Christie's Pugnacious Style Covers for a Compromising Record
A few points that couldn't quite fit in last night's piece about the pugnacious style and not-quite-so-conservative record of Chris Christie . . . The perception of Christie's conservatism is driven in part by his bare-knuckle criticism of President Obama. In November, Christie said Obama "sees the world as he likes to see it; as a fantasy." In December Christie called Obama a "feckless weakling"; this month he declared, "This president wants to act as if he is a king, as if he is a dictator." Was it just three years ago, Christie was calling Obama "outstanding," "incredibly supportive," and worthy of "great credit" in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, just before Election 2012? Perhaps that mutually-beneficial moment of bipartisan comity gives Christie's denunciations a little extra oomph. The 2012 presidential cycle proved Christie is not a natural team player with the rest of the GOP. His keynote address at the convention in Tampa barely mentioned Mitt Romney. When a three-minute biographical video about Christie was nearly cut for time, Christie threatened to use the f-word in his remarks on live television. The video was restored to the program. By January 2013, Christie was denouncing House Republicans for holding up a hurricane recovery bill, blaming them for "continued suffering of these innocent victims" and dismissing their concerns about pork-barrel spending in the legislation . . . Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director to the Judicial Crisis Network, characterized Christie's judicial nominations as "a train wreck." . . . Christie was unfairly smeared by media outlets like MSNBC, who contended he must have known about his aides' effort to create "some traffic problems in Fort Lee" by needlessly closing traffic lanes. The problem for Christie is that his version of events isn't that exculpatory; he gave power and authority to two unhinged, malicious loons. Christie's former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly and Port Authority executive David Wildstein even debated whether she should feel bad for kids in school buses stuck in traffic; Wildstein quipped, "They are the children of [Barbara] Buono voters." How reassured can voters feel about the staff picks in a Christie White House? The Sad End to Mike Huckabee This morning former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, winner of the 2008 Republican Iowa Caucus, is at 3 percent in Iowa, according to the RealClearPolitics average. No poll has had him in double digits since June. We don't know how he'll finish on caucus night February 1, but the outlook is not good. That must be deeply frustrating and humbling. Defeat and disappointment are inevitable parts of life, but to devote years of your life to a goal and not merely fail to succeed, but to do so much worse than in a previous effort, must sting. Apparently, it also makes Huckabee want to lash out: Mike Huckabee said in an interview on Wednesday that evangelical groups won't support his presidential campaign out of fear they would no longer be able to fundraise if Christian policies were to actually be put in place. In an interview with Fox News pundit Todd Starnes on his podcast, the former governor of Arkansas was asked if he felt betrayed by evangelical leaders and organizations that have gravitated towards Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio. "Well, certainly a sense of disappointment, and yet I do understand because, as I've often said, 'I don't go to them, I come from them,' but because of that I do understand them," Huckabee said. "A lot of them, quite frankly, I think they're scared to death that if a guy like me got elected, I would actually do what I said I would do, and that is, I would focus on the personhood of every individual. We would abolish abortion based on the Fifth and 14th Amendment. We would ignore the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage decision." Huckabee said that, as a result of his presidency, evangelical organizations would no longer be able to galvanize their supporters and fundraise. "A lot of these organizations wouldn't have the ability to do urgent fundraising because if we slay the dragon, what dragon do they continue to fight? And so, for many of them, it could be a real detriment to their organization's abilities to gin up their supporters and raise the contributions, and I know that sounds cynical but, Todd, it's just, it is what it is," Huckabee said. This is like watching that team that's been eliminated in the playoffs get into fights with the other team in the last game of the season. Huckabee is a terrific, warm television host . . . and a sharp-elbowed grudge-carrier in politics, a point I made almost exactly one year ago. When Huckabee feels he's been wronged, he holds nothing back; he compared Pat Toomey and the Club for Growth to "suicide bombers" and Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hassan. I've had my gripes with him in the past – claiming a theology degree he doesn't have, odes to the simple life and "flyover country" written from his beachfront property in Florida, his insulin product ad where he dismisses prescription drugs as ineffective and denounces the greed of "big Pharma," his sense that part of the job of the president is to grade and evaluate the fashion choices of Beyoncé and Jay-Z . . . but he was, at one point, the most charismatic, funniest, and arguably one of the most influential pro-life Evangelical voices in America. And now he's denouncing past allies because they prefer another candidate. We Eagerly Await the Era of President Trump, Standoff Negotiator Senator William Borah, Idaho Republican, reportedly said, in September 1939, after Germany invaded Poland, "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler -- all this might have been averted." Some men have an enormous faith in their ability to persuade other people. Too much faith, really. Allahpundit notices Donald Trump suggesting he's such a masterful dealmaker, and could handle most tense standoff negotiations personally. In addressing the Oregon standoff, Mr. Trump also spoke about the "great anger out there" that appears to be fueling the situation in Burns, Ore. "I think what I'd do, as president, is I would make a phone call to whoever, to the group," he said, adding later, "I'd talk to the leader. I would talk to him and I would say, 'You gotta get out -- come see me, but you gotta get out.'" "You cannot let people take over federal property," Mr. Trump said. "You can't, because once you do that, you don't have a government anymore. I think, frankly, they've been there too long." Allahpundit notices the ramifications of such an approach: President Trump would directly negotiate with people who are illegally occupying federal property? That's an incentive for every radical across the spectrum to create hostage situations, knowing that the president's direct involvement in resolving it would be a huge media spotlight for their cause. If Black Lives Matter seized a federal office somewhere tomorrow and Obama decided to speak with them directly, we'd be killing him today for legitimizing the takeover by granting them a presidential audience. Trump's smart enough to understand that, but his ego's too big to let him absorb the lesson. Because he's convinced of his own supreme competence in all situations, he thinks that him talking directly to Ammon Bundy would obviously be the easiest way to end the standoff expeditiously. ADDENDA: I'm scheduled to appear on Stuart Varney's program on Fox Business Channel on the 11 a.m. hour . . . of course, I could always get bumped for some new round of catastrophic stock market news . . . | 
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