Posted on 01/13/2014 11:24:55 AM PST by SeekAndFind
“Mr. Rove has grown so controversial among some conservatives,” the NYT wrote recently, citing GOP sources, “that candidates worry that donors will not contribute to a super PAC if it is connected to [Rove's group American] Crossroads.” You trust a guy in that position, whose personal brand is now sufficiently toxic among righties that it can alter fundraising battle plans, to have a sharp read into the thinking of tea partiers, don’t you?
On the other hand, he’s not totally wrong. I noticed over the weekend how conservative media, including columnists, are starting to pay attention to the amount of coverage Bridgegate got in its first flush versus the coverage Obama’s IRS scandal received initially. No less a tea partier than Palin, while noting that what Christie’s team did is “atrocious,” was quick to add that his sins pale next to O’s. That’s the key to damage control for him on the right: Play up every available contrast with Obama, from the gravity of Obama’s misdeeds to the partisan skew in media coverage to the quick action he took to punish the guilty staffers versus Obama’s reluctance to fire anyone. He’s past the point of earning any “street cred” with conservatives but pointing out their common enemies on the left will naturally make some people on the right more reluctant to use Bridgegate against him.
Problem is, he can’t follow that strategy yet. It’s still too early, and the scandal too shady, for Christie to shift into victim mode now. Case in point:
New documents related to a traffic jam planned by a member of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) staff show for the first time how furiously Christie’s lieutenants inside the Port Authority worked to orchestrate a coverup after traffic mayhem engulfed Fort Lee last year.
Inside the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Christie’s top appointees neglected furious complaints from Fort Lee’s police chief as well as from angry rush-hour commuters. One woman called asking why the agency was “playing God with people’s jobs.”
The Republican governor’s appointees instructed subordinates to stonewall reporters who were asking questions. They even ordered up an actual “traffic study” to chronicle the impact and examine whether closing the lanes permanently might improve traffic flow. The study’s conclusion: “TBD.”
Jersey Democrats are threatening to subpoena Bridget Kelly, the Christie staffer fired for sending the “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” e-mail. Christie’s own timeline of when he first heard about those traffic problems has changed, although whether that’s an incriminating inconsistency or just a memory lapse remains to be seen. And now, as Ed noted earlier, the feds are sniffing around whether he misused funds appropriated for Sandy relief by giving the tourism ad bid to a contractor that featured him and his family in their spots. Maybe all of that will evaporate, leaving Christie free to argue that he was the target of a media witch hunt that President Bambi never had to endure. But even if it does, most tea partiers would, I think, react by making the point Mollie Hemingway made the other day: Namely, however trivial Christie’s scandal is vis-a-vis O’s, it reflects the same tendency by underlings to damage a political opponent by hurting his constituents that we saw from O with the IRS scandal and the national park closures during the shutdown. The scale of the scandals is different and media partisanship is what it is, but if you want something new and fresh in 2016, why choose a guy whose administration proved that it’s not above Chicago-style hardball retaliation and whose 2016 platform will be less about limiting the reach of government than about making it work “better”?
Well, we see where he wants to go with that...
They really hoped conservatives and TEA partiers would come out and rally around Christie.
The Grand Ole Poseur is at it again.
GOlden child .. Tarnished by TEA.
Why ever quote the NYT? They are anti American SCUM.
I betcha he reads this entire thread sometime today, so do your best FReepers.
Proving that Rove knows as much about TEA Party members as a pig knows about algebra.
I got publicly slammed on Twiiter for knocking Rove( all I said was that I never wanted to hear from him again) A couple of people said that after I had 2 winning presidential campaigns on my résumé, I could talk. (Meaning since I didnt I should shut up.)
But I don’t care—Rove,your free pass has expired. Shut up and go away. And stop raising money to fight conservatives.
If he wants “street cred” with conservatives HE SHOULD ACT LIKE ONE!
I think GeronL nailed it...
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Dems and RINO’s wanted to try and make conservatives rally around Christie, it’s not happening
5 posted on Sunday, January 12, 2014 11:15:05 PM by GeronL
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“I wonder how much obama and the dems are paying rove to be their sock puppet, and how far they have their hand up the gop’s ass?”
The dims have hand-picked every pubby candidate since GHW Bush.
It’s not really too hard. They just sling mud at every good candidate, then declare that they are too controversial, and therefore unelectable.
Rinse and repeat, until they narrow the field down to the worst possible candidate. Republicans let them get away with this, time and again.
Last time it was Romney, finally “selected” by the pubbies from a field of better candidates. The dims are already maneuvering to get either Christy or Jeb Bush nominated, because they know they can beat either one.
Karl can move in with 0bummer and Reggie.
They really hoped conservatives and TEA partiers would come out and rally around Christie.
Rove, you make me laugh long time!!
lol
Karl is poking the bear and he knows it.
Karl you don’t know $hit about the TEA party so shut yer cake-hole
Statements like this are proof positive that Rove is a clueless moron.
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