Christie is no favorite of mine. Her policies as governor of NJ and her embarassing tenure at the EPA are the reasons why.
One example: As head of the EPA she allowed herself to be pressured by the White House into prematurely telling the heros who worked at Ground Zero and the residents of Lower Manhattan that the air quality was safe. The resulting (largely unreported) epidemic of respiratory ailments among workers and residents is the result of the radical wing of the Republican Party enforcing their version of events over facts. Another example: Iraq.
A good way of measureming just how far off the right edge the Republican Party has gone is when Christine Todd Whitman looks centrist.
Bon Appetit! :wine:
Christie Whitman's Boneheaded Advice
Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2005 7:20 a.m. EST
NewsMax.com's Fr. Michael Reilly explains why Christie Todd Whitman and the Rockefeller wing of the Republican Party just don't get it.
While defeated Democrats struggle to come to grips with the fact that their party is out of touch with basic American values, Rockefeller Republican Christie Todd Whitman has a different problem.
The GOP has been wildly successful in the last two national elections, but Whitman complains in her soon-to-be released memoir, "It's My Party, Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America," that the party has been taken over by zealous "social fundamentalists."
While Whitman's book won't be released on January 27, the product description on Amazon.com is disturbing.
"Relentlessly pushing their ideological stances on abortion rights, race relations, the environment, tax policy, and go-it-alone foreign policy, the conservative extremists are not only violating traditional Republican principles, she argues, but are also holding the party back from achieving a true majority.
"By playing so slavishly to the far-right base, running negative campaigns and marginalizing women, the party has forsaken the much broader base that propelled the 'Reagan revolution' and has fueled the country's overheated polarization."
Evidently Whitman wrote the book before Nov. 2. when President Bush won a solid re-election bid despite relentless media opposition. What's more, the GOP gained seats in both the House and the Senate.
But Republican majorities in the House and Senate apparently don't qualify as a "true majority" in Whitman's book.
Maybe no one told the former Bush EPA chief that "moral values" was the top voting issue for 22 percent of all voters. Perhaps she was unaware of the pre-election Gallup polling which indicated that 25 percent of Bush supporters are single issue pro-life voters.
Gallup also noted that they found similar results in both the 2000 and 1984 presidential elections.
Then again, maybe Whitman missed the Zogby polling in 2002, which indicated that the pro-life position was responsible for victories in several key Senate races - resulting in an unprecedented midterm election victory for the Republicans.
In last year's election, two-thirds of Americans supported initiatives in eleven states to prohibit gay marriage. Are these the folks Whitman dismisses as "social fundamentalists?"
And how does she propose that Republicans make up for the 25 percent of Bush supporters who describe themselves as single?issue pro-life voters?
It is also very interesting that Whitman presumes to lecture the party of Lincoln about race relations, especially after the infamous photograph of her smiling for the cameras as she frisked a black man while touring with the New Jersey State Police. She really advanced the cause of race relations with that maneuver!
Maybe Republicans like Christie Todd Whitman will save the Democrats from their "values gap" problem after all.
One example: As head of the EPA she allowed herself to be pressured by the White House into prematurely telling the heros who worked at Ground Zero and the residents of Lower Manhattan that the air quality was safe. The resulting (largely unreported) epidemic of respiratory ailments among workers and residents is the result of the radical wing of the Republican Party enforcing their version of events over facts. Another example: Iraq.
A good way of measureming just how far off the right edge the Republican Party has gone is when Christine Todd Whitman looks centrist.
Bon Appetit! :wine:
Christie Whitman's Boneheaded Advice
Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2005 7:20 a.m. EST
NewsMax.com's Fr. Michael Reilly explains why Christie Todd Whitman and the Rockefeller wing of the Republican Party just don't get it.
While defeated Democrats struggle to come to grips with the fact that their party is out of touch with basic American values, Rockefeller Republican Christie Todd Whitman has a different problem.
The GOP has been wildly successful in the last two national elections, but Whitman complains in her soon-to-be released memoir, "It's My Party, Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America," that the party has been taken over by zealous "social fundamentalists."
While Whitman's book won't be released on January 27, the product description on Amazon.com is disturbing.
"Relentlessly pushing their ideological stances on abortion rights, race relations, the environment, tax policy, and go-it-alone foreign policy, the conservative extremists are not only violating traditional Republican principles, she argues, but are also holding the party back from achieving a true majority.
"By playing so slavishly to the far-right base, running negative campaigns and marginalizing women, the party has forsaken the much broader base that propelled the 'Reagan revolution' and has fueled the country's overheated polarization."
Evidently Whitman wrote the book before Nov. 2. when President Bush won a solid re-election bid despite relentless media opposition. What's more, the GOP gained seats in both the House and the Senate.
But Republican majorities in the House and Senate apparently don't qualify as a "true majority" in Whitman's book.
Maybe no one told the former Bush EPA chief that "moral values" was the top voting issue for 22 percent of all voters. Perhaps she was unaware of the pre-election Gallup polling which indicated that 25 percent of Bush supporters are single issue pro-life voters.
Gallup also noted that they found similar results in both the 2000 and 1984 presidential elections.
Then again, maybe Whitman missed the Zogby polling in 2002, which indicated that the pro-life position was responsible for victories in several key Senate races - resulting in an unprecedented midterm election victory for the Republicans.
In last year's election, two-thirds of Americans supported initiatives in eleven states to prohibit gay marriage. Are these the folks Whitman dismisses as "social fundamentalists?"
And how does she propose that Republicans make up for the 25 percent of Bush supporters who describe themselves as single?issue pro-life voters?
It is also very interesting that Whitman presumes to lecture the party of Lincoln about race relations, especially after the infamous photograph of her smiling for the cameras as she frisked a black man while touring with the New Jersey State Police. She really advanced the cause of race relations with that maneuver!
Maybe Republicans like Christie Todd Whitman will save the Democrats from their "values gap" problem after all.
