Once upon a time, about three years ago, I declared that Chris Christie was my favorite Republican.
At that time, the highly popular New Jersey governor exuded a moderate, no-nonsense, policy-oriented persona and he spoke the blue-collar language in blunt terms, even if he offended those who adhered to the GOP playbook.
But the gruff governor’s rapid decline in the realm of national political respect may be one for the ages.
His hoped-for image in the presidential race as the straight-talking candidate of 2016 took a few hits along the way. But when Christie’s candidacy tanked and he hypocritically endorsed Donald Trump, the media effortlessly pointed out his previous scathing comments toward the GOP frontrunner.
At one point during the presidential primaries, Christie called Trump one of the “carnival barkers of today.”
“Showtime is over. We are not electing an entertainer-in-chief. Showmanship is fun, but it is not the kind of leadership that will truly change America,” Christie said of Trump in New Hampshire.
With the Trump endorsement, Christie’s reputation suffered such a self-inflicted wound that perhaps only a gun to the head could have invoked more damage. The governor’s deer-in-the-the headlights facial expression at the press conference where Trump announced the Christie endorsement said it all.
Since then, the Jersey governor’s hopes for a VP slot on the ticket with Trump – if that was the motivation for his flip-flopping support for the presumptive nominee – seem to have vanished. Instead, a recent news report found that Christie’s newest assignment within the Trump camp consists of a hapless sycophant whose job is to fetch the candidate’s Big Macs from McDonald’s.
When he entered the presidential race last year, it appeared that Christie could be tainted by Bridgegate, the controversy over vindictively closing lanes to the main bridge from Manhattan to New Jersey for political reasons. Now, it appears that his lasting legacy may be his brown-nosing role within the Trump campaign, which could be labeled Tailgate.
Yet, it gets worse. Christie, a former federal prosecutor with a tough-guy approach toward terrorism, seems to have taken a leap toward the irrational Trump position that says, “bomb the sh—out of ISIS.”
On a New Jersey radio show, Christie crassly declared that the U.S. response to the massacre in Orlando should be to engage in a military bombing campaign in the Middle East.
To summarize: The shooter in Orlando was not dispatched to the U.S. by ISIS to inflict carnage in the name of the caliphate. In fact, Omar Mateen was born in Queens, New York – a heritage that should be abundantly familiar to Christie – before his family moved to Florida. His parents reportedly fled Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation more than 30 years ago.
More importantly, the FBI has concluded that Mateen was a self-radicalized “lone wolf” who did not receive instructions from extremists overseas. What’s more, this evolving story includes stunning evidence that suggests Mateen may have been a closeted homosexual who lashed out in an irrational, violent way toward his unacceptable lifestyle as a practicing Muslim.
In any event, there’s not much there among the details coming forward to justify bombing unspecified Arab countries as a macho American response. It should also be noted that Christie engaged in this hyperbole while serving as the guest host of a 4-hour sports-talk radio show.
According to the New Jersey newspaper, the Bergen Record, Christie made his radio remarks while also pandering to the LGBT community:
“…It is our responsibility, in my opinion, to eradicate this hate in the world.”
“You’ve got to get over there and make them pay where they live,” Christie said, arguing that the nation must show there is a price to pay for killing people based on their sexual orientation.
Photo: Flickr/Gage Skidmore