I am among those who believe Chris Christie is now toast, so, as my good news post of the week, I pass on for your consideration a few thoughts about what we may have avoided. Via naked capitalism, I came across this article, which gives us chapter and verse on the Christie threat. We are reminded once again, as our parents taught us, that you can learn a lot about somebody by the company they keep:
Wall Street was unable to mask Mitt Romney’s cloying sense of entitlement and elitism, along with his Mr. Rogers blandness. But Wall Street sees in the profane, union-busting New Jersey governor the perfect Trojan horse for unfettered corporate power. Christie, eyeing a bid for the presidency in the 2016 election, has been promised massive financial backing by the Koch brothers; hedge fund titans such as Stanley Druckenmiller, Kenneth C. Griffin, Daniel S. Loeb, Paul E. Singer, Paul Tudor Jones II and David Tepper; financiers such as Charles Schwab and Stephen A. Schwarzman; real estate magnate Mort Zuckerman; former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso; former AIG head Maurice “Hank” Greenberg; former Morgan Stanley CEO John J. Mack; former GE Chairman Jack Welch; and Home Depot founder Kenneth Langone. David Koch has called Christie “a true political hero” and said he is “inspired by this man.” Rupert Murdoch, whose ethics seem to align with Christie’s, is similarly besotted with the governor.
Talk about the scum of the earth. But it's not just the rich that are drooling at the prospect of a Christie presidency. Even die hard Watergate fans will concede that Nixon looks like a kind and gentle soul next to Christie, and as to his potential abuse of the national security state, Nixon can only turn jealously in his grave. The CIA would love the guy.
Do read the entire piece. It's great fun. I agree the Kochs and their ilk will probably get to choose the next Republican nominee, but Christie is one they had a chance to sell to the country, and now that chance is gone. It will, thank the stars (or whatever controls our fates) take them, like the pundits, a while to understand that. They won't want to believe it, cause the pickin's are mighty slim with Christie gone, and they will waste precious time trying to salvage Christie before they accept reality.
I never thought much of Christie's chances, even before Bridgegate, but, if you buy into the theory of alternate universes, there is at least one where, absent the release of those emails, Christie would have become president, and that universe might have been ours. (Okay, if we grant that theory, there's still at least one where he ends up as president, but that strains credulity. )
So, good news. We have likely avoided what could have been (lets face it, still will be, but not as bad) a terrible four years.
But, of course, if he somehow gets elected anyway, I will have to eat these words, though it will be the least of all our problems.
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