Our neighbor-across-the-Hudson Chris Christie is totally out of control.
Last Thursday the New Jersey Governor was strolling down a street at the Jersey Shore chomping on a double scoop ice cream cone, when a passerby asked Christie why he was so hard on teachers.
Christie lunged at him, red-faced and screaming “Yeah, you’d better keep walking!”, before his security detail pulled him back.
Just a few days before, a press conference reporter asked the Governor a mild question about when he planned to address the state legislature. Christie went wild.
“Are you stupid? Didn’t I warn you to stay on topic?!” Obviously freedom of the press is a foreign concept to this governor. “I’m sorry for the idiot over there,” Christie smirked to the other attendees.
Earlier this year at a town hall meeting, veteran and former Navy Seal William Brown asked the Governor to consider how reconfiguring the state’s public universities might hurt student-veterans.
Christie responded by calling the veteran “an idiot.” When Brown didn’t back down and it escalated into a shouting match, Christie had Brown escorted out by security.
Afterward Christie said “I tried to be patient with the guy, but damn man, I’m Governor–couldn’t he just shut up??”
“I think he’s a bully,” said the veteran.
I think Brown’s right. Not only is Christie a bully, but the governor has become Mr. Bad Example in every sense of the term. While he talks of imposing “discipline” on New Jersey teachers and other government workers, he shows a clear lack of self-discipline.
In the midst of mocking constituents who ask for compassion for teachers, veterans, gays, etc, he goes on Nightline and wails about the lack of empathy some people have when it comes to his weight. The five foot eleven Christie is morbidly obese, and his weight has recently climbed to an estimated 350+ pounds.
“Sure some people drink too much, and some use drugs,” he explained. “And some people eat too much. But you can go every day without drinking or drugs. You can’t live every day without eating.”
Yes, but you can live every day without eating too much. Obesity is a national epidemic, costing us not only millions of dollars but thousands of lives annually.
If a candidate has a drinking or drug problem or a sex addiction, reporters are all over it. When Obama was seen sneaking a cigarette, some scolded that he was setting a bad example for children. Yet Christie’s weight isn’t fair game, especially when he says he’d gladly take Romney’s call about running for vice president? Do we want a man who can’t walk across a football field without gasping for breath a heartbeat from the Presidency?
The suddenly sensitive Christie told Nightline that there are two kinds of people who mention his weight: those who are “empathic and truly care about about my health,” and those who are “just, you know, nasty and insensitive.”
Yes Governor, we know the type. Or as Christie might put it, “Hey idiot–check the mirror.”
One of the best things about living in New York: I don’t live in New Jersey with its idiot governors anymore. Crispie Creme is the worst yet! He only adds to the poor image of the state already infused with Jersey Shore and Real Housewives.
Why didn’t you just title this “I don’t like Chris Christie or his politics”? Have you ever questioned the political fitness of anyone from the political left who’s been rude or dismissive to a questioner or reporter? Have you ever questioned the viability of someone on the left who’s overweight/obese? Or is it just the particular combination of these specific flaws that makes CC undesirable? If you have been consistent in your criticism of public figures, I humbly acquiesce – have at it! However, I doubt this is the case.
Actually I thought Chris Christie was a pretty bright guy who would have been a formidable candidate for the GOP’s Presidential nod not long ago.
Since then he has gotten more boorish and bullying in his manner. His weight gain seems a symbol of his general out of control behavior, and his wanting sympathy for his obese condition seems at odds with his lack of sympathy for others with various issues.
And yes, I have gone after everyone from Mike Bloomberg to Anthony Weiner, demanding the latter be thrown out of Congress while most of the left was still demanding he stay.
While I’d guess I’m probably a bit more progressive than you, I’ve always called them as I see them, left or right. So perhaps you should check a few of my posts before making such sweeping generalizations? Thanks.
Chrispie Cream lives on a oneway street. No one is allowed to question him!
There’s an epidemic of dictatorial, bullying behavior in our society. Two events that may have contributed to bringing out personalities with this behavior are the fall of the Soviet Union, and 9-11.
When the Berlin Wall came down, we no longer had that long-term Cold War “enemy” and it seemed like within the next few years, there was an advent, then an escalation, of bad behavior in Congress — the tantrums, shutting down the govt. during the Clinton years, etc.
Is it because we lost our enemy, somehow the psychological response of some was to then turn on each other?
Or is it that since capitalism doesn’t have to compete with socialism anymore, then capitalism can spin ever-”right”-ward, toward fascism?
There’s a book called Idiot America: How Stupidity became a Virtue in the Land of the Free … I read some on Amazon site, found it interesting; the author has been analyzing some trends in our society which I had been wondering about.