Too Big for His Britches?

This morning on “Morning Joe,” John Heilemann revealed a Governor Chris Christie flaw that has me in a funk.  He said that Christie told Mitt Romney that he could not do a 2012 presidential fund-raiser in New Jersey until Christie had endorsed him (see: Time Magazine Story).  If true, this was obviously one of the (possibly many) vetted reasons that Romney did not pick Christie as his vice-presidential running mate.  And, is the fact that Romney didn’t pick him, the reason why Christie, as retribution, gave President Obama a big bear hug right before the 2012 election?

Christie claimed in his recent two-hour televised denial of any involvement in the Bridgegate “scandal” that he is “not a bully.”  Now, after seeing him operate over the last two years, we all know that this is not quite true.  But his machismo was part of his charm and differentiated him as a possible presidential candidate … he (unlike Romney) could stand up to the take-no-prisoners tactics of the Democrats. But I think most of us believed that his gruffness would just be only directed to his opponents … not toward those in his own party.  Maybe we were naive.

Now if Chris Christie were to win the 2016 Republican nomination, would the American people then be forced to trade-in Chicago-style thuggery for New Jersey- or Arkansas-style thuggery?  Yipes, not a very happy thought!  Let us hope that, in losing some of his physical girth (as a result of his gastric bypass), Christie also loses some of his too-big-for-his-britches management style.  If he learns a little humility and fair-play, then maybe … just maybe … he might make a good President.  If not, choosing between Hillary Clinton and Chris Christie would be very painful indeed.

The Hammer

The Obama administration has not been shy about using the levers of government to raise campaign cash or punish those companies or political blocs that have opposed them.  I suppose that this is the Chicago way and, to me, it is very disturbing.  We have seen it in how the IRS blatantly abused its powers during the 2012 elections. Now we are viewing it in how the Justice Department and other government agencies are extorting money from Wall Street firms that didn’t toe the line during these same elections … see: Breitbart Story.  Attorney General, Eric Holder, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) have dropped the hammer on J.P. Morgan to the tune of some $18 billion of unprecedented fines stemming out of the 2008 financial meltdown … see: CNN/Fortune Story and The Guardian Story.

Please don’t get me wrong.  I believe that there were oodles and oodles of real crimes that led up to the sub-prime mortgage crisis.  But have we seen any of the kingpins in these perpetrator firms even go on trial for these travesties?  No.  Most everyone knows who these guilty slimeballs are … yet they luxuriate in their buyout retirements. Instead, we are seeing financial blackmail and extortion.  Monumental fines and fees are being levied against those firms that were told by the United States Treasury Department to adsorb these miscreants’ entities and, now in return, are being financially shaken down.  There is clearly going to be more of this thuggery coming out of this administration … now that our financial firms have been propped up by the Federal Reserve Bank and are thus healthy enough to pony up with some significant pelf.

This behind-the-curtain method of our government’s picking corporate winners and losers is disturbing and presages even more blatant interference in what was once only a slightly corrupt system of political donations.  One can clearly read the message for the upcoming elections in 2014 and 2016.  Support Democrat candidates or suffer similar consequences to J.P. Morgan.  The hammer of big corrupt government is now corrupting the flow of money into political parties further still.  Take that you Supreme Court and your Citizens United decision!  You think that corporations are people and money is free speech?  We will show you that we, guttural government, can subvert the intent of this decision to a fare-thee-well.

The Joust

The teacher-benefit brouhaha in Wisconsin is escalating across the nation as left-wing groups are fulminating and flexing their community-organizing muscles. There are now sponsored protests occurring or planned today in most state capitals and many other major cities across the U.S. (see Organized Protests.) These demonstrations are corralled and paid for by MoveOn.org, the SEIU, the AFL/CIO and many other “progressive” organizations (see the impressive list in the above link) as a show of force to try to trample the rising populist revolution against the excesses of public-sector labor unions.

This is a tilting match that the Left has consistently won over the last fifty years … with the tacit support of many in the main-stream media. However, this time it might just be a little different. Many American citizens now recognize that public-service unions cannot continue uncurtailed because many states and even our nation teeter on the brink of financial ruin. The public-sector unions, some of their private sector brethren, and many fuzzy-headed youths have, over the last few weeks, been exhibiting unrepentant greed, anti-democratic scheming, and too-often outright thuggery.

This all-out attempt to silence the Conservatives and clear-thinking Moderates among us may well be a turning point in the politics of our nation. Last fall’s elections were the first indication that the Leftists may have overstepped their popular mandate. Yes, they are formidable and sometimes even a bit scary. But like most bullies, if you take their best shot and stay standing … or, to continue the jousting metaphor, stay on horseback, then you have a good chance of prevailing. And the strongest weapon, that the opponents of these goons have, is that they must eventually win if either combatant is to survive.