Gov. Chris Christie on Running for President; Snapping at People; and Clarence Clemons

The other big man from New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie, whom Imus dragged across the finish line in late 2009 despite an ongoing shoulder injury, scored a big victory last week with his new pension and benefits plan for public workers.
 
“I’m going to sign the bill tomorrow, and it’s going to save taxpayers in New Jersey $132 billion over the next 30 years, and it’s going to make the pension system solvent so the people who earn the pensions can get them,” he explained.
 
On the health insurance side, individuals will pay a percentage of the premium, rather than 1.5 percent of their salary, which, Christie said, “was an extraordinarily small amount for the kind of coverage folks were getting.” The contributions will be based on a sliding scale, meaning the less money someone makes, the less they will pay.
 
Christie’s fellow Republicans have roundly praised him for, among other things, his straightforward, no-nonsense approach to governing, but the notoriously outspoken Ann Coulter wondered recently whether New Jersey’s precarious economic situation might adversely affect Christie if he seeks reelection in 2013.
 
New Jerseyans, he insisted, “know that I inherited a mess, and that I’m doing the best I can. I’m not sugarcoating it for them. If I show we’re making progress, I’ll be just fine.”
 
And, as in 2009, Christie can count on the I-Man’s unwavering support…right?
 
“I’ve watched you for a long time, Don,” Christie said. “I just want to make sure. There’s a lot on the line here, babe. It’s my career!”
 
Though Imus has patted himself on the back for getting Christie elected, this morning he credited the Governor for making the wise decision nearly two years ago to be self-effacing about his girth.
 
“You gave me the forum to do it,” Christie told Imus, adding, “It was an enormous help to me.” Pun intended?
 
Like Imus, Christie is prone to verbal outbursts; also like Imus, he doesn’t regret snapping at people when he feels they deserve it. Case in point: just last week, while appearing on a local New Jersey television call-in show, Christie basically lashed out at a woman named Gail when she asked why he sends his kids to private school.
 
“Mary Pat and I make the decisions about where our children go to school, and why we think it’s important for them, in our case, to go to parochial school,” he said, noting his belief that those decisions are not open to public scrutiny. “If you want to start talking about my children, that’s the kind of reaction you’re going to get.”
 
A devout Bruce Springsteen fan, Christie was predictably upset about the death last week of Bruce’s longtime sideman and saxophonist Clarence Clemons. His immediate reaction on learning the news had been to declare, “My youth is finally over.”
 
Something that seems like it will never end, however, is speculation that Christie will run for president. “I don’t want to run,” he said for, like, the gazillionth time. “I don’t feel like I’m ready to run. I like the way my life is now. I like being Governor. I like my family life the way it is, and if you run for president, all that changes.”
 
Cautioned by Imus not to change his mind, Christie replied, “I know if I decided to run now, you’d crucify me. You would play every bit where I said I wasn’t running, and call me a typical lying, weasel politician.”
 
Maybe. But, he’d also be a typical, lying weasel politician with a thing for aging cowboys, as Imus learned when, moments after stating he does not support same-sex marriage, Christie declared, “Hopefully, next time I come in, we can make that eye contact you and I like to do so much.”
 
Get a room.
 
-Julie Kanfer