Christie's July 4th Jersey Debacle

Chris Christie and his family enjoy Island Beach
State Park while the public is shut out

"I understand that that's because the governor has a residence at Island Beach. Others don't. That's the way it goes. Run for governor then you can have the residence." 

That was Republican NJ Governor Chris Christie responding to the wide-spread criticism he received after aerial photographs showed him and his family relaxing on Island Beach State Park over the weekend.

Normally the governor chilling out on the beach wouldn't be a big deal.

But last week Island Beach State Park, like other NJ state park and recreational facilities, the Motor Vehicle Commission, the Department of Health and a host of other state government services were closed to the public for the weekend leading into the July 4th holiday.

A crucial day to the hundreds of small business owners whose livelihood is dependent on the thousands of Independence Day beachgoers who flock to the Jersey shore.

Part of what enraged New Jerseyans about the photo of Christie enjoying Island Beach State Park over the weekend with his family while it was closed to the public stems from the fact that this unprecedented state government shutdown wasn't caused by any actual government crisis.

It was the result of Christie trying to blackmail the normal state budget process over his efforts to bully Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield (a not-for-profit and the largest insurer in the state) into diverting hundreds of millions of dollars from its surplus fund in order to fund opioid abuse and other programs that have become Christie's focus in the final months of his term in office.

Regardless of whether of one's political party, if you're the governor and you want $300 million for a program, you have to go through the normal budget and appropriations process and work with the state assembly to fund it.

Signs Christie had posted that blame
Speaker Prieto for NJ park closings 

You don't circumvent that process by passing a bill that authorizes the state to essentially seize funds from a not-for-profit to pay for initiatives that you want.

But Christie did, and he tried using that as leverage to get him to sign the state budget.

When State Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto refused, the government went into shutdown ahead of the weekend, not only shutting down essential state services, but disrupting the holiday plans of thousands of people.

Christie even had the gall to try and blame Prieto.

In a remarkably pathetic attempt to try and absolve himself of responsibility for his own refusal to sign the state budget into law, Christie actually had color flyers printed up with a photo of Prieto on it that blamed the government shutdown on the state assembly.

But it was the photo of Christie and his family casually enjoying the beach that was closed to NJ tax payers who pay for it that blew up nationally, further tarnishing the image of the man who famously demonstrated a willingness to shutdown access lanes on the NJ side of the George Washington Bridge in order to "get back" at a mayor who refused to endorse him.

Part of what's amazing is that Christie seems almost clinically detached from the optics of what an insensitive asshole he looks like for taking his family to a public beach that he closed to taxpayers.

He even tried to deny that he'd been on the beach sunning himself with his family in front of reporters during a government shutdown, bristling at the suggestion that he'd been hanging out on the beach until the photo of him sitting in a beach chair went national and blew up in mainstream and social media.

Last Friday afternoon I stopped by my local the Franklin Tavern and the consensus of regulars there, both Republican and Democrat alike, was that Christie's government closure was an outrage - take a listen to some of the comments from NJ citizens who called into The Brian Lehrer Show on Friday morning for a segment discussing the impact of Christie's actions.

A banner from a plane flown over the beach in NJ

Uncaring "let them eat cake" hypocrisy like that?

From a despised governor who spent the bulk of his two terms in public office absent from the state focused on his own presidential ambitions before shilling for Donald Trump in the hopes of scoring himself a cushy position in the federal government?

Low rent.

It should give you an idea of why Christie literally has the lowest approval rating (15%) of a sitting governor ever recorded by a Quinnipiac University poll.

Let's be clear, I'm not saying that opioid abuse isn't a major public health crisis that needs to be dealt with on the state and federal level (frankly it's been a major public health issue in urban and rural communities for years, but that's another blog).

But Christie had seven years as governor to work with the state assembly to try and secure budget proper funding for what's become his pet project, during that time he opposed the Affordable Care Act that provided federal subsidies through Medicaid to help pay for opioid abuse treatment.

So his efforts to use the final year of his two years as governor to remake his soiled public image into the "caring opioid abuse czar" reeks of self-serving hypocrisy.

