Posts tagged Chris Christie

Senator Frank Lautenberg Dies

19
2 weeks ago
by Michael Weiss in ,

Sen­a­tor Frank Laut­en­berg (D-​​NJ) died this morn­ing at the age of 89. With a DW-​​NOMINATE score of approx­i­mately –0.5, he was sig­nif­i­cantly more lib­eral than the Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­tic aver­age of about –0.36. That score put him in the com­pany of such sen­a­tors as Bar­bara Boxer (D-​​CA), Sher­rod Brown (D-​​OH), and Shel­don White­house (D-​​RI). Amer­i­cans for Demo­c­ra­tic Action said that he voted on the lib­eral side 94 per­cent of the time.

Laut­en­berg was notable for his attacks on the tobacco indus­try, includ­ing ini­ti­at­ing the ban on smok­ing on com­mer­cial flights, and his sup­port of Amtrak. He was also the last Sen­a­tor to have served in the mil­i­tary dur­ing World War II.

Beyond his pub­lic ser­vice, Laut­en­berg was one of the founders of pay­roll giant ADP.

Gov­er­nor Chris Christie will appoint Lautenberg’s suc­ces­sor, which prob­a­bly means the seat will be filled by a Repub­li­can. While it is unlikely that Christie’s choice will be in the mold of red-​​state Repub­li­cans, it is cer­tain that the junior Sen­a­tor from New Jer­sey will be sig­nif­i­cantly more con­ser­v­a­tive than Laut­en­berg. This mat­ters in terms of over­all Sen­ate vot­ing, as the Democ­rats lost a reli­able vote.

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A Really BIG Idea

18
5 months ago
by filistro in

On Jan­u­ary 2nd, 2013, Chris Christie gave a press con­fer­ence in New Jer­sey. He was incensed over Boehner’s refusal to bring a Hur­ri­cane Sandy relief bill to the floor, and (as usual) he took no pris­on­ers. “There is only one group to blame for the con­tin­ued suf­fer­ing of these inno­cent vic­tims: the House major­ity and their speaker, John Boehner,” he said. Christie went on to point out that New Jer­sey, New York and Con­necti­cut have waited 66 days and count­ing on aid from the fed­eral gov­ern­ment. And he said he worked the phones to secure votes for the pack­age, but after being given assur­ances all week­end that a bill would be voted on “there is no rea­son for me to believe any­thing [Con­gress] is telling me.” His remarks gal­va­nized Con­gress and added some extra drama to the lead­er­ship vote for embat­tled Speaker Boehner.

Because when Chris Christie talks, peo­ple listen.

With apolo­gies to Bar­bara Man­drell, I just want to affirm up front that “I was Christie when Christie wasn’t cool.” I’ve always been a big fan of the big guy.

Chris Christie Wants YOU… to think about drug rehab!

There’s some­thing about Chris Christie that appeals to me. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s a man who is so plainly com­fort­able in his own skin…and that’s a lot of skin to be comfy in! I even con­fess to furtively enjoy­ing the way he will occa­sion­ally attack and abuse peo­ple at press con­fer­ences. Some­times you just get sick of all the polit­i­cally cor­rect empa­thy and “feel your pain” blather, and yearn for a politi­cian who will bluntly say what he’s think­ing (and what lots of other peo­ple in the room are prob­a­bly think­ing as well, but are too overly cau­tious to say out loud). Far from being overly cau­tious, Chris Christie pretty much says what he thinks all the time. What other suc­cess­ful politi­cian in Amer­ica can lay claim to an entire page full of quotes like these?

