In the Belly of the Beast

by: deciminyan

Thu Oct 28, 2010 at 03:53:38 PM EDT

More after the fold...

Listening to the pre-game comments from the faithful, I felt like I was at a rock concert, waiting for the idol to come out and enliven the audience.  And he did.  There's no question that the governor's agenda resonates with local Republicans.

The governor started out by lambasting the legislature and demonizing the teachers' union.  As popular as he is with the faithful, he's also treated as a rock star by the mainstream media, and I'm sure you've seen or read a lot about his positions and I won't repeat them here.

After his soliloquy, he spent much of the allotted time answering questions.  All but the last question were from friendly partisans - the last person gave him some pushback on the tunnel decision and the dialog was only mildly confrontational - nowhere near YouTube quality.

One pleasant surprise was his answer to a question on immigration.  He correctly pointed out that this is a federal issue, and there's nothing the state can do (are you listening, Governor Brewer?)  After he berated the President and Congress for inaction, he went on to remind the audience that "we can't demogogue this issue.  We cannot make [illegals] the object of our anger and violence."  Kudos, Mr. Governor.

So I survived my two hours in the GOP den.  I've got a long way to go to be on a par with Joey, but it's a start.

We live in a complex world and have complex problems in its governance.  But some people long for simple solutions to our issues, and Chris Christie provides them.  He even admitted, "we're from New Jersey - we don't do nuance."  So here we are with impotent leadership in our state legislature, a governor who refuses to negotiate or compromise, and a fiscal crisis that threatens the welfare of future generations of New Jerseyans.  We may be waiting for Superman - he certainly hasn't yet put Trenton on his itinerary.