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Follow the leader -- Christie looks ahead to 2016. Photo by Larry Downing/Reuters
Looks
like our friends over in the GOP have gotten all fratricidal
again. This time they're nutting out because
Chris Christie has, for a moment, tipped out on the posse assembled to run
Barack Obama out of the White House .
Their pissed-off reaction casts
the impression that the lack of subtlety in Christie's unambiguously pro-Obama post-hurricane
chatter has a whole bunch of Repubs feeling like they've been trampled on by a
turncoat Republican. Yet, for the Obama
camp -- along with anyone who feels that what goes around should come around --
the criticism of Christie's fulsome bi-partisanism by some of his GOP brethren offered
a rare opportunity to indulge in a bit of unabashed schadenfreude.
It certainly was in this
quarter. I'm unashamedly welcoming of
the shameful joy I feel about the utterly luckless yet entirely warranted turn
of events exacted on a callous and mendacious campaign that -- until perhaps
just moments after Hurricane Sandy made landfall -- was all but proclaiming victory. Instead,
no sooner had the skies cleared did it become apparent that Mitt's campaign was
being "Romneyed" by Christie.
If being Romneyed could be loosely defined as: to say something to one crowd and something entirely different to
another, then this term probably applies to a situation where a guy who delivers
the keynote speech for his party's candidate later provides what amounts to a
series to 30-second promos on behalf of the guy his candidate is running
against.
This nascent Christie-Obama "bromance" clearly caught the GOP's Obama
posse wide open which, in true reactionary form, led to a humdrum outpouring of
boilerplate shrill from the usual posse of sanctimonious GOP purists including,
the purest of the pure, Rush Limbaugh:
"New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has decided to play the
role of a Greek column today for President Obama," fulminated Rush on his radio
program.
Christie
in 2016
But did Christie pull a full Romney; or was it something a bit
different? I don't actually translate Christie's
effusive praise of Obama as the Governor's way of sabotaging Romney's
campaign. It seemed more like the
manifestation of Christie's inner fears about the potential long-term impact of
the "Romney Effect" on the GOP brand. My
guess is that if the Republicans had been smart enough to nominate a mainstream
pol like Tim Pawlenty, the torrid -- albeit unmistakably symbiotic -- post-hurricane
dalliance between Christie and Obama would have never happened. Why?
Because Christie has no apparent issues with his party's Pawlentys --
i.e., Republicans with core values. Thus,
it's easy to assume that since Mitt stands for nothing, a politician like
Christie -- who leaves no room for doubt about his own ideologies -- probably can't
stand Mitt. That keynote speech was an
exercise in party loyalty and opportunity to further establish a path for the
Governor's own political future, not an indication of his fondness for Mitt.
As for the outrage by Rush and
company, it seems at best, misguided. After having endured a treacherous run of epic
political ineptitude from Romney, you'd think that Limbaugh and other Christie
critics would be convulsed in rapture over the actual political brilliance of Christie's bi-partisan
post-disaster gambit. In the short run,
it's the kind of bi-partisan grandstanding that is likely to assure that blue
state New Jersey will remain controlled by a GOP governor.
But more importantly, Christie's
maneuvering could eventually provide what Limbaugh and all the rest of those
calling for Christie's scalp today been craving for since the nomination
process began several months ago -- a Republican in the White House in 2016. Because let's face it; at the time of this
writing, Election Day was just 48 hours away and it seemed clear that Romney was
not going to win the presidency. But even if he has somehow finagled his way
into the White House the fact remains that Mitt is exceedingly unpopular
among his fellow Republicans therefore lacks much of a
buffer against a 2016 party challenge from within by the likes of Bush, Marco
Rubio, Pawlenty and yes, Chris Christie.
Mitt's unpopularity among fellow
Republicans could mean that even if elected, traditional political protocol may
be tossed out the window in 2016. Mitt's
unpopularity could certainly remove any deterrent against challenges for the
nomination by a fellow Republican. That's
a likelihood that could increase if Republicans develop enough insecurity about
Romney's prospects for re-election; something that could emerge if a Democrat
as formidable as Hillary Clinton decides to run.
I think Christie realizes all
this and simply decided that Hurricane Sandy was as fortuitous a time as any to
begin campaigning for both re-election as Governor and for the 2016 GOP
presidential nomination. Does he care
that by looking ahead to 2016 today he's helping to dash Mitt and the GOP's
nearer-term 2012 hopes? Probably not,
especially if he believes that Mitt's going to lose anyway or if he believes
that a Romney victory would in fact leave the GOP vulnerable in the near-term as well as jeopardize its long-term
future.
Millionaires
and suckers
It has long been obvious that
for many voters, particularly Romney partisans, the term caveat emptor has no relevance.
Rather than buyer beware it's buyer's
remorse that seems to characterize
the outcomes of those who live their lives -- both personally and politically --
within what's been described as "the comfort
of a lie ." It is from within
this comfort zone where the distinctive characteristic of many Republicans to both
rage and vote against their own
interests lay. It speaks to the premise that
there are only two kinds of Republicans -- millionaires and suckers.
Sometimes the millionaires and
the suckers are one in the same. Right
off the bat, I'm thinking folks like Donald Trump, Sheldon Adelson, and Limbaugh. Today, each of those millionaires is probably
hopping mad at what Chris Christie said and did in the immediate aftermath of
Hurricane Sandy. But tomorrow's another
day. We won't find out how mad they are
at Christie or, if the Governor suckered that specific cluster of old fools --
along with others like Karl Rove or the Koch brothers -- until probably around
2015. That's when Christie will be in
the thick of the race for the GOP nomination.
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