“Thirty-one days for Andrew victims. Seventeen days for victims of Gustav and Ike. Ten days for victims of Katrina,” Mr. Christie said, ticking off how long it took for Congress to pass relief after other natural disasters. “For the victims of Sandy in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, there’s been sixty-six days and the wait continues. There’s only one group to blame for the continued suffering of these innocent victims: the House Majority and their speaker, John Boehner….Last night, politics was placed before our oath to serve our citizens. For me, it was disappointing and disgusting to watch.”
Mr. Christie, a Republican like Mr. Boehner, went on to describe the House’s GOP majority as “selfish” and “toxic.”
“It just could not overcome the toxic, internal politics of the House Majority,” Mr. Christie said of the bill. “Americans are tired of the palace intrigue and political partisanship of this Congress, which places one-upmanship ahead of the lives of the citizens who sent these people to Washington D.C. in the first place. New Jerseyans and New Yorkers are tired of being treated like second-class citizens. New York deserves better than the selfishness we saw on display last night. New Jersey deserves better than the duplicity we saw last night. America deserves better than yet another example of a government that has forgotten who they are there to serve and why. Sixty-six days and counting. Shame on you. Shame on Congress. “
Asked afterwards if he understood why the vote had been canceled, Mr. Christie said he was left completely in the dark.
“I was given no explanation,” he said. “I was called at 11:20 last night by Leader Cantor and was told that he was told authority for the vote was pulled by the Speaker. Our delegation asked for a meeting with the Speaker at the time; they were refused. I called the Speaker four times last night after 11:20 and he did not take my calls….There’s no reason for me to believe anything they tell me, because they’ve been telling me stuff for weeks. And they didn’t deliver.”
"I called the Speaker four times last night after 11:20 and he did not take my calls." God I love it when Republicans fight!
And the thing is that Christie is dead right here. Boehner exhausted himself pushing through the fiscal cliff bill, and left nothing in the tank to deal with this very necessary relief bill, and now he is paying for it big time.
Right now on the news is a parade of House members from New York and New Jersey ripping into Boehner's barely breathing corpse. They are going to strip him to the bone by the end of business today.
Anybody want to take bets on Boehner's chances of hanging onto his job as Speaker?
By the way, you just KNOW that right now President Obama is sitting in the Hawaiian sun with the biggest damn grin on his face that you have ever seen. He has GOT to be loving this!
Boehner needs to be hung from the rafters!
ReplyDeleteHe absolutely does not deserve serving in Congress and should be recalled for dereliction of duty! He has been a horrid Speaker of the House!
Do you think it's because NY, NJ & Conn are BLUE states (and although Christie is Red, his not real "compliant."
ReplyDeleteI do not think that President Obama is grinning -- he cares about the people whose assets were wiped out by Sandy. I'll grant you a little bit of a smile when he thinks about the Republican infighting that has shown its toxic aspect, but he's really wishing that the House would have gotten its act together about 4 hours after the Senate acted and that Mitchy-Mitch had been as cooperative about that as he suddenly found himself able to be about the tax situation.
ReplyDeleteMy bet is that Boehner was following the idiotic "Hastert rule" and refusing to bring it up because he couldn't pass it without bipartisan support.
I don't know...JB is an orange crybaby drunk but he is way better than bachman or gomert or west or any of em all of em. they are NUTS on that side and unlike John, many of them would happily drive us all into the ditch.
ReplyDeleteJohn knew when he was beat and he settled. Michele would never admit she was beat -- she won't even face the facts re: Marcus' ummm orientation, fergawdsakes. Wh ould never compromise on an ything, no matter how poor her hand was and no matter what the consequences of failure were.
I hope JB stays on, personally. The devil you know, etc.
"Reliable sources" are reporting that TanMan is resigning as speaker at 5 pm EST today.
ReplyDeleteGryphen----Christie so often sounds like a Democrat (caring, reasonable, responsible) that I can't understand why he has hitched his political wagon to the repubs who are dragging him down.
ReplyDeleteLet's not crazy, here. This shit is how Rudy 9-11 Guiliani got so far - and he is a MORON!
