Monday, June 10, 2013

Rubin: 'Maybe Christie got it exactly right in New Jersey'

The Washinton Post's Jennifer Rubin doesn't pull any punches when it comes to tea party criticism of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie:
It is fitting, I suppose, that the right-wing screechers have it so wrong again. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is the most popular politician in the country, but they hate him. They have generally fallen for pols who are anathemas to everyone but them (Rick Santorum, Sharron Angle, Richard Mourdock, Todd Aiken), so it make sense that the Republicans who appeal to a wide cross-section of voters are anathemas to the crowd that seeks refuge in policy positions — be it gay marriage or immigration — rejected by so many Americans.

It just might be that Christie, who is super-popular in a deep-blue state, understands New Jersey and its voters a tad better than talk-show hosts, junior lawmakers from deep-red locales and right-wing bloggers with fewer readers than there are residents of Newark. They are excoriating Christie for setting the U.S. Senate special election for October rather than holding out until November 2014.
Rubin goes on to make the case that a Republican winning the U.S. Senate seat left open by the death of Sen. Frank Lautenberg is a long shot but there are even more reasons for having separate elections, as she lays out in her column.

It is easy to get caught up in the anti-Democrat echo chamber but Rubin hits the nail on the head as she concludes:
It’s a challenge for any elected Republican to screen out the noise from pundits and far-right lawmakers. But Trenton, in a lot of ways, is far from D.C., and Christie is a confident man. Maybe that is why his staff seems indifferent to the fussing of national right-wing pundits. A Republican doesn’t get to a 20- or 30-point lead in New Jersey by being a sap.

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