The vast majority of people in New Jersey recognize it little more than a desperate attempt to avoid being branded for life as the "Bridgegate Governor" who backed Donald Trump, failed to bite the bullet and secure tax revenue to pay for the ARC train tunnel project, and accomplished almost nothing of substance.

Christie defending his shutdown to reporters

And that's how he's going to be remembered.

That's his self-created political legacy.

Tom Moran, the politically-plugged in columnist for both the Newark Star Ledger and NJ.com called the needless government closure the 'Seinfeld Shutdown' because it's a government shutdown based on nothing except for Christie's own arrogance.

While the beaches and state parks were finally opened in time for July 4th after Christie finally yielded and signed the $34.7 billion budget late Monday night, the sense of public outrage is still simmering.

As Marianne Tennpenny, a resident of Bayville, New Jersey who's family shelled out $175 for a season pass to Island Beach State Park told NJ.com, the beaches may be open but people from New Jersey aren't going to forget Christie's three-day shutdown that ruined many people's weekend holiday plans.

Tennpenny actually tried to track Christie down on the boardwalk where he's often spotted in the summer to give him a piece of her mind, but he was nowhere to be found.

"I know he didn't want to show his face. This is the biggest blunder since Bridgegate. It's just unbelievable how arrogant he is. He's just plain arrogant. It was inconsiderate and selfish. He's not thinking about the people he represents."

I'm not sure Christie has ever has thought about anyone other than himself as governor.

The beaches and state parks may be open, but his last July 4th as governor was a total debacle.

An Independence Day that's going to leave a bad taste in the mouths of many and a blight on the already tarnished legacy of Governor Chris Christie.

The Court of Chris Christie: Day Two At the RNC

Christie plays prosecutor & judge Tuesday night 

I know it's traditional to come up with clever creative ways to energize enthusiastic crowds at political conventions, but it was pretty remarkable to see New Jersey Governor Chris Christie conduct a "mock trial" of Hillary Clinton at last night's RNC event in Cleveland.

As the New York Times reported earlier today, Christie's claims were rife with wild exaggerations, factual inaccuracies and plain old falsehoods.

Was it meant to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek? Sure.

But there was something disturbingly misogynistic about the whole episode that served to reinforce the image of the Republican party as hostile to women in general; particularly when you couple that with nationwide Republican legislative pushes for oppressively restrictive anti-abortion measures and their unprecedented smear campaign against groups like Planned Parenthood that provide critical healthcare services to millions of women.

Recently-concluded lengthy investigations by multiple Congressional committees and the F.B.I. determined that no crimes, intentional or otherwise, were committed because of Clinton's decision to use a private email server.

Yet Christie encouraged the hostile crowd to repeatedly chant "Guilty!" - as if by the mere expression of their hostility towards Clinton they had uncovered some kind of evidence that Congressional staff and federal investigators had somehow missed.

But on another level, it also seemed to not so subtly tap into the undercurrent of irrational anti-government rancor that flows through the Republican party like toxic sludge.

Anti-government zealot Cliven Bundy

The fringe wingnuts who align themselves with the sovereign citizens movement, "patriot" organizations, or groups associated with guys like rancher Cliven Bundy and his son Ammon Bundy who occupy federal lands in defiance of government authority, are drawn to the disturbing "Lock her up!" chants that echoed through the convention hall last night.

Was Christie was intentionally using his "mock trial" to try to tap into the mindset of groups who want to take the law into their own hands, establish their own shadow courts and operate outside the legal system?

Individuals using the cloak of anti-government fervor can come with horrific consequences as in the case of sovereign citizen sympathizer Ryon Lenelle Travis of Detroit.

Christie may have once been a federal prosecutor, but he sunk to a new career low with his episode last night in Cleveland; it's remarkable to see someone who once had such promise as a moderate conservative now reduced to schilling for the Republican party to whip up hostility, fear and anger and cultivate a dangerous mob mindset.

Fear-meister Rudy Giuliani handed the baton to Christie and he ran with it.

