The Senator should be proud. His daughter, Alicia Menendez went on MSNBC yesterday afternoon to defend Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in a segment they called Face Off:While Menendez was busy standing up for Sotomayor, comments made by Chris Christie returned to the news. This is what he said in the primary about Sotomayor:
During a Republican primary debate on WOR 710 AM radio May 27th, Christie was asked his outlook toward Sotomayor. "She wouldn't have been my choice, no," he replied.
When asked to elaborate, Christie said, "Well, no, I mean listen, that's the question. She wouldn't have been my choice. Absolutely not. Not my kind of judge.''
As Sotomayor's confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee began Monday, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told the nominee, "Unless you have a complete meltdown, you're going to get confirmed.''
"Judge Sotomayor has received the highest praise from well-respected members of the legal community, civic groups and political leaders on both sides of the aisle, withstanding intense scrutiny since being nominated by President Obama in May," Cryan said.
"It is appalling that despite her vast experience and unquestionable qualifications - qualifications that his own honorary campaign chairman recognizes - Christie would align himself with right wing conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich in rejecting Judge Sotomayor, the first Latina nominated to the highest court in the nation, without as much as an explanation beyond tersely dismissing her as "not my kind of judge.'"
Well, she wasn't his kind of judge in the primary, but that's when he still had shared values. The Sotomayor debate will continue this week as she is questioned further before Congress during her confirmation hearings.
A spat among two new GOP state committee members, Donna Ward and Rob Eichmann, and new state chairman Jay Webber over whether to accept last year's national Republican platform has escalated.
At issue is a motion made at the GOP's organizational session June 17, where two new Republican committee members, Donna Ward and Rob Eichmann, wanted the party to accept the national Republican platform from last year's presidential race. Among other things, the platform says, "We assert the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life, which cannot be infringed." Such language could add potency to Gov. Jon Corzine's ongoing attack on Christie's anti-abortion stance in moderate New Jersey.
Here's what they had to say:
"Why does the Republican State Committee not want to call ourselves Republican and support the platform of the Republican National Committee?" Ward and Eichmann wrote in the missive, which they also sent to the national Republican chairman, Michael Steele. Steele is expected to appear with Christie in South Jersey tomorrow. "We want Republicans, first and foremost the New Jersey Republican State Committee, to proudly and loudly proclaim that we are Republicans!"
And they also said this:
"We hope that the committee is open to all points of view in the Republican family . . . but we came away from (the session) with some concerns," according to the letter. "Failing to adopt this resolution is tantamount to saying that the New Jersey GOP really isn't Republican at all."
Maybe they should reach out to Chris Christie's web designer and tell them to stop hiding his values behind technical difficulties. But the GOP State chair wants you to think it's all a misunderstanding due to not following the right process:
"It's inaccurate," Webber, a Morris County assemblyman, told The Auditor. "We've got two new members of the state committee, who are obviously enthusiastic but misguided. The committee would have no problems supporting the positions but they didn't follow the process."
Possibly while Michael Steele is in town with Chris Christie today pitching the virtues of Sarah Palin coming for a visit, he may also check and see whether Christie and the state party support the platform he helped the National Party put in place. If Christie does, maybe he can include that on the values page when they finally are able to resolve those "technical difficulties."
The Democratic Committee has been all over Christie, sending out a press release each day reminding people of the missing values. The AP reported on June 18 that the Christie for Governor website took down the "Shared Values" section "technical reasons" and the clock has reminded people of how long it has taken for them to fix the problem.
In an attempt to make the issue go away, Christie pointed out that he has a frequently asked questions page. The problem is, the FAQ page doesn't include the same content as the shared values page.
First, let's look at the endorsements:
I am honored to have been endorsed by many key prolife leaders from around New Jersey including Congressman Chris Smith, former Mayor Bret Schundler, State Senator Gerald Cardinale and State Assemblyman Jay Webber. I am devoted to giving a voice to and taking action for those that are unable to protect themselves.
