Conservatives go hog wild over Chris Christie

Lately amongst Republican operatives, the trend seems to be every few months, pick a 'party savior'. And then, after the normal, often moderate, level headed portion of the population quickly realizes that the 'party savior' is really a complete whack job, demote them to a lower level of visibility.

This past month, that party savior seemed to be Chris Christie. He made headlines across the nation last month when plans to cancel the much needed ARC tunnel that would run underneath the Hudson for New Jersey to New York. Conservatives have praised the move as a cost cutting strategy, to ensure the tunnel comes in on budget, as outlined in this National Review piece:

Then, of course, there is the fact that the ARC project will take many years to complete. The completion date was penciled in for 2017. That is, New Jersey taxpayers are committing themselves to many, many, many years of bus fare, and bus fares are pretty darn high these days. It doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable to factor in the future cost of lunch. Indeed, if bus fare is a priority, one might consider switching from filet mignon to, say, steamed broccoli.

I'm not sure how pulling the plug on the whole project is going to help pay for the project, or what the alternative the author is suggesting exactly is. He concedes it is badly needed, yet at the same time, instead of working to find money for the project, quickly, he just throws up his hands in disgusted defeat.

I don't know about you, but I like initiative in my leaders. Not pointless whining about budgets. To me this is electioneering at its finest, because Chris Christie is a potential GOP candidate for president in 2012. So, basically in the mind of Chris Christie, destroy a very highly lauded project to gain notoriety and make some sort of weird, ideological statement.

And it seems to have worked. For now. Maybe once the public realizes that the upcoming 50 billion dollar stimulus bill will help expedite the project and bring the state 3 billion dollars. But that sort of side note often gets shelved.

Pressure from both sides are starting to force Christie to rethink his plan. Other Republican governors are joined Obama in support of the stimulus bill, which, by the way, will create jobs.

The republicans seem to have be making fairly desperate moves to regain traction after the debacle in 2008. Lately they've resorted to by pandering heavily to extreme right ideologues, as outlined in this weeks piece in the New Yorker by Sean Wilentz.

I have a feeling that this strategy might work for awhile, it made even give them a heads up in the 2010 midterms. But like the 1994 midterm elections, the strategy will likely backfire and cost them a presidential election, when the jobs do start, and the economy does begin to approve.