Frankly Christie has got some real cojones standing up and putting anyone on "trial" considering that Federal Judge Susan Wigenton recently ruled that Bridgegate trials will be staring this fall and he's already put New Jersey tax payers on the hook for more than $10 million in legal fees related to his role in the scandal - fees paid to a law firm with whom the Governor has deep personal ties.

The hypocrisy of Christie criticizing Hillary Clinton for using a private email server as Secretary of State is funny considering the flagrantly deceptive efforts he and his lawyers went through to hide the cell phone he was using as governor when the Bridgegate scandal was unfolding.

It's hard to decide which speaker on the stage of day two of the RNC convention seemed more detached from reality last night, Dr. Ben Carson telling the crowd that Hillary Clinton is an admirer of Satan, or the court of Chris Christie?

The jury is still out on that one.

A Tale of Two Christies

The charming "National Chris Christie" in action

After months of playing coy with the media about his inevitable official decision to run for president, Chris Christie appeared at his former high school in Livingston, New Jersey to announce that he's the fourteenth Republican candidate to declare for 2016.

I'm not sure the long-anticipated announcement had the "shock and awe" effect on the political establishment he was seeking, but he did get a nice chunk of free media out of it.

As a self-proclaimed political junkie, I listened to a good portion of the first part of his announcement speech. It was heavy on a glowing patriotic reflection on his parent's working class roots and touching references to his adoration of "Mary Pat and the kids", but it was light on his actual record as Governor and even less so on substantive specifics about his actual goals for the country.

While Christie has planned future appearances in the coming weeks to publicly unveil more detailed "policy stances" on specific issues, from my perspective his kickoff speech didn't really separate him from the crowded field of Republican hopefuls. As speeches go it was pretty standard stuff.

November 2012 - Where did the love go?

He lambasted President Obama for lacking "authority" in the Oval Office.

The same President who appeared with Christie (pictured left) after POTUS flew up to the state of New Jersey to personally survey (with Christie) the extensive damage caused by Hurricane Sandy and then used his authority to help push through $47.99 billion in federal aid for the states (including New Jersey) ravaged by flooding. 

In short, the aspiring candidate presented the "National Chris Christie" personae showcased during the 218 of his 518 days in office that he's spent at GOP fundraisers and events in 37 different states and different countries, but there was little of the "Real Chris Christie" familiar to folks who actually live here in New Jersey.

Anti-Christie protesters chant outside Livingston High School

A large and vocal group of anti-Christie protesters (pictured left) that included environmentalists, teachers and frustrated victims of Hurricane Sandy still waiting for compensation, gathered outside Livington High School where Christie was giving his presidential launch speech.

They far outweighed the number of Christie supporters inside attending the speech; a fact that reflects how people in New Jersey tend to view him these days.

It's not that people dislike him, but there's this quiet sense amongst New Jersey folks still feeling the pinch of high taxes, low interest rates and flat wage growth that Christie's only real accomplishment in two terms was a generous tax break to the state's wealthiest citizens.

That was the consensus at my local bar last night where four of us were gathered at closing time. A white married small business owner in his 50's with a kid and two mortgages on a house and an investment property, a white fully-employed divorced man with a grown daughter in his early 50's who owns a house, a white man in his mid 60's who's comfortably retired from the defense contracting sector and yours truly, an employed single black man in his mid 40's who rents an apartment and likes to write.

There was also a white man in his 50's at the bar who's a high school wrestling coach who actually went to school with Chris Christie at Livingston HS - but he stayed conspicuously silent on the political commentary.

Not all of us agree politically, I was the most liberal-minded person there at the time and two of those I mentioned are pretty conservative but in a decent practical "Jack Kemp" way rather than in a Fox News extremist kind of way. But we all agreed about Christie; and we're not alone.

As a resident of NJ, I think Christie's focus on broadening his appeal to the most conservative members of the national Republican voter base and establishing "cred" with the Tea Party element have left him looking like a candidate totally out of touch with where the mainstream American zeitgeist currently sits.

By "out of touch", I'm not just talking about Christie's staunch opposition to the creation of medical marijuana laws in New Jersey, or his melodramatically dismissing popular referendums to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana as "blood money" as he did earlier this year; measures that are supported by a majority of Americans by the way.

