Friday, September 24, 2010

Oh the ridiculous political theater

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100924/el_yblog_upshot/chris-christie-smacks-down-heckler

Apparently during a pro-Meg Whitman event, an audience member started to heckle her. Then for some reason NJ GOP governor Chris Christie was in attendance, and said (in an all too scripted fashion):

"You want to yell? Yell at me, but don't give her a hard time," Christie said into his microphone. But Christie didn't stop there: "It's people who raise their voices and yell and scream like you that are dividing this country," he said. "We're here to bring this country together, not divide it."

That is rich stuff. Let's examine the play-by-play: yell at me but don't give her a hard time - right out of the Hillary Clinton playbook to paint critics as sexists, and arouse sympathy for the poor defenseless woman candidate. Why would we want to yell at him, he is not part of CA government? He has no idea about our problems and probably barely knows Whitman. Next, people who yell and scream are dividing this country - uh, what the heck were you GOP astroturf (for fake grassroots) folks during the health care debate? I know that the Tea Party doesn't necessarily speak for the GOP, but they do 95% of the time, and they were being much more disruptive in front of much more important speakers than Meg Whitman. Heck even a GOP Congressman called PRESIDENT Obama a liar to his face in a televised event in DC. Where was Christie's protest for that disrespect? So yeah, he's absolutely right that the yellers are dividing this country, except that his party has been doing more of it, and causing more division (with corporate and right wing media support of course). Lastly, we're here to bring this country together - yeah Bush claimed to want to do that too. Not a SINGLE GOP policy that I can think of today is designed to bring anyone closer together, except for maybe business and Washington. Conservatism (in its present American manifestation) is all about exclusion and discrimination (gay marriage, immigration, racial profiling in the name of national security, good health care only for those who can afford it, you name it).

I really wouldn't be surprised if even the Whitman heckler was arranged by her campaign. Her $108M of personal expenditures (a record) has to go to something besides bumper stickers and stupid TV ads.

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