Christie Is Not One of Us

National Review ^ | 26 May 2012 | Andrew C. McCarthy

[LSUfan]

Chris Christie is so not one of us that articles like “Christie Is One of Us” — a new contribution to the genre, from National Review’s Noah Glyn — are churned out regularly as the governor’s smitten admirers, from Ann Coulter to NR staffers, labor to convince us of what they’ve convinced themselves of: that an ostensibly gruff, internally milquetoast, progressive-lite, pro-Islamist Republican must be the second coming of Ronald Reagan because he has managed to make a basket-case blue state marginally less of a basket case. And “marginally” is the operative word. Glyn’s valentine to Christie is unfortunately timed. It was published just as Moody’s declared that Christie’s claim to have put New Jersey’s fiscal house in order is grossly overstated.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Finally someone puts the Christie coservative mystique into focus.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

"We accept you, one of us! Gooble Gobble!"

Couldn't resist.

However, in all fairness, conservatism doesn't have a litmus test, other than "not liberal-leftist-socialist-communist-fascist-bigoted".

Unlike the left, which strictly limits its doctrines to "the agenda", and refuses to compromise, requires hate, greed, perversity and unfairness among its members, and admires its extremists and most unreasonable and repulsive members.

Thus conservatism has always been the 'big tent', embracing calm reason, earned success, prosperity, law and order, ethics, freedom and liberty.

[Sir Napsalot]

Let him stay in NJ.

It only matters WHEN Christie himself or some eGOP try to promote him officially to the national level.

[Cheerio]

The northeastern elite(Rockefeller wing) have control of the GOP, I hope it’s the GOP’s death knell because these people are not conservatives.

IMHO after Mittens loses to the black jesus from Chicago (Rasmussen has the Won back up to -12 today), the GOP will be a gonner. A new party will emerge - today the GOP-e and all the gas bags refer to that as a 3rd party. Check the history of the Whig party - the Independents are all set to vote "Tea Party". Congress approval at it lowest rating in history?

[cripplecreek]

Chris Christie - NJ = Rick Snyder - MI.

[Road Glide]

“Christie Is Not One of Us”

He may not truly be “one of us”, but conservative/realists must face the fact that he’s probably “the closest we’re going to get”, considering where he’s coming from.

If I recall, Christie barely squeaked through with a majority in his election. New Jersey is what it is. And what it is, is a “true-blue” state of the left.

I’ll go so far as to predict that Chris Christie may indeed be the “most conservative” governor that New Jersey is going to see for years to come.

When he goes, it’s probably going to be Cory Booker....

[Tau Food]

I doubt that it matters who Romney picks. I suspect that Palin has turned him down, already.

[cripplecreek]

It only matters WHEN Christie himself or some eGOP try to promote him officially to the national level.

Unfortunately at that point he becomes the great conservative hero like Romney because few conservatives have the courage to oppose him. The net result is that the whole country moves even further to the left.

[cripplecreek]

I suspect that Palin has turned him down, already.

She's not stupid. Romney is a political career killer.

[blueunicorn6]

Christie is a fine caddie for the country club Democrats.

[Sir Napsalot]

What you said was true before. But I doubt the conventional wisdom will apply in the near future, in no way I see the GOP survives and remains their old self.

They (GOP, DC insede the belt way) probably don’t have an inkling how furious some of us feel. And I know I don’t speak for a tiny minority.

[RichInOC]

I think he’s more like two or three of us.

[Larry Lucido]

LOL!

[9YearLurker]

I think he’s largely a phenomenon of the Northeast RINO Republican who so doesn’t want to be hated by all his friends.

So having some nice RINO candidates and pols to back with enthusiasm becomes exhibit A of how they may be Republican, but they’re not like those rabid knuckledraggers from flyover country. I mean, how could they be, when they support smart and sophisticated—law-trained middle- to upper-middle-class—candidates who don’t really believe that crazy social stuff. For that matter, they don’t really want to do away with big government’s perpetual growth.

Oh, they might slow it down a bit and be something of a counterweight to the Dems’ excesses, but these candidates aren’t like some heathen from Alabama or Kansas, ferchristsakes. And if that’s the kind of Republican that a our poor RINO journalist or citizen supports, really how can their Democrat friends hate them just for that?

[cripplecreek]

They (GOP, DC insede the belt way) probably don’t have an inkling how furious some of us feel. And I know I don’t speak for a tiny minority.

There is a ripple quietly spreading outward from Mitt Romney in the GOPe pond and it doesn't bode well for the establishment. Here in Michigan, 2 of the 4 people who voted in favor of changing delegate allocation rules after the primary were Republican National committeemen. Both were voted out of their seats last weekend by a coalition of tea partiers, conservative republicans, and libertarians. And now it turns out that Thaddeus McCotter is well short of the signatures to get his name on the ballot for his house seats. (I personally like McCotter but he's too friendly with the unions and put his butt on the line in endorsing Romney)

[slowhandluke]

“the closest we’re going to get”,

That's true here in NJ, but it's not true on the national level. Well, it is true if it means 'the closest we are going to get out of the RNC & GOP elite.'

The strange thing about this argument on the national level is that while we have a center right country (huge majority against Obamacare, TARP, etc.), we conservatives are continually told that 'the closest to conservative we are going to get' is a center-left to full-left Republican candidate for President.

Christie is not one of us, and except for a bit of business experience, neither is Romney. Christie might be the more conservative of the two, as he has not proposed anything like RomneyCare.

[JimRed]

For Jersey, he’s more than halfway to the right. For the country at large (and for lots of us stuck behind enemy lines in Jersey), he’s too far left.

[SoConPubbie]

However, in all fairness, conservatism doesn't have a litmus test, other than "not liberal-leftist-socialist-communist-fascist-bigoted".

Well then, that would leave Romney out, wouldn't it?

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

The onerous Romney makes me root for the Ron Paul supporters working hard at the state level across the US trying their darndest to stop him from getting a first round nomination.

While this won’t mean that Paul will get the nomination—he won’t—if they can just stop the onerous Romney from getting it in the first round, conservatives and America itself will owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

And there is a lot of overlap between the Paul agenda and the conservative agenda. While some of it, like dismantling much of the police state, will make some conservatives shriek in agony, it just needs to be done for the good of our nation.

Other parts, like dismantling a lot of the unconstitutional federal government, many conservatives embrace in theory, but not in practice. Yet this, too, is necessary surgery for the health of our nation.

Conservatism will no longer mean just the preservation of the status quo, no matter how bad the status quo is. Instead it will mean following the constitutional rules, no matter how pragmatic and profitable it has been to a small number of people to violate those rules.

[neverdem]

bump & a ping