Gov. Chris Christie went off on someone again on Saturday, calling a reporter “stupid” in the form of a rhetorical question and an “idiot” as he apologized to the rest of the crowd.
It was just another in a long line of unnecessary nastiness that has been characterized by the national press as “candor,” but is nothing more than the preening invective we condemn when high school kids pick on their classmates.
As troubling as the governor’s behavior — and its seeming acceptance — is for New Jersey, it also sheds some light on the Republican presidential candidate. Mitt Romney, who appeared last Tuesday with Christie at a fundraiser, “teased Christie about his brash behavior,” according to the Associated Press:
“That man really is something, you know that? I was hoping someone in here would start to heckle him so I could watch him go to town here. But you know better, don’t ya? What an extraordinary leader,” Romney said, according to pool reports.
Think about what Romney is saying here. He was hoping for a confrontation so that he could be present during a Christie slap-down, because he equates Christie’s bullying “brashness” with leadership.
The comment — a throwaway line tossed off at a campaign event — should warrant a deeper consideration of the May expose on Romney’s prep-school days published by The Washington Post in May because it opens a window into what the candidate now views as a positive character trait. Christie isn’t brash or combative so much as he is willing to use the power imbalance inherent in his being governor to belittle and beat down his critics. It is an abuse of power, plain and simple. That Romney would praise this says quite a bit about how he views power and what its purposes are.
We know that Romney’s economic approach would privilege those at the top and he has made it clear that he opposes all legislative and executive efforts to level the playing field or address the economic power imbalance in the country. It now appears, however, that this unwillingness is a central part of his world view, that he believes in his core that those with power can use their power to maintain it and that those on the receiving end of their wrath probably deserve every bit of it.
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