Free Republic
Browse · Search
GOP Club
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Christie’s tea-party problem (Mind-numbingly wrong)
The Washington Post ^ | November 11, 2013 | Richard Cohen

Posted on 12/15/2013 2:50:41 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

The day after Chris Christie, the cuddly moderate conservative, won a landslide reelection as the Republican governor of Democratic New Jersey, I took the Internet Express out to Iowa, surveying its various newspapers, blogs and such to see how he might do in the GOP caucuses, won last time by Rick Santorum, neither cuddly nor moderate. Superstorm Sandy put Christie on the map. The winter snows of Iowa could bury him.

From a Web site called the Iowa Republican, I learned that part of the problem with John McCain and Mitt Romney, seriatim losers to Barack Obama, “is they were deemed too moderate by many Iowa conservatives.” The sort of candidates Iowa Republicans prefer have already been in the state. The blog cited Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah (considered to the right of Cruz, if such a thing is possible), Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the party’s recent vice presidential candidate and its resident abacus, and the inevitable Sarah Palin, the Alaska quitter who, I think, actually now lives in Arizona. If this is the future of the GOP, then it’s in the past.

None of these candidates bears the slightest resemblance to Christie. And the more literate of them — that’s not you, Palin — must have chortled over post-election newspaper columns extolling Christie as precisely the sort of candidate the GOP ought to run in 2016....

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Alaska; Arizona; Iowa; New Jersey; Texas; Utah; Wisconsin; Campaign News; Issues; Parties
KEYWORDS: alaska; arizona; chrischristie; iowa; mikelee; newjersey; palin; paulryan; randsconcerntrolls; richardcohen; sarahpalin; teaparty; tedcruz; texas; utah; wisconsin
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last
Comments?
1 posted on 12/15/2013 2:50:41 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Give thanks for the errors of your enemies.


2 posted on 12/15/2013 2:51:45 PM PST by Steely Tom (If the Constitution can be a living document, I guess a corporation can be a person.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Liberals in NJ elected Christie because he is liberal like them. That is all I need to know.


3 posted on 12/15/2013 2:56:07 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants (From time to time the.tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
moderate conservative

What is a moderate conservative ??

Partially Pregnant ?

4 posted on 12/15/2013 3:00:29 PM PST by onona (The Earth is the insane asylum for the universe (yup, I belong))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

“None of these candidates bears the slightest resemblance to Christie. And the more literate of them — that’s not you, Palin —”
_____________________________________________
More filth and garbage from the WAPO rag.
As for Christie, he can just as well go back to hugging Barry.


5 posted on 12/15/2013 3:03:31 PM PST by AlexW
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Chuck Grassley is more conservative than Christie.


6 posted on 12/15/2013 3:05:29 PM PST by ObamahatesPACoal
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
And we care about this Cohen guy for what particular reason?

His attacks on the GOPe and TEA Party don't seem to be especially literate, well measured or erudite.

7 posted on 12/15/2013 3:29:22 PM PST by Paladin2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

The MSM is really pushing the Hillary v. NJFatboy scenario for 2016 hard.

But just like in 2008 I suspect there will be some surprises.


8 posted on 12/15/2013 3:35:38 PM PST by nascarnation (Wish everyone see a "Gay Kwanzaa")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?) This family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts — but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn’t look like their country at all.

Wow. Richard Cohen doesn't have a clue as to what's actually going on. Big fat zero.

The No. 1 choice (44 percent) was “a candidate focused on civil liberties and a small government rooted in the U.S. Constitution.” Christie can passably argue that he is that ...

LOLOLOL!

9 posted on 12/15/2013 3:59:23 PM PST by Finny (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. -- Psalm 119:105)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

So the geriatric Richard Cohen has discovered that there is a flyover country, and for some reason it’s matters in Republican politics. Now that he’s read a blog about it, he’s ready to ‘splain those yokels to his sophisticated WaPo readers.


10 posted on 12/15/2013 4:43:14 PM PST by Hugin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

He trashes Sarah Palin...anyone who attacks her intelligence is stupid.

She has a great track record of picking winners and right on obamacare.


11 posted on 12/15/2013 4:44:46 PM PST by RginTN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RginTN

They still claim her “death panels” statement was a lie, even now.


12 posted on 12/15/2013 4:48:35 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (A courageous man finds a way, an ordinary man finds an excuse.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: onona
What is a moderate conservative ??

Sort of like salty sugar.

