Chubby Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey and the latest GOP "golden boy" came out and blasted the Obama administration this week because his state lost out on "Race to the Top" money in the hundreds of million for education all because of a clerical error.
Turns out it was actually all Christie's education commissioner's fault.
It also turns out he was caught on tape screwing it up.
So now Christie has fired him (the guy, who is a Republican, wanted to be fired rather than resign so he could get unemployment, go figure)to show he's "accountable".
Well if he was really accountable he would go on TV and apologize to the Obama administration.
I won't hold my breath though...
A clerical mistake in the state’s grant application had led the state to come up short by just three points in the high-stakes competition, known as Race to the Top. Mr. Christie had defended his administration’s actions on Wednesday, in part by insisting that Mr. Schundler had provided the correct information to federal reviewers in an interview two weeks ago.
But federal officials released a video on Thursday showing that Mr. Schundler and his administration had not provided the information when asked. Mr. Christie, asked later Thursday about the videotape in a radio interview, said he would be seriously disappointed if it turned out he had been misled.
That same evening, the governor’s chief of staff, Richard H. Bagger, called Mr. Schundler to ask for his resignation, Mr. Schundler said in an interview.
Mr. Schundler said he told Mr. Bagger that he was willing to resign. “I said I know that I serve at the will of the governor, so if he would like me to leave I would leave,” he said.
But on Friday morning, Mr. Schundler said, he asked Mr. Bagger if he could instead be fired, citing his need for the unemployment benefits.
First I would like you to take a look at this attack ad from New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine directed at his opponent Chris Christie.
Now I want you to read this description of the ad in the New York Times.
It is about as subtle as a playground taunt: a television ad for Gov. Jon S. Corzine shows his challenger, Christopher J. Christie, stepping out of an S.U.V. in extreme slow motion, his extra girth moving, just as slowly, in several different directions at once.
In case viewers missed the point, a narrator snidely intones that Mr. Christie “threw his weight around” to avoid getting traffic tickets.
In the ugly New Jersey contest for governor, Mr. Corzine and Mr. Christie have traded all sorts of shots, over mothers and mammograms, loans and lying. But now, Mr. Corzine’s campaign is calling attention to his rival’s corpulence in increasingly overt ways.
Mr. Corzine’s television commercials and Web videos feature unattractive images of Mr. Christie, sometimes shot from the side or backside, highlighting his heft, jowls and double chin. Meanwhile, Mr. Corzine, 62, is conspicuously running in 5- and 10-kilometer races almost every weekend, as he did last Saturday and Sunday, underscoring his athleticism and readiness for the physical demands of another term — and raising doubts about Mr. Christie’s.
Next, he and a fellow fitness buff, Mayor Cory A. Booker of Newark, will run through the streets of that city together next Tuesday.
The governor denies that he is deliberately ridiculing Mr. Christie’s weight, and tries to make light of such suggestions. “There isn’t a candidate in the world that likes how they’re depicted in their opponent’s ads,” Mr. Corzine said on Friday, smiling as he lamented that some have shown his bald pate. “Seems to be some sensitivity going on here.”
But the unflattering depictions of Mr. Christie, a Republican who has long struggled with his size, have been the talk of the political world in New Jersey, with Democrats snickering and Christie supporters privately complaining. The governor’s latest ad, which featured the “threw his weight around” line and was expected to be seen by some viewers as many as 10 times, brought sharp reaction, even from those who like Mr. Corzine.
“There’s no subtlety there,” said Bill Baroni, a Republican state senator from Hamilton who lost 130 pounds starting 15 years ago. “That’s not a randomly chosen phrase. It’s purposeful. And it’s offensive.”
Mr. Baroni said that Mr. Corzine risked a backlash from the “tens of thousands” of New Jerseyans who struggle with their weight. “It is a lifetime battle,” he said. “And it’s made harder when people that you expect better from make fun of you.”
Mr. Christie calls the ad “silly” and “stupid,” but there are signs that the images may be contributing to a more negative view of Mr. Christie.
Does that description line up with what you saw? It didn't for me. Not really much at all.
