Which Republican’s Record Can Hold Up Under Fire?

Is Any Candidate Perfect?

Even though he has stated he is not running, and even though some polls have still had Chris Christie considered a favorite for the Republican presidential nomination, not all Republicans are gaga for the New Jersey Governor. While his stand against unions and perceived “take no crap” approach to budget matters have made him a popular prospect for many it must be pointed out that even his rising star could be tarnished.

I recently had an enjoyable exchange with Rick Trader, the producer of a talk radio show called Conservative Commandos. With a name like that, you can understand that it is probably not for the politically faint of heart or middle of the road types. In this exchange Mr. Trader offered to me his opinion of Chris Christie. Now to be perfectly clear, I am of the opinion that while Governor Christie is probably the most conservative candidates that New Jersey can currently elect on a statewide level, and that his fiscal approach to state government deserves credit especially on a relative basis, I have not been one of those who believes he is the best that the G.O.P. can elect on a national level.Andneither is Rick Trader. I have four favorites which I am looking at for the nomination and the New Jersey Governor is not one of them. But I do not mind him governing the Garden State that I currently call home. On that level, Chris Christie is almost Reaganesquewhen compared to the likes of Jon Corzineand Jim McGreevey.

However Rick Trader points out that Chris Christie may not be all that real Republicans think he is cracked up to be.

Keepin mind that while there are two sides to every story in a campaign, it is easier, less time consuming and less expensive to bring up accusations than it is to respond and clarify them. With that understood, Rick Trader demonstrates that there is enough fuel to set a fire around a Christie candidacy if he were to jump in to the fray of the Republican presidential nominating process.

Mr. Trader has created the following list of reasonstthat,hesclaims Make Chris Christie a Blue Rino”.

• He said it is not a crime to be in this country illegally.
• Supports regional greenhouse gas initiative which is a cap-and-trade……we are already paying in New Jersey.
• Made Paula Dow, a liberal lawyer, Attorney General.
• His original choice to head Family Services worked with a group that advocated sex with children. (he eventually had to pull the nomination when her record got out)
• Supports the idea of mankind causing global warming.
• Is making taxpayers pay his staff millions more than Jon Corzine did.
• Refuses to join the lawsuit to stop Obamacare.
• Has no problem with a mosque at Ground Zero.
• Refuses to end Sanctuary Cities in New Jersey.
• Supported Mike Castle in the Delaware Senate race against Christine ODonnell
• Is against American drilling for oil offshore.
• Is spending millions of dollars of borrowed money on a worthless windmill scam.
• The Joan Rivitzappointment to the Commission On Civil Rights shows that his stand against same-sex marriage was just campaign rhetoric. If Christie truly opposed same-sex marriage, he would not be appointing an advocate of same-sex marriage to a key position in his administration.
• He is for I his words. “some gun control
• Before he decided to run for Governor, he personally donated money to Planned Parenthood.
• Appointed Christopher Cerf, a registered Democrat, As the Commissioner of Education. A teacher-turned-lawyer who was an associate counsel for Pres. Bill Clinton
• And what did Chris Christie say about being in Florida during the blizzard, while we were stuck in the snow?
  “I wouldn’t change the decision even if I could do it right now,” Christie said. “I had a great five days with my children (in Florida). I promised that.”
• SohailMohammed of Clifton is one of Chris Christie’snominations for a Superior Court judgeship is a lawyer who represented many detainees and suspected terrorists swept up by the government in the post-9/11 dragnet. And is on the boards of radical Muslim Groups.
• Governor Christie attended the formal White House State Dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao. Interestingly Republican leadership asked all Republicans not to attend.
• At a time when cities like Camden NJ has to fire half its police force, and at a time when thee state is 8 billion dollars in debt, Governor Christie is dumping 30 million taxpayer dollars into a failed race track!
• New Jersey is billions in debt and Christie is bailing out the casinos! Giving them 260 million dollars of your tax money!!! Is this the actions of a conservative???
• Chris Christie pulled the plug on a project to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility 16 miles off the New Jersey coast, that would have produced up to 14,000 jobs in New Jersey and lowered energy costs!

Now, while there are some points made here which can be debated and are open to legitimately different interpretations, others aren’t and anyone of them can be exploited againstthe Governor in a primary.And alltogether, they present an extremelycompelling case for a fellow Republican to build against Christie if he were to run against them for them presidential nomination. Heck, I consider myself a conservative Republicanand a Christie supporter, and after going through Rick Trader’s list, even I look at Chris Christie differently now.

To be sure, while the specific points presented by Rick Trader in referenceto Chris Christiemay not be applicable to other Republican presidential contenders, the same approach to tearing a candidatescredentials apart, applies to all of them. In other words, no candidate will be perfect, no candidate will be free from a controversial stance and no candidate will not have a record that can not be attacked with a certain amount of success.

So while we may all have favorites right now, let us not as a Party, jump to any one candidate too early. Allow the process to produce the strongestcandidate possible and let us not look for any knights in shinning in armor like some have done with Chris Christie. Because there really aren’t any. And not just on the G.O.P. side.