Bruce Harris is an openly gay, African American mayor of Chatham, NJ with 20 years experience as a lawyer. He would be the third African American and the first openly gay member of that court.
Phillip Kwon would be the first Asian American appointed to the N.J. Supreme Court. He is currently first assistant attorney general of NJ and a former deputy division chief of the U. S. attorney's office.
In addition to these, last August Christie made another diversity appointment when he nominated Sohail Mohammed, a Muslim American, to the State Superior Court. To critics who expressed fear that he would be influenced by Sharia law, Christie replied that he was "disgusted" by such comments from right wing critics.
This is the kind of man they should be putting forth as their presidential nominee. He would be a formidable opponent, and we could have the kind of national debate about concepts of government that we need. Not the crap these clowns have been dishing out."They are criticizing him because he is a Muslim American. This Sharia Law business is crap. It's just crazy, and I'm tired of dealing with the crazies. It's just unnecessary to be accusing this guy of things just because of his religious background."
I'm thinking more and more that behind all this hoopla about getting rid of Obama to save the nation is the Republicans' awareness of the stark reality that they are going to lose this election. So the really good guys who are the hope of their party (Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Jeb Bush, Christine Todd Whitman) are sitting it out and waiting for 2016.
This does not mean that I am getting soft and leaning toward the Republicans. But it's a nice reminder that there used to be a few of them who were honorable men with reasonable and thoughtful positions, worthy opponents -- even though we didn't agree on many things.
Ralph
It's true that there was a movement to convince Christie to run and he just kept saying "no." Even said he didn't feel ready to be president. (Not that any of those running were ready either). So it wasn't for lack of people trying to get him to run.
ReplyDeleteLately he has been asked about being a VP nominee. He said he's not looking for it, wants to finish his term as governor -- but that he would of course talk to the nominee about it, if he should be asked.
He would certainly bring boldness to a ticket with Romney, who badly needs an infusion of backbone and conviction. But he may need the Hispanic votes that Rubio would bring in even more.
If the nominee is Newt -- can you imagine those two fountains of bombast sharing a podium? My guess is Christie wouldn't want to have anything to do with Newt. It would only tarnish him for a future run himself.
Well, forget that last one about being Newt's VP. Christie has endorsed and is campaigning for Romney. And in that role he has made some scathing comments about Newt:
ReplyDelete"He is an embarrassment to the Republican party."
"He does not have the background or the capacity to be an effective president."
"We all know the record. He was run out of the speakership by his own party. He was fined $300,000 for ethics violations. This is a guy who has had a very difficult political career at times and has been an embarrassment to the party ... I don't need to regale the country with that entire list again except to say this: I'm not saying he will do it again in the future, but sometimes past is prologue."
Well, now Christie has declared that he will veto any bill that legalizes gay marriage in N.J. Unlike some, however, he's not railing against it so much as saying it should come through a vote of the people, not the legislature.
ReplyDeleteThat's a stance I can respect, although what's to stop signing a bill the legislature might pass and then letting it be subject to a referendum?
A real supporter of gay marriage would probably do that.