To be honest with you I have only followed Jon Corzine's campaign superficially. When something major has come up I have tried to post about it just off general principle, but its not like I have been gung ho about defending or promoting the guy's campaign. But the truth is the truth is the truth and I don't think it is being told in the New York Times article. It appears instead to be almost a concerted effort to attack Corzine at a soft spot where he might lose support,people who have dealt or are dealing with obesity issues. Journalists know that most people are lazy and won't actually go to watch the video for themselves. Instead we rely on them to give us an accurate picture of such a video and tell us how we should feel about it.
Now I myself am far from being a small guy, and I know how it feels to be ridiculed and made fun of for being fat growing up. But if I had watched this video without every having read the article I don't think I would have even paid much attention to that last shot of Christie getting out of the truck. For that matter it wouldn't have registered to me that "throwing his weight around" was some kind of veiled shot at him for being fat. But you would think from the description that the entirety of the ad was one big fat joke making fun of Christie's weight. For the overwhelming majority of the ad you don't even see any images of Christie and at first when you do all you see is a head shot. And then because there is a slow motion shot of him getting out of a truck in a shirt and tie Christie is making fun of all fat people? What exactly were the ad people supposed to do, photoshop Christie into a skinny guy? Maybe even most curious of all is that the article makes no mention of the actual charges in the ad which you have to admit are pretty serious.
Now I am not claiming that the New York Times is trying to somehow actively prejudice voters against Corzine in his reelection bid. But I AM saying that this was a pretty shitty piece of journalism not grounded in the facts from my perspective.
Everything else being equal, I don't think women in New Jersey are going to be too eager to vote for Chris Cristie after seeing this video of him defending the health insurance companies' "right" to deny coverage for mammograms. Its not just that breast cancer is such a major worry for most women, its also his curt and dismissive attitude towards the woman asking him the question, herself a cancer survivor. Now its just a matter of Jon Corzine really making this exchange widely available in state.
The RNC makes a funny. The really funny part however is that I expect after the ass kicking they recieve next fall, the surviving GOP members will start trying to paint themselves as "Obama Republicans".
In related news, Republican candidate for governor of New Jersey*, Chris Christie has endorsed Judge Sotomayor's candidacy to the Supreme Court. Hmmm not only does his endorsement mean less than nothing, its also at odds with the majority of Republicans in the Senate. I wonder why he would announce the endorsement of President Obama's nominee...
*Updated to correct the state where Chris Christie is runnng for governor.
Evidently there are still some Republicans running for office who don't mind keeping it real. While all of the GOP pundit, strategists and bloggers are spinning furiously over Sarah Palin's future with the party, at least two Republican candidates aren't buying it.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sarah Palin's decision to step down as Alaska governor was driven in part by her wish to help Republican candidates across the country, associates say.
But in New Jersey and Virginia, two states with competitive governors' races this year, the prospect of a visit from the party's 2008 vice presidential nominee has so far drawn a muted response from the GOP contenders there.
In Virginia, a historically conservative state where Barack Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate since 1964 to win, Republican Bob McDonnell said Tuesday his campaign had had conversations with the Palin camp but stopped short of saying whether he wanted her help.
snip
"I don't know how this recent announcement — which I still don't fully understand; I only know what I've read in the media — how that fully plays out and whether she's going to prefer a private life or whether she still wants to stay actively involved," McDonnell said.
In New Jersey, where President Barack Obama trounced the McCain-Palin ticket by 15 percentage points last November, state Republican Chairman Jay Webber said he'd had no contact with Palin or her team about a campaign visit on behalf of GOP candidate Chris Christie.
Several statewide polls have shown Christie, a former U.S. attorney, leading Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, who is running for re-election.
"We don't have any plans on having her in," Webber said. "We're busy working to get Chris Christie elected and telling people about the failed record of Gov. Corzine."
Of course if the economy turns around and health care reform gets passed and in turn these guys lose, of course the Bill Kristols of the world will claim that its all because they didn't invite Palin. Such is the wingnut hive mind these days.
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