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June 17, 2012 10:58 AM
The Fleeting Chris Christie Moment
Per Mike Allen, the great Peter Boyer has a new story this week:
NEWSWEEK cover, “HAS CHRIS CHRISTIE BLOWN IT? … Has Chris Christie passed his sell-by date? He showed the GOP how to win in 2012. Now he’s bogged down in Jersey.”
That’s not even the half of it. Last night, the New York Times dropped an explosive story about New Jersey’s halfway houses. They have, to put it mildly, been a huge failure:
Since 2005, roughly 5,100 inmates have escaped from the state’s privately run halfway houses, including at least 1,300 in the 29 months since Governor Christie took office, according to an analysis by The Times.
According to the Times, “At least 85 inmates are currently at large, according to state records.”
The story contains at least one moment of levity:
…the Corrections Department emphasized that inmates who fled halfway houses should be referred to as “walkaways” to distinguish them from inmates who escape prisons.The term “walkaway,” though, does not exist in state law.
The story is long, deeply reported and air-tight. It should be read in its entirety. If the story gets widely cited, Christie’s value as a Romney surrogate will be significantly diminished.
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Hedda Peraz on June 17, 2012 11:05 AM:
With apologies to Al, this is what happens when liberal abolish the death penalty!
OpinionatedGift on June 17, 2012 11:09 AM:
Um, sorry, he really didn't show the GOP how to win. New Jersey politics are split personalities and Jon Corzine was highly unpopular.
He may win re-election depending on who the Democrats run, but he never had a shot nationally.
c u n d gulag on June 17, 2012 11:19 AM:
Poor Krispy Kreme Christie.
Being fat, even possibly drunk, and stupid, are all ok in Conservative circles, possibly even admirable if you add MEAN, but being insufficiently tough on crime makes you a RINO - maybe even a *cough... cough* Liberal!
Krispy Kreme needs to order "Shoot To Kill!" orders immediately. And then suppress voters.
Joe Friday on June 17, 2012 12:40 PM:
Too bad Willard won't be tapping Christie for VP, as this would be ripe for a great political ad:
A drunken escaped convict, with a liquor bottle in one hand and a gun in the other, comes in close to the camera lens and says, "Thank YOU governor, for privatizing all the halfway houses. WOO HOO !". Then he stumbles-off into the distance waving the gun around and pointing it everyone he encounters.
thebewilderness on June 17, 2012 12:44 PM:
Perhaps parole violator would be a more accurate term, but the fact is that walkaway is what they are called. Calling them escaped inmates says they were incarcerated and escaped. Neither of these things are true.
schtick on June 17, 2012 1:00 PM:
Get serious! All the fatman has to do is blame it on dems and he'll be a walk in for VP. It's a taliban feature to screw it all up and blame the dems. The voting public eats it up.
jd--Central Florida on June 17, 2012 1:42 PM:
A major point in the Times piece--not mentioned here--is Christie's political connection with the company operating the halfway houses under state contract. Surely this may be well worth further examination.
Christie also insisting on a re-arrangement of higher education in New Jersey that looks very much like an attack on Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. His efforts haven't yet attracted much attention outside of the NY and Phila. media markets that cover New Jersey.
New Jersey was the last state without a state university; Rutgers changed from private to public in 1954.
T-Rex on June 17, 2012 2:11 PM:
Willie Horton times 85? Nah, "soft on crime" won't stick to a Republican even if he is. Joe, that ad would backfire big-time because the Tea Partiers would think it was Ted Nugent, cheer, and put on their scratchy old 70's albums to celebrate.
DJ on June 17, 2012 2:25 PM:
It's not so much that you paint him as "soft on crime." Instead, he's incompetent and entitled. This story shows the incompetence. The arrogant sense of entitlement...just tell the story of how he used a state helicopter to get to his son's baseball game, and was so fat and arrogant, he required a state limo to travel the 400 yards from the copter to the bleachers.
aprilglaspie on June 17, 2012 2:34 PM:
I'd like to think of this as Christie's Willie Horton moment.
Crissa on June 17, 2012 3:16 PM:
You'd expect a certain number to violate their terms. Is it a higher than normal number?
Legislating that they can't call a spade of spade is pure Republican, though.
2Manchu on June 17, 2012 4:42 PM:
"The term 'walkaway,' though, does not exist in state law."
It's still a great song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN4b1jUN5lc
John.G on June 20, 2012 7:34 AM:
Its amazing to see how near sighted people are. Corzine has repeatedly shown how incompetent he is as a political figure and leader. Yet, Christie's effort to clean up Jersey brings heat.
All you liberals still complaining about the helicopter incident seem to forget 2009 and the Air Force One incident. Go do some research before you blindly repeat everything the liberal media invokes into your head.
You are probably the same demographic that believes Obama is a president for the people.