{"id":33680,"date":"2017-07-04T05:18:54","date_gmt":"2017-07-04T05:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=33680"},"modified":"2017-07-04T05:18:54","modified_gmt":"2017-07-04T05:18:54","slug":"chris-christie-flew-close-to-the-sun-now-he-sits-under-it-defiantly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/entertainment\/chris-christie-flew-close-to-the-sun-now-he-sits-under-it-defiantly.html","title":{"rendered":"Chris Christie flew close to the sun. Now, he sits under it, defiantly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Christie flew close to the sun. Now, he sits under it, defiantly<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The legend of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in national Republican politics was forged at the Jersey Shore, where he shrewdly spun headlines that were cotton candy for the GOP\u2019s base \u2014 and for reporters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGet the hell off the beach!\u201d Christie barked in 2011, as Hurricane Irene fast approached the coast. A year later, while holding an ice cream cone, he clashed with a heckler on the Seaside Heights boardwalk in the wake of enacting conservative fiscal policies that thrilled activists and donors.<\/span><\/p>\n

But those electric days now seem like ancient times to longtime Christie observers. His prominent profile has all but drifted away following years of defeats and humiliations \u2014 punctuated this week by aerial images of him sitting on an isolated strip of sand, run on a cable-news loop.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sporting floppy sandals and a baseball cap, Christie unapologetically lounged in the sun with his family at a state-owned beach house amid a statewide government shutdown that closed such beaches to the public. The scene \u2014 captured in airplane photographs snapped by the state\u2019s largest newspaper, the Newark Star-Ledger \u2014 again revealed the indifferent defiance that has both lifted and hobbled Christie\u2019s political career.<\/span><\/p>\n

That attitude thrust him into stardom and then out \u2014 and into President Trump\u2019s inner circle and then to its edge.<\/span><\/p>\n

For those who know Christie \u2014 who is the most unpopular governor in the country, according to polls \u2014 the pictures of him among the dunes at Island Beach State Park were a reflection of who he has always been: a flawed brawler who relishes the limelight and who deliberately ignores decorum.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt tells me nothing that I haven\u2019t known for a very long time. He\u2019s petulant, a bully, and his nature is to fight, fight, fight,\u201d New Jersey state Sen. Richard J. Codey, a Democrat who served as acting governor from 2004 to 2006, said in an interview Monday. \u201cI get along with every former governor, but not with him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said Christie was \u201cTrump before Trump.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the moment I met him in our first meeting in 2009, to Monday\u2019s press conference, he has been someone who is in\u00adcred\u00adibly comfortable in his skin. He does what he wants to do, and his success can be traced to that,\u201d Steele said. \u201cBut there are consequences, of course, when you work that way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Similar stories of his swagger are legion. Christie used to take a 55-foot-long State Police helicopter to his son\u2019s baseball games. He was asked to give the keynote address at the 2012 Republican National Convention but uttered only a few words about the party\u2019s standard-bearer, Mitt Romney. Christie\u2019s taste for luxury travel has been funded by foreign leaders and a casino magnate. And his time in the owner\u2019s box cheering on his beloved Dallas Cowboys sparked a flurry of ethics questions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet Christie has not been humbled by his waning support or inclined to keep a lower profile as he serves out his final months. Instead, he has been as dismissive and as unflinching as ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe 15 percent approval rating has gotten to him, to the point that he\u2019s giving a giant middle finger to the people of New Jersey by sitting on that beach,\u201d Bob Ingle, a Christie biographer, said in reference to recent polling. \u201cHe is so stubborn, so thin-skinned and blames everyone but himself for what has happened.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Even New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, his deputy since 2010 and the GOP\u2019s nominee to succeed him, has criticized Christie for his sojourn on state land during a budget impasse in Trenton, which ended late Monday after Christie struck a deal with Democrats.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s beyond words. If I were governor, I sure wouldn\u2019t be sitting on the beach if taxpayers didn\u2019t have access to state beaches,\u201d Guadagno said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Christie, in his typical style, has swatted away the controversy. \u201cThat\u2019s the way it goes,\u201d he said Saturday when asked about his stay. \u201cRun for governor, and you can have the residence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Uproar over the photos \u2014 dubbed \u201cBeachgate\u201d online \u2014 swelled Monday as some of the state\u2019s \u201cnonessential services\u201d remained shuttered. Among those affected were a Cub Scout group forced to leave a state park campsite and drivers unable to obtain documents from the state Motor Vehicle Commission, the Associated Press reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Monday, Christie tweeted his own photo from above the Jersey Shore, noting that \u201cbeaches are open in 119 of our .\u2009.\u2009. 130 miles of coastline\u201d \u2014 the implication being that residents had alternatives to the closed stretch of beach that Christie and his family had occupied by themselves. The tweet spurred another round of shaming on social media.<\/span><\/p>\n