13 posted on 12/15/2013 4:54:06 PM PST by Fresh Wind (The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
"The day after Chris Christie, the cuddly moderate conservative…"

"For all his positions and religious beliefs, Christie is too Joisey for the tea party — too brash, as well"

So Richard Cohen swings from both sides of the plate when he describes Chris Christie. Is he playing with us? Is he just being elitist-snarky?

Next he moves on to Rick Santorum: "Rick Santorum neither cuddly nor moderate" and then takes an opportunistic backhand to Sarah Palin:

None of these candidates bears the slightest resemblance to Christie. And the more literate of them — that’s not you, Palin

Why do these liberals soak themselves in this kind of effete bitchiness? It Is extremely unbecoming in men.

I get it that Richard Cohen thinks he is smarter than any conservative who ever lived and who will ever live but is it necessary to denigrate Christians? Cohen is a Jew, how about I wax a little anti-Semitic and see what his reaction is?

I suppose what offends me most about this screed is Cohen's arrogant assumption that his side has won and my side has lost. ("a lament for a lost America...It could be the tea party’s anthem.")

One is reminded of Whittaker Chambers' introduction to his biography, "Witness" in which he confides his belief that in switching sides from communist to Western democracy he was consciously joining the losing side of a global struggle to the death. Why? Because his Christian epiphany required it of him. Maybe that explains much of Richard Cohen's antipathy toward Christians.

But I do fear that the dark side will win and I think that is a common feeling growing like a fungus in the heartland of America. I say the quicker it spreads the better because if Richard Cohen is correct and it is that angst that motivates the Tea Party, I pray God to make all of us more fearful until we are motivated to take down our flintlocks from over the mantle and join the Tea Party because a transcendent truth, the Spirit of God if you will, impels us to oppose evil.Judge Mr. Cohen by the spirit of his words and decide whether we are dealing with snarkiness and arrogance or have our political adversaries descended into moral vacuity?

The Democrat party and especially the Obama administration are so rogue, so unmoored from law and Constitution, and so increasingly tyrannical that we are now confronted with a moral as well is a political imperative to oppose him and the party which sustains him no less than it was a moral imperative to put an end to slavery.

If one is made uncomfortable by an appeal cast in spiritual terms, do it for the kids.


14 posted on 12/15/2013 5:18:02 PM PST by nathanbedford ("Attack, repeat, attack!" Bull Halsey)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
(Mind-numbingly wrong)

Isn't that a bit redundant?

Since when is any Richard Cohen opinion piece not automatically mind-numbingly wrong?

15 posted on 12/15/2013 5:38:32 PM PST by Zeppo ("Happy Pony is on - and I'm NOT missing Happy Pony")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Cruz of Texas, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah ..., Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, ..., and ... Sarah Palin ... . If this is the future of the GOP, then it’s in the past.”

Cohen, you ignorant slut.

By the time your boy Barry finishes his destruction of what is left of the country, Thunder Thighs and the rest of your statist gods can kiss the presidency goodbye in 2016.


16 posted on 12/15/2013 5:43:32 PM PST by SharpRightTurn (White, black, and red all over--America's affirmative action, metrosexual president.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Totally deranged hatred.


17 posted on 12/15/2013 6:38:33 PM PST by RginTN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

You can email Cohen (the link is in the article)

Here’s my email to the offensive POS.

When the subject of pompous self-congratulatory windbags, with a wildly overblown sense of their own intellect is broached, Richard Cohen is among the names that immediately come to mind. With decades of experience authoring senseless drivel best suited to line the bottoms of bird cages, Cohen relentlessly pursues the untruth as if his very soul is quenched by the sheer ignorance of his indoctrinated readers.

To say the man deserves no respect is an understatement and shockingly misleading (in the manner that the mention of respect might suggest that Cohen is somehow capable of earning it).

To the uber-left – those demented individuals, like Richard Cohen, who actually believe the tripe they spew – the mere thought that they aren’t entitled to name the opponent’s starting line-up is both foreign and abhorrent. In any other venue the concept would be met with ridicule and derision, but in the world of the far left it passes for intelligent discussion.

So the straw-man is built and the deviants pretend that their main concern is helping the opposing party win elections. Pay no attention to the fact that we’ve seen the ploy previously – this time they really, really mean it.

And their definition of moderate is pure as the driven snow.

That brings us to another subject: the left’s belief that they can arbitrarily and maliciously redefine words as it suits their particular whims of that moment. This power is so cherished that it takes a back seat only to their willingness to use a racism card whenever they’re losing the argument (or making a point that is completely invalid).

A political moderate is, by most people’s definition, someone whose political beliefs align somewhere along the middle of the spectrum (in between two opposites, if you will).

