(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Chris Christie, Giant Killer [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-06-01 To say that Chris Christie has never been my favorite politician would be an understatement. I’ve seen him for who he is, and who he is has often repulsed me. But apparently, Chris Christie is more than what he’s shown before. He is a man willing to rise to this particular occasion — in terms of the ugly thing that the Republican Party has become — and play a heroic role. He has announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in order to get onto the Republican stage and speak the truth that the Republican electorate — and the whole American electorate — needs to hear. Chris Christie knows that he will not get the nomination. He’s no fool. But he can get a microphone, and he can play a role akin to the one that Liz Cheney played on the January 6th Committee. Like Cheney, Chris Christie knows that his Party has gone over to the dark side. With Cheney, the message to her Party was that they dishonored themselves to make themselves accomplices of a Republican President who had attempted to overthrow the constitutional order they’d taken an oath to protect and defend. Chris Christie has thrown his hat into the ring in order to speak to the Party (and the nation) about the terribly wrong choice the Republicans seem bent on making, i.e. to choose Donald Trump as their standard bearer in the 2024 Election. Trump— despite all of Trump’s sins and crimes and abuses of power that Christie will denounce on the debate stage. (With Christie, unlike with Cheney, there seems to be a personal element of revenge in his heroic quest to slay the most dangerous President in American history. Trump treated Christie shabbily, humiliated him, and ultimately almost killed him perhaps with Covid. He’s got more reasons to attack Trump than just that he’s bad for the Republican Party and a threat to America.) In an excellent article about Christie’s candidacy in today’s Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin foresees Christie launching “an effective takedown of Trump in the Republican presidential primary that either brings the GOP to its senses or hobbles him going into the general election.” I don’t see much chance of anyone stopping Trump from getting the nomination: Trump’s base has already fully confirmed that Trump could do far worse than “shoot someone on Fifth Avenue” and not lose his supporters. So it is hard to imagine what anyone could say — even a Republican like Chris Christie, with a proven record as a take-down artist (with Mario Rubio in 2016), could say that would prevent Trump from winning the primaries with a plurality, if not a majority, in this ever-more-crowded Republican field. But as for “hobbling Trump going into the general election,” that is something that Christie could well achieve. One can imagine that an eviscerating attack on Trump from Christie on the debate stage, combined with what appears to be a looming TV campaign against Trump narrated by Liz Cheney without even mentioning her name, the American electorate can be moved measurably against Trump. Every percentage point of support Trump would lose would mean a still greater defeat for the Republicans. (Jennifer Rubin also writes about how Christie could also take down the remarkably fascistic De Santis — another who is among the last people a sane American democracy would want to elect to the Presidency — with his campaign.) So Christie — with a man with the skills of a prosecutor wedded to the soul of a bully — will play a heroic role. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/1/2172701/-Chris-Christie-Giant-Killer Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/