. It’s too important. It’s too demanding for the president to take any vacations.

Hmmm.

What’s he done since becoming president? He’s jetted off aboard Air Force One to his posh resort in South Florida. Oh yes ! He’s played a lot of golf, too.

I don’t begrudge him the time off, or the golf.

I do begrudge him for, um, tellingĀ yet another lie about how he intended to conduct himself as president of the United States.

Hey, I know it’s no big deal. But really … ?

national news, political news

Gov. Christie, we hardly knew ye

We’re two weeks and two days into 2017, so why not take a quick look back at the biggest political winners and losers of 2016?

The biggest winner? No question: Donald J. Trump. He’s the next president of the United States. He won an election almost no one thought he’d win. Not me. Not most of the so-called “experts.”

One of my Facebook friends, though, said she called it early on. She knew Trump would win all along. Bully for her.

Enough of that.

The biggest loser? It’s not who you think. I am going to give the Biggest Loser Award to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Sure, Hillary Rodham Clinton lost big in 2016. Christie, though, imploded in a curious way.

He started the year running for the Republican presidential nomination. He was full of bluster, bravado and boastfulness. He was going to kick a** and take names. He was no pushover.

Then he got steamrolled by Trump, who flattened the field of 15 other GOP contenders/pretenders.

Christie then endorsed Trump and became his go-to guy. He would run his transition if Trump got elected.

Then what happened? Trump actually got elected and just like that Christie was removed as transition boss; Trump gave that task to the vice president-elect, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.

Christie, meanwhile, has been fingered in that on-going, never-ending “Bridgegate” scandal emanating fromĀ the closure of the George Washington Bridge because Christie was mad at a New Jersey mayor who declined to endorse him for re-election in 2014 … allegedly!

Christie’s poll numbers have tanked. He is coming up for re-election and he now stands a good chance of being thumped.

There you have it. Stand tall, Donald Trump and Chris Christie.

national news, political news

Cruz endorsement might not arrive

Trump-Cruz-Cleveland-620x342

The question of the night for political junkies from coast to coast … to coast.

Will U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz endorse Donald J. Trump when he stands in front of the Republican National Convention crowd?

If I could predict anything, I’d say ain’t no way, no how, no never mind.

Cruz has called Trump everything but the Devil Himself.

Pathologist liar; narcissist “the likes of which I’ve never seen”; a whole plethora of nasty names.

He challenged Trump’s courage after the GOP frontrunner put a tweet out there that poked malicious fun at Heidi Cruz, for crying out loud.

Having declared that by any reasonable measure, Cruz wouldn’t ever endorse Donald Trump, we have the following:

Rick Perry endorsedĀ Trump after calling him a “cancer on conservatism; Chris Christie endorsed Trump after saying he is “unfit” to become president; Marco Rubio has all but endorsed Trump after calling him a “con man.”

Cruz’s speech tonight is ginning up a bunch of speculation. Some sources say there might be an endorsement forthcoming; others say there won’t be an endorsement, but that he’ll express “support” for the nominee and for the party.

Still others have suggested that given Cruz’s fervent support among many of the convention delegates that he might deliver aĀ “Dream Shall Never Die” sort of message, a la the kind of speech Ted Kennedy gave during the 1980 Democratic convention after losing that fight to President Carter.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/rnc-2016-ted-cruz-donald-trump-endorsement-225850

Some conservatives want Cruz to endorse Trump.

I’ll tune in later tonight to see if Cruz prefers to stand by a nominee he cannot stand or will stand by the “conservative principles” that mean nothing to the guy who’s going to lead the party into the election campaign.