I may not agree with a lot of things the man says, but I do admire him for speak­ing his mind. (more…)

Open Mic October 7

39
1 year ago
by Logarchism.com in

The End of an Era: Steve Jobs 1955–2011

Another week with no Repub­li­can debate. Chris Christie said he absolutely, pos­i­tively was not a can­di­date for Pres­i­dent; if the pat­tern holds, pun­dits will now observe that he left the door open, and spec­u­late on when he will announce. Sarah Palin, per­haps try­ing to steal Christie’s moment in the spot­light, declared she is also not a can­di­date. SCOTUS began its new term. Sen­a­tor Harry Reid launched a nuclear test, so to speak. The Nobel com­mit­tee gave an award for dark energy. The com­puter indus­try, and the world, lost a vision­ary.

So many things to talk about, and the ball’s in your court. What’s on your mind?

Don’t see an arti­cle on a par­tic­u­lar topic, but want to talk about it some­where? This is Open Mic. Talk about what­ever you want, but stay respectful.

We cre­ate a new Open Mic every week to give a clean slate, but feel free to add to this topic at any time.

Christie’s Out

40
1 year ago
by Michael Weiss in

“Am I ready yet? Hmmm…”

No, really. He means it this time. Chris Christie is absolutely, pos­i­tively not run­ning for Pres­i­dent. In a 1PM (EDT) press con­fer­ence, Christie is expected to announce that he is not going to enter the race.

Gov­er­nor Chris Christie would have had to thread a nee­dle in run­ning for Pres­i­dent. He’s late to the game, which in most cycles is the kiss of death. In fact, just yes­ter­day Nate Sil­ver wrote about just how hard it is to turn a late run into victory.

True, the polls con­tinue to sug­gest that Repub­li­cans are look­ing for a good alter­na­tive to Mitt Rom­ney. And the list of pos­si­ble (and now unlikely) unRom­neys has been long: Sarah Palin, Don­ald Trump, Tim Paw­lenty, Michele Bach­mann, Rick Perry… (more…)

Open Mic September 30

90
1 year ago
by Logarchism.com in
Open Mic Afternoon

Your turn at the mic

There was no Repub­li­can debate this last week. Perry fell in the polls any­way, while those being polled were rais­ing Cain, the “fla­vor of the week”. Chris Christie wavered slightly on his ear­lier insis­tence that he’s not a can­di­date for Pres­i­dent, lead­ing most “pro­fes­sional” com­men­ta­tors to spec­u­late about his inten­tions and and about when he’ll get into the race. The Chi­nese launched their first space sta­tion into orbit. Mes­sen­ger, NASA’s Mer­cury orbiter, returned spec­tac­u­lar pho­tographs and a wealth of data. A flock of way­ward neu­tri­nos report­edly broke the speed limit. No indi­ca­tion of whether they got pulled over and cited.

Don’t see an arti­cle on a par­tic­u­lar topic, but want to talk about it some­where? This is Open Mic. Talk about what­ever you want, but stay respectful.

We cre­ate a new Open Mic every week to give a clean slate, but feel free to add to this topic at any time.

Open Mic August 19

57
1 year ago
by Logarchism.com in

What hap­pened this week?

Michele Bach­mann won the Ames Straw Poll. Rick Perry declared him­self a can­di­date. Chris Christie and Paul Ryan are flirt­ing, though not with each other. Every­one ignored Ron Paul, except the peo­ple who put him into a vir­tual tie with Bach­mann in Ames. Wis­con­sin com­pleted its his­toric batch of recalls. The DJIA con­tin­ued doing strange things. Pres­i­dent Obama went on a brief bus tour to pro­mote jobs, while Repub­li­cans got their usual knee-​​jerk hate-​​on. Rebels made great head­way in Libya, but they might have been led by Ron Paul for all the press they got. Until Gad­hafi started pack­ing, any­way. Euro­pean mar­kets took a beat­ing. Gold hit a record high. IBM announced “cog­ni­tive com­put­ers.”

Don’t see an arti­cle on a par­tic­u­lar topic, but want to talk about it some­where? This is Open Mic. Talk about what­ever you want, but stay respectful.

We cre­ate a new Open Mic every week to give a clean slate, but feel free to add to this topic at any time.

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