Christie\u2019s spokesman, meanwhile, punched back at the Star-Ledger. \u201cThe governor announced Monday on \u2018Ask the Governor\u2019 and at subsequent news conferences that he would be joining his family at the beach this weekend,\u201d Brian Murray told The Washington Post. \u201cWe are gratified the Star-Ledger has confirmed what he said on three occasions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In an interview with a New York-based Fox affiliate, Christie also mocked the paper. \u201cI am sure they will get a Pulitzer for this one,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The insouciant remarks were the latest in a string. When asked late last month about the recent Quinnipiac University poll that showed him with 15 percent support, Christie shrugged.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat fact is, who cares?\u201d Christie told reporters. \u201cYou guys care much more about that stuff than I do. I\u2019ve said to you over and over and over again: Poll numbers matter when you\u2019re running for something. When you\u2019re not running for something, they don\u2019t matter a bit, and I don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Christie rose to prominence nearly a decade ago because he embodied the combative ethos that many GOP voters found \u00adlacking in the party\u2019s national leadership. He tangled with \u00adpublic-sector unions in a deep-blue state, so much so that his town halls became YouTube sensations. When he ran for reelection in 2013, he won a crushing 60.4 percent of the vote.<\/span><\/p>\n

But weeks after that victory, scandal erupted. A handful of his aides were implicated, and later given prison sentences, for orchestrating traffic jams on lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge as part of an effort to punish a small-city Democratic mayor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Christie still mounted a bid for the presidency ahead of 2016, and there were flashes of the Christie of old, especially when he took on Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in a debate with the brutal flair he had mastered as a federal prosecutor. But his ambitions had been badly damaged by the bridge incident, and he dropped out after the New Hampshire primary.<\/span><\/p>\n

His struggles at home have only grown. Driven by his pledge to get the state\u2019s biggest health insurers to fund programs for opioid addiction \u2014 which has become a core cause for him \u2014 Christie attempted to pressure state lawmakers to work with him on the issue. They refused, and the government shut down for three days.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith Christie, the tragedy is that he\u2019s always had to work with a left-wing, Democratic legislature. Except for the first year, when he had shock value as a new governor, he hasn\u2019t been able to get things through,\u201d said Larry Kudlow, a CNBC commentator who advised Trump\u2019s presidential campaign. \u201cHe has not been able to implement his promises and his hopes for growth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Christie\u2019s experience with Trump has also been defined by fits and starts. They bonded after Christie endorsed Trump last year, but the governor found himself ridiculed in March 2016 when he grimly stood behind Trump at an event. The pictures from that episode went as viral as those from the beach.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I wasn\u2019t being held hostage. No, I wasn\u2019t sitting up there thinking, \u2018Oh, my God, what have I done?\u2019\u2009\u201d Christie later said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, in May of last year, Trump poked fun at Christie\u2019s appetite. At a rally, he asked Christie, \u201cYou\u2019re not eating Oreos anymore, are you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo more Oreos for either of us, Chris. Don\u2019t feel bad,\u201d Trump said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The indignities went on throughout the summer. Christie was in play to be Trump\u2019s running mate and at one point thought he had all but clinched it, according to several people close to the campaign. But Trump ended up tapping then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.<\/span><\/p>\n

During debate prep sessions, Trump veered between enjoying Christie\u2019s company and being annoyed by what Trump saw as an eagerness to be seen as an influential campaign adviser, according to two people involved in the sessions who were not authorized to discuss them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Soon after Trump won, Christie \u2014 who had been managing the transition team \u2014 was unceremoniously let go, and the son of a man Christie previously prosecuted \u2014 Trump\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner \u2014 largely took over.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ever since, Christie has occasionally visited the White House and remained friendly with Trump, who has appointed him to lead a task force on opioid addiction.<\/span><\/p>\n

At one meal together, Trump ordered for Christie. \u2018\u2018This is what it\u2019s like to be with Trump,\u2019\u2019 Christie told a radio show. \u2018\u2018He says, \u2018There\u2019s the menu, you guys order whatever you want.\u2019 And then he says, \u2018Chris, you and I are going to have the meatloaf.\u2019\u2009\u2019\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Steele said that regardless of Christie\u2019s stumbles, he retains stature in parts of the Republican Party as a survivor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI know people want to write his political epitaph, people want him to go away,\u201d Steele said. \u201cBut this is someone who doesn\u2019t go away. When they say \u2018damaged goods,\u2019 it doesn\u2019t matter to him. A Senate run, a presidential run, an administration job \u2014 anything like that \u2014 could be what\u2019s next.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

sOURCE:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/trump-before-trump-how-christies-defiance-lifted-and-then-hobbled-his-political-career\/2017\/07\/03\/945fa7ee-6013-11e7-a4f7-af34fc1d9d39_story.html?utm_term=.305bcb6ccfb7<\/span><\/p>\n

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