He's either lost the endorsements of those pro-life conservative leaders or he's hiding them like his shared values. Here's what Christie said about being Pro-life on the now missing shared values page:
I am prolife. Hearing the strong heartbeat of my unborn daughter 14 years ago at 13 weeks gestation had a profound effect on me and my beliefs. The life of every human being is precious. We must work to reduce abortions in New Jersey through laws such as parental notification, a 24hour waiting period and a ban on partialbirth abortion.
And here's what it says on the FAQ page:
I believe in the sanctity, dignity and inherent value of all human life. Hearing the heartbeat of my unborn daughter 14 years ago had a profound effect on me. I am pro-life because I believe her life and the life of every child is precious. I strongly support protecting children and their mothers from abortion with three exceptions: rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother. And to immediately reduce abortions in NJ, as Governor, I will push to enact a parental notification law and a 24 hour waiting period.
Gone is the mention of partial birth abortion and added are some exceptions that Christie has found to his abortion stand since the primary. Moving onto gay marriage, the FAQ page says this:
I believe that marriage should be exclusively between one man and one woman. I have no issue with same sex couples sharing contractual rights, but I believe that marriage should remain the exclusive domain of one man and one woman.
But he had a little more to say about the issue when he was sharing values:
I also believe marriage should be exclusively between one man and one woman. While, I have no issue with same sex couples sharing contractual rights, I believe that marriage should remain the exclusive domain of one man and one woman. If a bill legalizing same sex marriage came to my desk as Governor, I would veto it. If the law were changed by judicial fiat, I would be in favor of a constitutional amendment on the ballot so that voters, not judges, would decide this important social question.
Gone is the rhetoric about judicial fiat, vetoing a bill and pushing a constitutional amendment. Christie also appears to have lost his faith, because this paragraph isn't on the FAQ page either:
Our children attend parochial school where we hope their studies will help guide them in their faith and reinforce the values we teach them at home. Experiences in my life, along with my faith, have led me to believe in the sanctity, dignity and inherent value of all human life.
These "shared values" all went from being front and center with the economy to buried with his stance on the bear hunt. So you see the content is really the same, expect for the fact that it isn't.
Christie has drawn more attention to the issue of his values and positions by taking the page down than if he would have left it up. He's given the Democrats an opening to continue hammering him on the fact that he can't stand by the values he ran on in the primary. Maybe he's getting so many questions about his values because people don't believe him and don't share them.
On NJN Reporters Roundtable this week, the panel discussed the recently gone missing Christie's values page on his website:Meanwhile, the State Committee issued their release highlighting another day with still no values:
"Christie has made no bones about his intentions to take away a woman's right to make the personal, private reproductive-health decisions in her own life,"said Cryan. "Christie can't whitewash the facts about his right wing conservative values simply by removing them from his website. The "Christie's Values Clock" is now into its ninth day and will stay up until Christie's campaign re-discovers his values for him."
Christie has made his staunch anti-choice agenda a centerpiece of his campaign. He has vowed to push for restrictions on a woman's right to choose if elected governor and has even declared his support for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion.
Reporters Michael Aron of NJN and Michael Symons of Gannett New Jersey agree that Christie should restore his right wing conservative values to his website. In a discussion of Christie's right wing conservative values on Reporters' Roundtable on NJN, which aired Friday, June 26, Symons said the Christie's Values Clock -reminds people that [Christie] holds some social opinions that aren't, you know, overwhelmingly the viewpoint of the New Jersey public and that he's sorta trying to hide that from you." Host Michael Aron replied, "So maybe he should put them back up and get rid of one of those two.? "Sure. Exactly," said Symons.
Christie's website has remained intact except for the deletion of the "Shared Values" page and the removal of the link to the "Shared Values" page which detailed his right wing conservative positions from the issues section. All of the other issues remain on that page.
We have a clock on the right side of the page to keep track of how long since his values have gone missing. If you've seen Christie's values, contact the state committee, they're hot on the case.
