Bad form by Christopher Christie
I was stunned to read U.S. Attorney General Christopher Christie's comments criticizing the state's political leadership in response to attempts by two state senators to block the nomination of Attorney General Stuart Rabner as chief justice of the state Supreme Court.
Speaking before a group of law enforcement officers Wednesday, Christie said Rabner was a victim "of the latest example of the pettiness and the cowardice and dirt of Trenton...This is the typical pettiness and garbage."
Christie not only attacked the state senators who were using senatorial courtesy to block the nomination, but Gov. Corzine, who nominated Rabner, and Sen. John Adler, D-Camden, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He criticized Corzine for not immediately coming to Rabner's defense and called Adler "a third rank bureaucrat" for saying he wouldn't hold a confirmation hearing without approval from Sen. Nia Gill, D-Essex, one of two senators blocking the nomination. The other, Ronald Rice, D-Essex, has since withdrawn his opposition.
I agree with much of what Christie said. Rabner served as a corruption-busting federal prosecutor under Christie before he left to join the Corzine administration, first as his chief counsel and later as his attorney general. He was Christie's boy, and he has always gone to bat for him.
But it was totally inappropriate for Christie, a Republican appointee of President Bush, to take partisan jabs, particularly before an audience of law enforcement officers.
Speaking before a group of law enforcement officers Wednesday, Christie said Rabner was a victim "of the latest example of the pettiness and the cowardice and dirt of Trenton...This is the typical pettiness and garbage."
Christie not only attacked the state senators who were using senatorial courtesy to block the nomination, but Gov. Corzine, who nominated Rabner, and Sen. John Adler, D-Camden, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He criticized Corzine for not immediately coming to Rabner's defense and called Adler "a third rank bureaucrat" for saying he wouldn't hold a confirmation hearing without approval from Sen. Nia Gill, D-Essex, one of two senators blocking the nomination. The other, Ronald Rice, D-Essex, has since withdrawn his opposition.
I agree with much of what Christie said. Rabner served as a corruption-busting federal prosecutor under Christie before he left to join the Corzine administration, first as his chief counsel and later as his attorney general. He was Christie's boy, and he has always gone to bat for him.
But it was totally inappropriate for Christie, a Republican appointee of President Bush, to take partisan jabs, particularly before an audience of law enforcement officers.
posted by Randy Bergmann at 10:05 AM
5 Comments:
Like Superior Court Judge Bill Mathesius, Christie didn't forfeit his First Amendment rights when he took his oath of office.
Newspapers have been saying it. Bloggers have been saying it. We need more office holders, as well as business and civic leaders saying it. Trenton is a dysfunctional morass of incompetence and corruption.
I hope Christie keeps saying it, and that other leaders abandon the propriety that enables the mess and speak up too.
Mr. Bergmann- while you may disagree with the tone and substance of what was said. The bottomline is, is that Mr. Christie is about the only law enforcement officer that the State politicians are afraid of. They simply don't listen to anyone else other than their political Bosses.
One also has to remember there is a bit of history here with Senator's Adler and Gill, regarding the Senate Judiciary Committee that should be taken into account.
Plus it seems Gill is stepping into the "whats in it for me before I sign off" mode that made Sharpe James such a legendary NJ politician.
While I agree that politics should have reasonable discourse, one also has to acknowledge, that this State government, is a firmly entrenched, money making, job creating machine, especially if you have connections to it. Its going to take a hard man to even get it to remotely slowdown. Christie just may have juice and the will to shut it down.
We'll see.
It may be "bad form", but kudos to Mr. Christie for speaking his mind. At least someone of rank has the nerve to recognize just more seemy NJ politics. No wonder good people leave NJ when they have the option.
Chris Christie is running for Governor. He may not have announced as much, but he is. Moreover, his political ambitions very much influence how he runs the US Attorney's office here in New Jersey. (e.g., He is prosecuting Senator Wayne Bryant, a Democrat, for corruption while announcing that he will not prosecute former Senator John Bennett, a Republican, for doing basically the same thing.)
Chris Christie is as corrupt as the rest of them.
Big fish eat little fish.
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