Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Republicans, Not Christie, Face Difficult Decision

Did you know that Friday June 7, 2013 is National Doughnut Day?  It is observed each year on the first Friday in June in commemoration of the original “Doughnut Day” event created by the Salvation Army to honor women who served doughnuts to soldiers during WW I.
National Doughnut Day…mmmm!  What could be better?
Speaking of doughnuts…Chris Christie is in the news again.  As the sitting governor of New Jersey, the round mound of sound has the powerful yet unenviable task of naming a successor to fill the senate seat of the recently departed Frank Lautenberg.
Naturally the media is all a twitter over the host of both legal and political consequences Christie faces as he contemplates his decision.
Does he replace the Democrat Lautenberg with another Democrat who will run in the next election?  This will anger the National Republican Party whose support he needs if he is considering a run at the White House in 2016.  But it will appease Democratic donors who are already pouring money into his 2013 re-election coffers.  Christie, a Republican governor in a blue state, must have their support to win another term.
Does he replace Lautenberg with a Republican who will run in the next election?  This will appease Republicans who are still questioning his loyalty after his post Hurricane Sandy “bromance” with Obama.  But it will tick off those wealthy Democrat donors we mentioned earlier.
Or does Christie appoint a placeholder willing to finish out Lautenberg’s term with no interest in running for a full term?
Here’s the thing that seems to be missing from this discussion.
The Republican Party has lost the popular vote in five of the last six national elections.  They lost the last two to a black freshman senator with a Muslim sounding name by statistical landslides. 
Christie is a Republican Governor with a 74% approval rating in a traditionally very, very blue state. Right Wing Republicans may be pissed at him for embracing Obama’s handling of Hurricane Katrina, but the voters are not.  In that one short visit Christie and the president gave the people what they have been longing for a very long time…finding common ground for the good of the people.
Christie can appoint whomever he wants to fill Lautenberg’s seat...it really doesn’t matter.  He WILL win re-election and he WILL be a viable Republican candidate for the White house in 2016.  Because Chris Christie is doing something that Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and all the other right wing fire breathers have been unable to do…reach across party lines, find compromise and govern.
So it is the Republican Party that faces the difficult decision here…not Chris Christie.  Do they support a very popular member of their own party and win?  Or do they listen once again to the rhetoric of the fire breathers and continue along their current path toward political irrelevance on the national stage?              

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