DeleteChristie has been verbally abusive to many of his constituents in the past. He is a bully.
He's watching himself now b/c he wants to set his sights on POTUS, but it's a wolf in sheep's clothing, this one.
I see Eric Cantor dancing around a bonfire throwing Oompa Loompa John's whisky bottles and two-thousand dollar suits into the flames. John is sniveling down in the wilds of the Cincinnati suburbs wondering where it all went wrong. The only better thing would be Cantor sniveling in the Richmond suburbs wondering when the baggers will finally turn on him.
ReplyDeleteThe people of NJ elected *mostly* Republican representatives. There are a bunch of people in NJ who have been voting for these same assholes. They need to think before they vote next time, and given what just happened a lot of them may.
ReplyDeleteMy fear is that avowed TPer Eric Cantor would replace him.
ReplyDeleteAfter Uproar, Boehner Makes Big Promises On Sandy Aid
ReplyDelete...Asked if Boehner gave a reason why the bill wasn't just brought up on Tuesday night instead of in two weeks, King and Grimm both said Boehner didn't seem to want to bring up a major spending package right after the fiscal cliff deal went through.
"It was a horrendous day with some horrific votes that a lot of our conference was very unhappy with," Grimm said. "I don't think that [Boehner] felt that after the votes that we just took, that the conference was then, as a Republican conference, ready to vote on a big massive spending bill."
...UPDATE 4:46 p.m. -- Boehner and Cantor released a joint statement later Wednesday reaffirming their plans to hold Sandy aid votes:
"Getting critical aid to the victims of Hurricane Sandy should be the first priority in the new Congress, and that was reaffirmed today with members of the New York and New Jersey delegations. The House will vote Friday to direct needed resources to the National Flood Insurance Program. And on January 15th, the first full legislative day of the 113th Congress, the House will consider the remaining supplemental request for the victims of Hurricane Sandy."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/02/sandy-aid_n_2397922.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
NJ needs to correct it's building and zoning laws (or lack thereof) first. Sorry, but when peope build in really stupid paces, it is not our responsibility to help them rebuild in EXACTLY THE SAME SPOT. I really hope Congress puts some restrictions on the funds.
DeleteSeriously, Anonymous 5:01 - New Jersey, alone, pays more taxes into the federal government year in and year out than places like Florida, who get hit thousands of more times and pay far less.
DeleteDid you SEE the scope of that storm? There are thousands of people without heat, food, homes and cars two months in, what's to become of them? Self Deport? or worse?
I love this "Not my problem"/"Really stupid places" mentality.
Anons at 5:02 and 7:21 pm. Obviously the aid bill needs to be passed but anyone who lives along the coast, especially the East Coast and the Gulf Coast, should have strict restrictions on where and how buildings can be constructed. The feds should work with state and local officials to do just that.
DeleteA couple of days after the storm, a coastal NJ resident whose house had been demolished said on television that he intended to rebuild exactly where his house had been and that he objected to any plans to construct dune walls or surge walls between his location and the beach. People like that have to grow up and face the reality of rising ocean water and the likelihood of more frequent and even more severe storms due to climate change. Those melting ice fields and storm surges have to go somewhere and the most likely place initially is our coastal northeast.
Beaglemom
@ mexmer - that would be incorrect!
ReplyDeleteIf you're talking about our federal level representatives, we sent 7 Democrats and 6 Republicans to DC. We also sent 2 Democratic Senators.
If you're referring to state level, we have 24 Dems in the state Senate and 16 Repubs.
We also have 48 Dems in the State General Assembly and 32 Repubs.
NJ is proudly a very BLUE state.
I know it's blue, and also that the *only* reason that Republicans held on to the seats they have is by Gerrymandering the hell out their districts. I'm just saying voters in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 11th districts--- from what I can tell many on the shore, btw, might really, really be loathe to reelect the jerks after seeing just how little of a shit the Republicans give about them. Until Payne Jr. is sworn in, it's currently half and half.
DeleteThen who keeps electing Christie?