The trouble with that definition is that the two extremes (and thus the middle) are subject to change: today’s “moderate” can easily become tomorrow’s extremist and yesterday’s extremist is easily distorted into today’s moderate. That’s exactly why the Richard Cohens’ of the world play such a duplicitous game; it lets them off the hook regarding their extremist views. (they simply redefine themselves as “moderate” and redefine moderates as extremists)

In 2008 a freshman Senator of no real accomplishments and a dubious past proclaimed his belief that words matter. Of course he did so in the midst of lying, but he had a valid point. Words matter – or more to the point; the definition of those words matter. Without that definition, communication breaks down and anarchy reigns.

We are a nation of laws, supposedly.

The framers themselves warned the people about the likes of Richard Cohen (and that junior Senator mentioned above) – telling us that our republic would stand only as long as the people were moral and willing to educate themselves (with regards to what the government was doing – or the government’s minions in the case of Cohen).

Words mattered so much to the framers (and those who ratified our Constitution) that many of them cautioned us to always rely upon original intent – because anything less amounts to little more than the outright bastardization of our Constitution (resulting in the loss of freedom and a tyrannical government).

A proper measurement (of the word, “moderate”) would rely on a standard that is rather unmovable and standing the test of time. Such a standard would negate the ability to falsely paint the opponent while falsely presenting oneself in a more positive light.

Thankfully that standard exists yet today.

It is found in our Constitution, the thoughts of those who authored it, and the thoughts of those who made it our Supreme Law. Their words are easily found and their intent is typically spelled out in detail so as to negate the actions of those seeking to undermine freedom (yes, Cohen, I’m speaking about you).

By that standard (the Constitution) anything currently pushed by the left is so extreme that it must be considered to be anti-American on its best day. Not one framer, not one ratifier, put forth a single argument that remotely espouses the garbage routinely pushed forth by the likes of Cohen and his fellow leftists. In fact their view is so out of step (with the framers) that the very people they ridicule (for being “extreme”) are, in fact, the moderates, in an honest (and accurate) measurement of the word.

There is a reason why today’s Democrats share so many points of views with their brothers in the Communist Party – the two are one and the same and neither gives a damn about the law or freedom.

Richard Cohen is nothing if he’s not steady in his onslaught against American ideals, and further on in his diatribe Cohen takes the time to target Sarah Palin with his own special brand of venom. One can’t help but wondering – given Cohen’s obvious distaste for all but the pseudo-intellectuals who prance and preen while telling everyone how brilliant they really are – what choice words of condemnation he’d use when berating the completely befuddled B. Hussein Obama. You can’t polish a turd, Cohen, no matter how much you try there is no clean end. Heck, I won’t even mention Pelosi, Reid or Biden – that just seems unfair at this point.

Cohen ends his screed with the oft-played tool of every leftist whose real “point” is their own depravity – the race card. To his credit, Richard did mention his love of deviant behaviors, intrusive government and alien invasions, but he couldn’t help passing it off as some new interpretation of normal, so we’re right back to his desire to redefine words according to his petty whims. Never mind the fact that everything he is advocating is harmful to both society and freedom – he really means well when he is busy calling for our enslavement (and he thinks he found the clean end of that turd he’s been polishing).

His use of the race card speaks volumes here; it can’t be that much of America is appalled by the fact that the citizens (and non-citizens, given the left’s love of illegal votes) chose to elect someone whose far-left policies make the current nanny-state stooge seem almost reasonable in comparison. No... there must be a more sinister reason for their dismay and seeing skin color first, as leftists are so prone to do, Cohen attacks with a vigor that belies his age while staying true to the party line. It doesn’t matter that most Americans neither care, or know, the color of the mayor-elect’s wife’s skin. Heck, it doesn’t even matter that the only people mentioning her skin color are the rabid leftists who use their racism as a means to bludgeon us all into conformity with the sheer idiocy that is the leftist movement.

Best of all – not even Richard Cohen can disagree with me on a single point I’ve made. You see, my wife is black and any disagreement obviously means he is a racist. That is his point, isn’t it?


18 posted on 12/15/2013 7:03:35 PM PST by Tahts-a-dats-ago
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nathanbedford

>> Why do these liberals soak themselves in this kind of effete bitchiness? It Is extremely unbecoming in men.

LOL... excellent!


19 posted on 12/15/2013 9:02:43 PM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

If Christie wants to become president, that’s fine, let him run as the democrat candidate. Let conservatives, rather than the LMSM, select the Republican candidate.


20 posted on 12/15/2013 9:32:52 PM PST by clearcarbon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
GOP Club
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson