In typical Chris Christie manner, he is known as “The Bully“, he lashed out at the media and blasted President Barack Obama’s leadership during Thursday’s gathering of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC.)
Christie took on Obama asking, “Mr. President, what the hell are we paying you for?”
“Leadership,” Christie said, “is not about standing on the sidelines and spit-balling.”
Christie again attacking the president on foreign policy: “We need to make sure we say we are for America being a leader in the world and we are for a strong national defense, not one that allows other countries to run us over all over the world.”
This was first major speech Christie has made since his administration’s continuing scandal. A scandal that included events in which people should be asking him the question, “what the hell are we paying you for.”
Christie has been in a whirlwind of scandal since he took office as Governor of New Jersey in November 2009. Some believe the latest could have destroyed his chances of a successful run at the 2016 presidential election.
The latest scandal included a public release of emails showing that Christie’s top aides shut off lanes to the George Washington Bridge, cutting off transportation to a small town as political retribution against the town’s mayor, who didn’t support him.
In another controversy surrounding Christie, Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer has stated that Christie directly ordered the withholding of Superstorm Sandy recovery funds unless she backed a redevelopment plan he favored.
Since Zimmer’s accusations, other city officials have come out of the woodwork, one is the Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich whose city was affected by the bridge scandal. According to CNN, Sokolich seemed outraged after learning that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s appointees had apparently targeted his town as part of a political vendetta, orchestrating traffic jams because he hadn’t endorsed the governor.
Then came Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulor who, after admitting he did not support Christie, was completely cut off from scheduled meetings. This left Jersey City attempting to fill its budget without money from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, its requests for help with Hurricane Sandy recovery, transportation and other issues falling on deaf ears.
Just to name a few.
It was Jonathan Chait, who said about the barrage of scandals, “they will probably destroy Christie’s chances in 2016.” And if this doesn’t do it, Christie is likely to do something else to destroy his chances in 2016.
Christie was invited this year at CPAC after not being invited last year, a insult that might have resulted, in part, from his praise of Obama during Hurricane Sandy, which many Republicans believe helped boost the Democrat back into the White House.
Christie made good this year, though, for his Republican base, his speech contained plenty of anti-Obama comments to satisfy the audience.
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