DeleteAnother interesting statistic on NJ that bears mentioning is that it is one of the states the receives the *least* in federal dollars compared to what it contributes in taxes, unlike the states in the South that take way more than their fair share, and that get help when disaster strikes.
DeleteChristie is in his first term. He has used Sandy to shine after leaving our state in the worst blizzard we ever had with whole interstate and state roads blocked with that storm, for which he drew heavy critizism. He was at Disney with his wife and kids. He actually was on one of the last planes out of the state that day.
DeleteUnlike the welfare state of Alaska-that gets more government spending with the least population. NJ has the least amount of money back from the feds.
But don't feel like Christie is a winner here, he stopped the tunnel project and has yet to my knowledge of giving the feds back MILLIONS of dollars plus penalties.
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/sorry_east_coast_republicans_but_this_is_your_party_too/
DeleteYeah. It's very hard to feel much sympathy for Christie. It's equally hard to have any sympathy for the existing East Coasters who actually voted Republican and now don't like what the assholes are doing. THey're doing what the said they would. Suck it up.
From the Salon piece: "This would be the same Christie who, in September 2012, headlined a fundraiser for Iowa congressman Steve King, who is not just one of the craziest members of the GOP crazy wing, but who also announced a month later that he probably wouldn’t vote for relief money for Sandy victims for the same reason he refused to vote for federal aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina: Because he was pretty sure people spent the relief money on “Gucci bags and massage parlors.” This is a man Christie wanted to win reelection, in order to help Republicans maintain control of the House of Representatives, so that they could continue ignoring the priorities and desperate needs of liberal, urban coastal states like New Jersey.
DeleteIf people don’t want John Boehner controlling — or attempting to control — an arm of the federal government, the answer is to not support Republicans at almost any level of government. It’s that simple. The reason Boehner is speaker is because Republicans at the state level in various states controlled redistricting, and did such a good job of it that it would require that Democrats nationwide pull off a 7-point popular vote victory in the next midterm in order to win even a slim House majority."
So let's not start fellating Christie. He's worked hard to help the Republican agenda. If you vote for a Republican for any office at any time you are actively part of the problem at this point. Don't tell me nobody in NJ voted Republican.
Maybe Chris Christie will become the voice of reason and sanity and start the revolution in the republican party.
ReplyDeleteI live in NY, but was not affected by Sandy.
Yet my tax dollars have repeatedly used for victims of floods and tornado's in the South and mid West and wild fires in the West.
It is a disgrace that Congress is stalling on this.
Do republicans think people will continue to vote for them if they play favorites with disaster relief.
Nah, he doesn't give a shit about anything but making sure his state gets funding. If this happened in LA or CA or IL he would be quiet still.
DeleteOr is Christie merely reminding Independents nationwide of his non-teabag status?
DeleteGov. Christie: "There’s no reason for me to believe anything they tell me, because they’ve been telling me stuff for weeks. And they didn’t deliver."
ReplyDelete------
The Gov. is in good company. House Majority Whip Cantor was telling his side to vote FOR the fiscal bill, then voted AGAINST it.
What the House Republicans need is more reality checks like that. Eventually even the dimmest of them has got to realize the party has disintegrated.
Gov. Christie: "There’s no reason for me to believe anything they tell me,
Delete~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yeah, we figured that out already, genius.
That's why we re-elected one of the only ADULTS in politics - The. President. Obama.
Remember, Cantor doesn't even know how a bill becomes a law. And he might run those Tparty Rethugs in the House? Oh My!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm just a bill,
DeleteYes, I'm only a bill,
Sitting here on Capital Hill!
(Damn that Public Television Education!)
They want to one up the gun control legislation the dems have promised to put forward the first day. This is to make them look caring and the Democrats look like they have their priorities f*cked up.
ReplyDeleteSomeone punch that carrot face in the neck !
ReplyDeleteChristie is looking better and better. Even though he is a Republican, I am watching him carefully and liking what I see. I am soooo sick and tired of the TPers holding our nation hostage for their own selfish and deluded reasons.
ReplyDeleteHey, we need good, caring conservatives, and he's looking like a good one. It's odd (but understandable these days) that people wonder why he isn't a dem, since he is so compassionate about his people.
