Chris Christie's Dangerous Game

The Republican governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, continues to favor the Democrat side of the American political spectrum - this time sharing center stage in Chicago with Bill Clinton. Christie and Clinton joined forces to headline the former president's two-day conference. "Now we're going to have a little fun," Clinton said in introducing Christie at the Clinton Global Initiative America event. While Clinton started by joking about the two men's love of college basketball and heartbreak over the collapse of the Big East conference -- "Even as effective as you are and as I once was, we couldn't stop the Big East from dissolving," he quipped -- the tone of their conversation was serious, focusing on Superstorm Sandy and Christie's leadership during and after the storm. "I can't tell you how many people just came up to me, grabbing at me, and saying, 'Thank you for giving us the shore back.' There's an emotional connection," Christie said. "I think as a leader you have to recognize that part of it -- that it's not just going to be a calculation that's arithmetic. It's an emotional connection. And you have to do things to try to give people that emotional connection to the place they grew up, where they took their children, and now those children are taking their children there." In a disaster such as Sandy, he noted, people turn to government for help."When this kind of thing happens -- Republican, Independent, Democrat -- no matter who you are, what you are, you turn to government," he said. But the majority of Republicans may see Christie's courting of Democratic leaders - Obama and now Bill Clinton - differently. Friday evening's appearance was only the latest in a string of bipartisan gestures by Christie, who opted to attend the Chicago event instead of the Faith & Freedom Coalition's conference in Washington, DC. In the aftermath of Sandy, Christie tried to form a relationship with President Obama -- preserved in footage of a late-May tour of the shore by the two men -- that alienated some of his fellow Republicans. Christie should be praised, not blamed, for that, Clinton said. "The enduring image most Americans have of you is standing there in your jacket grieving with your people, working with them, and working with the president -- and you got both praise and damnation for ignoring the political differences that you had then and still have with the president and all of us who are in the other party -- to do something that was really important," Clinton said. ~~~~ But, dear readers, while it seems that the two leaders from opposite sides of the political divide agreed vis-a-vis Sandy, we may legitimately ask why Christie is so open to being seen with Democrat leaders. Of course, there is the need to be re-elected governor of New Jersey if he is to keep his place among the top contenders for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. But Christie is playing a dangerous game. First, he is not one of the "anointed" GOP standard bearers. Second, he comes from a heavily Democratic state that rarely produces Republican presidents. Third, he has chosen to ignore the GOP position on core issues, going off on tangents in an effort to "rise above" politics as usual. Why? That is the looming unanswered question about Chris Christie. Does he really prefer the Democrat ideology of tax and spend? Does he really want to be the Democrat presidential candidate in 2016? Fine - join the Democrat Party. But beware the ghost of Arlen Specter, the longtime GOP Pennsylvania Senator who opted to become a Democrat under Obama's banner - only to be abandoned by both Republicans and Democrats, losing his coveted Senatorial seat to a relatively unknown Democrat. Bipartisanship works - on specific pieces of universally supported legislation and in matters relating to foreign wars. Bipartisanship does not work inside the American electoral process. A candidate must carry his party's flag. He must be able to explain its world view because it is his world view. He must believe fundamentally that his party will provide government far above the other party's capacity. He is not a creature of bipartisanship but rather the embodiment of the essence of the Party he represents. Chris Christie must learn this lesson quickly if he does not want to be consigned to the garbage heap of forgotten wannabes. And a last thought for Governor Christie - do not rule out the possibility that Obama and Clinton actually saw you as a potential 2016 winner against Hillary and set out to kill you with the kindness of a damning Democrat kiss. E tu, Brute?...You, too, Brutus? as Caesar pleaded dying at the hands of assassins he had thought of as friends.