Chris Christie takes state helicopter to son’s baseball game
New Jersey governor Chris Christie--who has made government reform a major talking point of his administration--is coming under fire for his decision to travel in a state-owned helicopter to his son's high school baseball game Monday.
According to the Newark Star-Ledger, Christie landed in the state's $12.5 million helicopter just before the game began, buzzing over the trees in left field and distracting spectators. The GOP governor then got into a black sedan with tinted windows, which drove him about 100 yards to the baseball diamond.
This is just infuriating on several levels. Christie is a hated, hated man in the political scene - both by his Democratic rivals and the media (although I repeat myself). This exact scenario played itself out in Massachusetts more than a decade ago, with new mom-governor Jane Swift taking a MA state police helicopter from Beacon Hill to her home in Western MA for Thanksgiving. Swift was excoriated in the MA press for an egregious waste of taxpayer dollars, and this lapse in her judgement was pointed to as one of the reasons that she declined to run for re-election.
Fast forward 11 years and Christie takes a state chopper to his kid's baseball game - just not politically smart, Chris. The press is gunning for you; they're waiting for you to make anything even vaguely resembling a mistake so they can pounce on you. They want to destroy you for two reasons - they want you out of the governor's mansion, and they want to make damn sure you don't run for president. A northeast Republican who plays the right notes about small government? BURN HIM! And Christie just handed his political opponents a golden rope with which to hang him...
Now, a lot of this is political grandstanding, and if Christie ignores this as opposed to offering a mealy-mouthed apology it might actually raise his stock. The news reports all focus on the cost of the helicopter - as though a cheaper chopper would have somehow been acceptable. They add in his security detail - as though the governor would travel without security - and the fact that the car driving him had tinted windows? It's obvious the media is going out of their way to paint this as more than it is, and if Christie shrugs it off he might just come out ahead.
Or, you know, he could not take a $1,200/hour helicopter when a car would suffice...
That is all.
5 comments:
Might want to dig a little deeper. I thought I heard on the tube last night that Gov Christie was on his way to point C and stopped at point B as it was along the way. Sounded like he was using the chopper anyway, and took advantage of an opportunity to be a Dad.
Then again I could be imagining that news blurb.
I havn't gotten on the Christie badwagon. His views on 2A stuff notwithstanding, he does talk a good game... but his accomplishment list is about as thin as Obama's resume.
According to the NJSP Superintendent the Helicopter was being used for training so Christie hopped along for the ride. Since his presence had little or no impact on the costs associated to what they were going to do anyway, Christie has indicated that he will not pay for the ride...
Had he *just* gone along on the training flight, I'd be excoriating the media for blowing this out of proportion.
Diverting the flight to take in his kid's baseball game - even if it was only a marginal diversion - *AND* then going to a political event was just *BEGGING* for the media to take a swipe at him.
Political inexperience? Arrogance? I have no idea. If Christie thought he was going to hop on a state helicopter, go to his kid's game, and *NOT* come under INTENSE fire for it, he's dumber than a box of rocks...
Meanwhile, the MSM's Outrage over The Anointed One's spending 70% of his time on Air Force One going from TelePrompTer to TelePrompTer instead of staying in DC and DOING HIS JOB is as Deafening as their Outrage over Nancy Pelosi's weekly G5 flights to San Fran on the Tax Payer's dime.
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