I find myself in the unenviable position of agreeing with Republican Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey. At least in terms of this ridiculousness regarding relief money for Hurricane Sandy. But let’s not get too excited that this somehow means a shift in the Republican party towards some semblance of sanity. Here’s Governor Christie on Congress’ refusal to hold a vote for Sandy relief.

Last night the House of Representatives failed that most basic test of public service, and they did so with callous indifference to the suffering of the people of my state,” said Christie. “Sixty-six days and counting — shame on you. Shame on Congress. Despite my anger and disappointment, my hope is that the good people in Congress — and there are good people in Congress — will prevail upon their colleagues to finally, finally put aside the politics and help our people now.

Well said, Governor. I couldn’t agree with you more. Unfortunately, we’ve never seen this attitude toward public service manifest in you before, say in regards to health care. You wanna hear about callous indifference to suffering in his state? Let’s talk about New Jersey’s uninsured population. According to New Jersey Policy Perspective, N.J. Division of Human Services, approximately 1.2 to 1.3 million people are without health insurance. A situation that could be mostly remedied by the expansion of Medicaid proposed in the Affordable Care Act. I mean sure, the program expansion would be overwhelmingly paid for through Federal dollars. But who cares about suffering when you can score cheap political points regarding “big government?” The article continued.

Christie said he was not given an explanation as to why the vote did not take place Tuesday. He added that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) placed a call to him at 11:20 p.m. to inform him that the speaker had decided not to schedule one. Christie then called Boehner four times, and Boehner did not call him back.

Other than the hypocritical political grandstanding on a level to make me want to projectile vomit, I’m also sick of the others, both progressive and otherwise looking at this rare moment of sanity as evidence that the party can be turned around. Or even better that Christie is the one to turn it around. Yeah, no. Republican Governors from deep blue states have a history of being a tad more reasonable than their colleagues in safe gerrymandered Congressional districts. And when it comes to Federal money, they love it! Especially when it’s for their states. Mitt Romney used to brag about how much Federal money he could bring to Massachusetts back when he was running for governor. I guess that means we can look forward to Christie talking about the evils of the accepting Federal money in a few years once he’s officially running for President. But back in the present day, Christie continued his tirade:

There is no reason for me to believe anything they tell me,” he said, referring to the House GOP.

Nothing has changed folks. Let’s remember numerous conservatives pre-blamed Christie for Obama’s victory for having the temerity to say that Obama was doing a good job in terms of the initial Hurricane Sandy response. Here’s Rupert Murdoch:

Murdoch, after watching Christie and President Obama put politics aside and work together in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, tweeted that Christie “must re-declare for Romney, or take blame for next four dire years.

To paraphrase Governor Christie in the original article, there’s no reason to believe anything any of these guys tell you. And that includes Representative Peter King taking time off his busy schedule attacking Muslims and threatening to leave the Republican party over the Sandy relief fiasco. We shouldn’t believe that some sort of sense has taken root in the conservative psyche. It’s the same old song and dance, my friends.

Categories: Politics Fix