He used to be pro-choice as most people in New Jersey tend to be, but then he reversed his position on the issue as he solidified his presidential ambitions; and he recently vetoed the use of taxpayer funds for Planned Parenthood even though the funds were being used for gynecological services for women - including cancer screenings.

Even as Christie passed tax cuts for New Jersey's wealthiest taxpayers, his administration has backed efforts to cut public transportation by scaling back train and bus service for commuters even as fares go up; and he voted against raising gas taxes to help start a long-needed construction of a new commuter rail tunnel in order to remain loyal to Grover Norquist's "never raise taxes" pledge conservatives deify.

So Christie has consistently used his power as Governor to put the conservative ideological policy stances of extremist Republicans clustered in gerrymandered sections of the nation's red states ahead of the best interests of the citizens of New Jersey who elected him.

One of the sharpest and most brutally honest critiques of Christie's two terms as Governor was written recently by Newark Star Ledger editorial page editor Tom Moran.

Moran has been covering Christie for 14 years and his must-read article posted on NJ.com last Saturday June 27th entitled, 'After 14 Years of Watching Chris Christie a Warning: He Lies', details some of the Governor's most blatant political lies; including the written pledge he sent to New Jersey pensioners during his campaign for Governor promising them he would not cut their pensions and considered them "sacred" - his first major task as the newly elected Governor? Cutting their pensions.

If you've got 14 minutes to spare, I highly recommend you listen to the interview Moran did last Wednesday on The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC.

As you likely heard today, according to the June jobs report, 223,000 new jobs were created in the US last month and the national unemployment rate fell from 5.5% to 5.3% (it's still 9.5% for African-Americans).

Today's positive job numbers also reflect the large numbers of Americans who've been unable to find work giving up on searching for a job and despite the gains, overall wage growth remains flat for most employees.

But for those considering Christie as a presidential candidate, it's important to note that his rosy interpretation of his handling of New Jersey's economy is undermined by the fact that the state's unemployment rate has remained significantly higher than the national average during his tenure - and the state ranks near the bottom in job creation and wage growth. (See the chart above from the United State Bureau of Labor Statistics)

According to a CNN Money article posted on Tuesday June 30th, "New Jersey has yet to recover all the jobs the state lost in the recession. Most states — including neighboring Pennsylvania and New York — are now back on track and even adding more jobs, but not New Jersey."

And with pending court cases it's only a matter of time before the George Washington Bridge scandal once again becomes political red meat.

Frankly that's a lot of political baggage to load onto the already loaded Republican Clown Car.

While Chris Christie is big on a populist message, as outlined by the numerous examples above, his real message is specifically tailored to two small segments of the overall US population, the hyper-conservative non-racially diverse populations of key primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire (two of the most least-populated states in America) and the members of the 1% whose campaign contributions he covets.

When you couple that with Christie's vindictive, confrontational bully-personality, which can't tolerate dissent or differing opinions, and you have a recipe for a presidential candidate who's simply not going to be able to function effectively in the complex and partisan political arena of Washington.

The problem for Christie isn't his ability to communicate, he's an intelligent quick thinker and quite shrewd on his feet and will probably be a tough debate opponent; but he's two completely different people.

There's the "National Chris Christie" personae you've seen on talk shows or standing onstage with his jacket off fielding audience questions from carefully pre-screened crowds; and there's the "Real Chris Christie", a ruthless political operator who lies with a straight face and has morphed to embrace an extremist conservative political agenda.

Not because he believes in it the way a Ted Cruz does, but because he sees it as an avenue to power which is ultimately his real goal in a ruthlessly Koch-ian kind of way; and that kind of politician is dangerous for an America that needs consensus and visionary leadership tempered by wisdom and compassion.

While there's no doubt that Chris Christie truly covets the presidency, or that he's savvy enough to raise enough cash to run a campaign, or tough enough to take on the 14 other suitors for the GOP nod, ultimately it is he himself who is his own worst political enemy.

My prediction is that when we look back on the 2016 Republican presidential race, in some ways that's what it will be about; a tale of two Christies.