[img]1640|right|Arthur Christopher Schaper||no_popup[/img]Four years ago, U.S. Atty. Chris Christie became the governor of New Jersey following the failed plutocrat Jon Corzine, who had bought his way into the U.S. Senate and then the governor’s mansion in Trenton. He was refreshing, bombastic but breezy when compared to the hot air of the Obama administration and other agencies committed to making Big Government larger.
Christie stole the spotlight. He stood up to constituents. He told off teachers who demanded more money and benefits, even though students were getting less education and the taxpayers were getting less for their tax dollars. He hammered home the point that Gov. Corzine had raised taxes one hundred and ten times. Using broad Augustan powers granted to the New Jersey governor (per Washington Post columnist George Will), Christie cut taxes, spending, and upended the spending spree.
Overnight, he turned into a rock star for the Right, for the Tea Party, and for everyone who was looking for a Republican who could talk. He defended his tough talking stance on Fox News and MSNBC. He rejected massive government projects, including a subway tunnel that would have eased traffic “ease traffic” but not ease the tax burden on New Jersey. Bus fares already doubled just to make up for heavy state costs. Public sector employees were receiving 96 percent of their pensions and benefits bought and paid for out of Trenton. The “gimme money and get my vote” collusion of statehouse and Union Hall had come to an end with Christie. He survived death threats from union leaders, in part by working with private sector union interests who represented the statehouse.
Will He Run? Well, Will He?
Two years ago came the whisperings of a Christie campaign for President. Frontrunner Mitt Romney was watered-down rum. The rest were just the rest. Christie turned down the idea of a late hour run. He said he was more interested in being a red state governor in a blue state where he could steer the government back into the black. He was real, he was big, and he posed a threat to any double-dealing Democrat who would talk up a good game that everyone would get what the government promises, yet no one would have to pay for it. “It is not my time,” Christie said. Again last year, he rebuffed conservatives at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley when they asked him to reconsider his refusal to run. The weak Republican field was stagnant, even after choosing a nominee.
I recall one woman in the Reagan Library audience calling out, “Governor, we need you.” This is the rhetoric coming from conservatives today? The whole concept behind conservatism is not needing government, not needing the right people in power to do the right things, but getting the government to do as little as possible, and leaving the right things to the right people, you and me.
Summer 2012, and Christie was fighting with people along the New Jersey Boardwalk. In 2011, he had shouted: “Get the hell off the beach” in the face of Hurricane Irene. Last October when Superstorm Sandy showed up, President Obama also did, and he was rewarded with a big hug and a healthy does of gratitude. At the time, I did not care. Twice, horrific storms had torn up the New Jersey coastline. Any help from the federal government was good. Then Christie censured the Republican majority in the House of Representatives for refusing to pass the pork-laden emergency federal aid, subsidies which went far and wide to unaffected constituencies, far from the northeast. I gave Christie a pass, convinced he was shaking up Republicans to get them to refocus.
A Different Christie
Then came his attacks on the NRA, which had exposed the hypocrisy of President Obama’s stance on gun control. “Reprehensible,” was Christie’s response, followed by his push for tougher, irresponsible gun control laws, all while Trenton and Camden are crime-wave wastelands, and gun-free Chicago boasts the highest murder rate in 2012. Christie’s take on teacher tenure was not enough. He coddles up with the Democratic hoi polloi. He threw Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin of Missouri under the bus because of one stray remark. He agrees with Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic governor of New York, 98 percent of the time. Now he is calling a special election to replace deceased Democrat Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a politically savvy choice that promotes his re-election chances while costing taxpayers millions and doing nothing for his party or his country.
How clear it is today, but not so sweet: Christie has read his own headlines. They have gone to his head. No lap-band surgery can decrease the increased sense of self, which has swelled within the governor. What a disappointment, but a much-needed disillusionment, an annulling of the silly notion that one man can save a country, can have all the answers.
Arthur Christopher Schaper is a writer on issues eternal and unchanging, timeless and timely. A lifelong Southern California resident, Arthur lives in Torrance.
Twitter – @ArthurCSchaper
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