Chris Christie just ended his 2016 hopes.
Last week, Chris Christie renominated the current Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, Democrat Stuart Rabner, to another term in office. This was smart New Jersey politics, but not smart national politics, especially if he wants to win over conservatives in a GOP primary in two years. Nominating a Democrat to the Court? Yeah, that will not go over well among the true believers.
“If he’s president then we can expect a Christie Court to look no different from an Obama Court,” conservative activist Brent Bozell said in a statement. […]
The reaction from national conservative activists, as reported by Eliana Johnson of National Review, has been very negative. Brent Bozell said Christie flipped “his middle finger at conservatives,” and Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network told Johnson that Christie “is showing Republicans that the priority he places on the judiciary is very low.” Christie defended his decision by saying, “The fact is that when you compromise you don’t get everything you want.” The problem Christie faces, though, is convincing conservative activists that he actually wants the same things they do.
To these conservatives, compromise is a mortal sin.
How many times can Christie end his 2016 hopes? I think we are on five times and counting.
And if there is anything that we know about conservatives, their litmus tests and elections is that they’ll turn out for whoever is at the top of the ticket. They’ll bitch about it, but they’ll do it.
“The problem Christie faces, though, is convincing conservative activists that he actually wants the same things they do.”
Conservative activists are nihilists. Anyone who wants the same things they do is looking to go out in a blaze of glory, because they know they are losing and if they can’t have the country, nobody can have her.
If the same primary schedule persists as in 2012, then Christie will not make it past Super Tuesday. It is front loaded with wing nut packed states that vote for their ilk. All of which explains the weak appeal of republicans in the general election.
As for his re-appoint of a democratic Chief Justice, it was part of a deal that he struck with NJ democrats. In typical wing nut myopia, they fail to recognize that Christie gets a chance to appoint far more conservative judges in lower courts. For all the republican hue and cry about NJ’s out of control judiciary, more will be done to remedy that with multiple appointments that Christie can make than the one Chief Justice he gave up.
The art of governing through compromise….what a notion.
I am going to vote for the republican nominee for president in 2016. I hope with all my heart it is not Chris Christy. He is not conservative enough, but my decision has nothing to do with his recent appointments or bridge gate, I just want a better person to run the country
“….going to vote for the republican nominee…”
“…..I just want a better person to run the country….”
With. No. Irony. At. All.
RustyD – Common ground!! It is my fervent hope that you get a GOP nominee who is “conservative enough.”