Can Chris Christie rescue the GOP?
Christie lent his powerful voice to that sentiment last week when he condemned as “disgusting” the House Republicans’ decision not to take up a $60 billion Hurricane Sandy recovery bill because tea-party lawmakers considered it wasteful. “That’s why people hate Washington,” Christie said at the time, helping to force House Speaker John Boehner to reconsider.
It was just the latest of Christie’s many breaks with tea-party orthodoxy. Just before the election, his effusive praise of President Obama’s “outstanding” response to Sandy earned him condemnation from Rush Limbaugh and Rupert Murdoch.
He unnerved fiscal conservatives by saying that the hurricane recovery would probably require higher taxes, because “there’s no magic money tree.” He came out against the National Rifle Association’s plan to have gun-wielding guards in schools, saying, “You don’t want to make this an armed camp for kids.” …
It’s a lesson that could help the national Republican Party loosen the tea party’s death grip.
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Wasn’t the party just “rescued” by Romney in the same way last year? That worked out well.
besser tot als rot on January 9, 2013 at 5:32 PM
Christy-Creme?
he is not the savior your looking for
lm10001 on January 9, 2013 at 5:33 PM
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Thanks, Dana, you pickle-faced liberal, helping us po’ conservatives see the error of our ways.
With all the gun-grabbing about to occur you actually bring Christie…CHRISTIE?…up as the GOP savior?
Bishop on January 9, 2013 at 5:34 PM
Christie will be a Democrat by 2016.
albill on January 9, 2013 at 5:34 PM
By rescue you mean “adds to the problem” then yes, yes he can.
roy_batty on January 9, 2013 at 5:34 PM
Um,
No…not the GOP of my father’s time.
He COULD be the leader of the Democrats of my father’s time.
The GOP of now is akin to the Democrats of several decades ago.
There is no GOP.
ProfShadow on January 9, 2013 at 5:35 PM
On the contrary, it’s the GOP that needs to be rescued from Chris Christie.
Man, I remember just a year or two ago when anyone who criticized Christie was contemptously dismissed as an extremist wingnut. And now look where we are.
Doomberg on January 9, 2013 at 5:36 PM
Republican Party is on the Ash heap of history.
portlandon on January 9, 2013 at 5:36 PM
I can’t read a byline with the name Milbank and not immediately see him in that stupid orange hunting outfit he wore on “Strap-on” Keith Olbermann’s lame show.
Stu Gotts on January 9, 2013 at 5:36 PM
You’re obviously not a student of history!
jake-the-goose on January 9, 2013 at 5:37 PM
New Rule: The media is no longer allowed to utter the phrase “tea party”. They obviously have no idea what it means.
dforston on January 9, 2013 at 5:41 PM
GADS, him again! Tired of hearing and seeing his face. Everytime chiristie opens his mouth, it makes not like him even more.
L
letget on January 9, 2013 at 5:42 PM
More concern-trolling from Milbank.
supernova on January 9, 2013 at 5:43 PM
Chris Christie is the Charlie Crist of New Jersey.
RoadRunner on January 9, 2013 at 5:44 PM
The TEA party’s motivation is representation based on taxation. For the last too many years that concept has been lost on DC.
(With all of the faux hoo-haw about the Washington Redskins’ team name, it might be more appropriate to call them the Washington BigWigs. It fits that 18th-century Founding Fathers look and the attitude that the elite politicians have.)
Christie is doing a bang-up job on behalf of the DNC and the Muslim PACs.
onlineanalyst on January 9, 2013 at 5:46 PM
There is not Republican party because there is no leadership.
The Republican Party is dead.
portlandon on January 9, 2013 at 5:48 PM
Can Chris Christie do for the GOP what he did for Obama?
Basilsbest on January 9, 2013 at 5:50 PM
I’ve been actually pushing to call him “Crist Christie” now, I think it has a ring to it
He and Huntsman and Crist can all go play footsie to be Hillary’s lackies in 2016 I guess
thurman on January 9, 2013 at 5:56 PM
Oh yeah, by capsizing the boat?
arnold ziffel on January 9, 2013 at 6:01 PM
Rescue the GOP?
This is a joke, right?
Eat the GOP, more like…. at least as an appetizer…
rightwingyahooo on January 9, 2013 at 6:07 PM
This is probably true.
Mimzey on January 9, 2013 at 6:13 PM
Crist and Christie should run in 2016 on the No Labels tecket. They can do a pretty good Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
Ted Torgerson on January 9, 2013 at 6:21 PM
Good God, I hope not!
Hill60 on January 9, 2013 at 6:22 PM
Let’s see, Christie reads widely known polls that show the American public’s trust in government, and in particular the Congress, to be at historic lows, and that the public hates both parties fairly equally. Then he notices that the GOP base hates their speaker to the point where he had just suffered a massive rebuke by having to pull his own legislation. In fact, Christie may have even read a story or two about how Boehner may not even be reelected to his position as Speaker, because some Tea Party guys are going to stage a coup!
Then he gets in front of a microphone and excoriates Congress, and Boehner in particular.
That’s a maverick for you!
Except that, as I noted earlier, pulling the Sandy relief bill is about the only thing in the last couple of years that Boehner has done that the base favored.
Oops!
Perhaps this explains why Christie was groveling to some media whore a few hours ago about how the Tea Party doesn’t have undo influence in the GOP, and that they are a voice that deserves to be heard at the table.
Christie talks out of both sides of his mouth.
Mr. Arkadin on January 9, 2013 at 6:30 PM
Watch that Tea Party element – they’ve imposed crippling cuts to the federal budget already, which will result in 100 million dead Grandmas (CBO estimate). Before that they tried to get arch fascist Romney elected President.
Thank you Dana – we need more women like you in the media.
CorporatePiggy on January 9, 2013 at 6:47 PM
..seriously, when they wake up from their binge-and-Obama-circle-jerk, they’ll realize they will be offering the peeps either Hillary-the-Tumor or Gaff-o-Matic as a presidential option and will probably draft draft his immense ass.
The War Planner on January 9, 2013 at 6:50 PM
Thinking like this is why the GOP is in trouble.
D.L.Mc on January 9, 2013 at 6:56 PM
There’s really no reason he can’t run as a Democrat.
Sure he made a lot of noise about the unions but that’s easily fixable. On everything else from the size of government to gun grabbing, he’s reliably blue. Heck, the MSM would call him a Reagan-style centrist for the 21st century.
CorporatePiggy on January 9, 2013 at 7:22 PM