DeleteIt's sad that the word "conservative" now makes one think of "cold and uncaring" instead of just the tightwads of the govt. that we need for balance, Me included. We need more caring and less selfishness from both parties.
Yeah, the KKK cares about "their" people, too.
DeleteChristie doesn't give a shit about anyone who can't vote for him.
This is worse than a soap opera...I am from NJ and could never figure out how Christie got elected in the first place...he has destroyed education and screwed police/fireman just like the rest of the ugly GOP. He became everyone's hero due to Sandy (re election around the corner) and now he is surprised he got screwed? I really hope they pound away on the fact how NY and NJ pay in zillions more than the southern welfare states in taxes...that is a fact. King is another one screaming while vote after vote he is screwing poor people...insanity. Cantor is a snake in the grass, he is pure evil...Boehner is just a crying weenie, and I do not believe Obama is happy to see those poor people suffer because of this. No one can lead crazy people...no one.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about Christie,
DeleteScummy scum scum.
Whatever. Fuck this guy. If the heaviest damage was in MA and NJ escaped damage, he'd be right there with the congressional republicans, talking about how we need to cut spending -- FUCK THIS GUY.
ReplyDeleteI don't trust Christie no farther than I can throw him. That wouldn't be too far. He needs to look at the Medicaid expansion and high speed rail that he denied for his state. I would not vote for him. He is a sheep in wolves' clothing. Don't be fooled!!
ReplyDeleteYeah, you know what? FUCK Chris Christie and FUCK Peter King and Fuck every other Republican congresscritter from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, etc.
ReplyDeleteFucking Republicans don't believe in social programs -- until they need them.
Hey, Christie and King! Guess what pays for disaster relief? TAXES!
When GW Bush was in office you pricks cut taxes and cut taxes and ran around all puffed up because you thought you were some kind of heroes or something...
FUCK you guys! Get the hell out of the way and let the Democrats run the show and when you need help - it'll BE there!
ASSholes...
Randall,
DeleteVery well said. Will you marry me?
I love nothing more than to see the backside of Böhner.
ReplyDeleteBut who is likely to take his place? Is this an example of be careful what you wish for? I so DO NOT want to see Eric Cantor or Paul Ryan in the catbird seat.
What are the chances the Repub1%can'ts would elect an actual public servant with leadership skills, common sense and the willingness and ability to compromise to get the job done? Is there even anyone on the right that would be an improvement? Especially with Mitch McConnell still Minority Leader in the Senate?
Remind me again who the keynote speaker was at the 2012 RNC lol
ReplyDeleteChristie is mostly theater. He does the role of tough-guy outraged-victim quite well (but so did my last batch of NYC cabbies).
ReplyDeleteChristie is feeling the sting of payback for his perceived ditching of Romney and other crimes against the GOP big money. He won't be keynote speaker ever again. And, regardless of his immense self-regard, his physique ensures the best he can do politically is retain the NJ governorship or go for a stint in the US Senate.
Christie may think he'll blossom in whatever evolves from the wreckage of GOP. But, the depth and extent of the stupid in the existing GOP will give us a long, slow, dismal train wreck. Christie will be history by the time the dust settles.
I think Christie is running 2016!
ReplyDeleteHow about a new Speaker? RME.
http://www.politicususa.com/conservatives-fire-john-boehner-replace-sarah-palin.html
So Chris, ready to step away from the dark side? we know you want to.
ReplyDeleteSo who would we get instead? cantor? ryan? Paul?
ReplyDeleteI don't think the President is sitting in Hawaii enjoying the suffering of New York and New Jersey victims of Hurricane Sandy. He is too big a human being for that. That is part of his problem. He could never be as cut throat and cruel as the republicans.
ReplyDeleteGOD I love Chris Christie. A real leader. The only one in this country.
ReplyDeleteI just wish the President was sitting in the sun here in Hawaii, it's been cloudy & rainy on Oahu lately. But he brought the sun with him, as he does everywhere he goes, in the form of his & his families loving natures.
ReplyDelete