Memo To Republicans: NJ Gov. Chris Christie is Not Who You Think He is

Just Because He Hates Public Employee Unions Does Not Mean He is With You All the Way




Associated Press

Chris Christie is still being pursued by

donors unhappy with Rick Perry, Mitt Romney

and other 2012 GOP candidates.

 

For months now a group of GOP donors have been trying to convince NJ Governor Chris Christie to enter the Republican race for the Presidency.  Mr. Christie keeps saying no, but that has not ended the hopes of at least a few Republicans that he will enter the race.

A determined cadre of Republican donors is casting wishful eyes on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in an 11th-hour push to persuade the former prosecutor to enter the 2012 presidential race.

The drive reflects lingering discontent in some GOP quarters over the current crop of GOP candidates, particularly since the recent stumbles of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has led in national polls of Republican voters.

NOT SO FAST REPUBLICANS.  Let’s try and remember the lesson you should have learned about Texas Gov. Rick Perry before you go off and demand a candidate about whom you know very little enter the race.  Only after Mr. Perry entered the race did Conservatives learn that he feels young girls should not get cervical cancer, and that young men and women who were brought to this country illegally as children are not really criminals, but simply young people who deserve a chance to be contributing residents like everyone else.   

Nate Silver, the quantitative genius blogger on politics of the New York Times has some information on Mr. Christie that Conservatives ought to know.  While Mr. Christie is lauded in Conservative circles for an abrasive style and his hard opposition to public employees, there are some other aspects to his agenda that are not quite as well publicized.

During the 2009 campaign, Mr. Christie sometimes critiqued Governor Corzine’s performance on the environment from the left, and he won the endorsement of the New Jersey Environmental Foundation, the first statewide Republican candidate to do so in 30 years.

           

In 2008, Mr. Christie, then a United States attorney, statedthat “being in this country without proper documentation is not a crime.” The statement drew a harsh critique from CNN’s Lou Dobbs, who called for Mr. Christie’s resignation,

Mr. Christie is an opponent of both abortion rights and same sex marriage, but his campaign Web site in 2009 stated that he had “no issue with same sex couples sharing contractual rights,” an apparent reference to New Jersey’s existing civil unions law

he has been critical of Mr. Obama’s health care bill, although he annoyed some conservatives bydeclining to have New Jersey join other states in challenging the law.

Ok, this is overkill, but the point is well taken that Conservatives who are currently in love with Mr. Christie for his anti-union, anti-public employee, anti-education positions and his bullying style need to know just a little more before they go further down the road to marriage.