The Trouble with Chris Christie
The Trouble With Chris Christie
by Chris Hedges
Published on Monday, January 13, 2014 by TruthDig.com
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been Wall Street’s anointed son for the presidency. He is backed by the most ruthless and corrupt figures in New Jersey politics, including the New Jersey multimillionaire and hard-line Democratic boss George Norcross III. Among his other supporters are many hedge fund managers and corporate executives and some of the nation’s most retrograde billionaires, including the Koch brothers. The brewing scandal over the closing of traffic lanes on the George Washington Bridge apparently in retaliation for the Fort Lee mayor’s refusal to support the governor’s 2013 re-election is a window into how federal agencies and the security and surveillance apparatus would be routinely employed in a Christie presidency to punish anyone who challenged this tiny cabal’s grip on power.
Christie is the caricature of a Third World despot. He has a vicious temper, a propensity to bully and belittle those weaker than himself, an insatiable thirst for revenge against real or perceived enemies, and little respect for the law and, as recent events have made clear, for the truth. He is gripped by a bottomless hedonism that includes a demand for private jets, huge entourages, exclusive hotels and lavish meals. Wall Street and the security and surveillance apparatus want a real son of a bitch in power, someone with the moral compass of Al Capone, in order to ruthlessly silence and crush those of us who are working to overthrow the corporate state. They have had enough of what they perceive to be Barack Obama’s softness. Christie fits the profile and he is drooling for the opportunity.
Activists, Democratic and Republican rivals for power, liberals, reformers and environmentalists will, if Christie becomes president, see the vast forces of the security state surge into overdrive to stymie and reverse reform, gut our tepid financial and environmental regulations, further enrich the corporate elite who are pillaging the country, and savagely shut down all dissent. The corporate state’s repression, now on the brink of totalitarianism, would with the help of Christie, his corporate backers and his tea party loyalists become a full-blown corporate fascism.
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.
Christie is pitched to the public, as was George W. Bush, as a regular guy, someone who speaks bluntly and candidly, someone you would want to have a beer with. But this is public relations crap. He is and has long been a hatchet man for corporate firms and big banks. He began his career as a corporate lobbyist in Trenton, N.J., working for clients such as the Securities Industry Association. He has done their bidding ever since. His wife, Mary Pat Christie, is a bond trader who has worked at JPMorgan Chase, Fleet Securities and Cantor Fitzgerald and is currently a managing director at Angelo Gordon, an investment firm in New York.
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http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/01/13
= new reply since forum marked as read
The Chris Christie Show will run for the next two years, the guy's ideas will get heard, his spokesturds will use up the media oxygen (supplied by the same owner/operators who stand to make trillions from trickle-down voodoo econ). By the time Hedges and the journalists with integrity get done with him, the giant zeppliner will have so many holes in it only a few paid staffers will salute its passing by. Meanwhile, like magic, the untarnished star will rise from the wings, Jebthro.
And if Christie should survive and win the nom, Jebthro will be the GOP choice for running mate. And you know what that means, gordianot: Bet the under.
The guv reminds me of a guy who's got his eyes set on Fort Knox.
His work: Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish gave me the idea. Before Beefheart, Ian Fleming wrote that the people of Bahamas occasionally referred to such a creature in "Dr. No." Probably all before your time. Going by what you add to my posts on DU, that should be no problem.
Why I use it is to remind DUers about the Octopus: what Danny Casolaro called the long line of treason committed by the War Party over the last century. In this thread, it's the bagmen, warmongers and greedheads that have done so much to harm democracy, justice, the United States and the planet. For short, I call them the War Party the BFEE in honor of their bagmen, the Bush Family Evil Empire.
Oh, yeah. Almost forgot. Why are you snooper2? Was there a snooper1?
He is small potatoes, perhaps potato salad now compared to the alleged author Of "Unintimidated"-Scott Kevin WALKER--who shares quite a few characteristics with Christie (not geographically). That said, thanks for starting this thread Sir.
Scott Kevin WALKER (SourceWatch entries)
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Scott_Walker
WALKER may end up running for POTUS or something ...
Repairman Jack (F. Paul Wilson's official site)
http://www.repairmanjack.com
K&R