Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie has written a book, the latest in the long line of people associated with Donald trump who are trying to cash in on the connection. Matt Taibbi hilariously rips into the book and says that it inadvertently reveals the extent to which Christie was willing to debase himself in order to get a good job in the Trump administration and how Trump used his desire to humiliate him and leave him empty handed.
The first half of Let Me Finish shows Christie boasting about what a mean, uncompromising, double-dealing negotiator he is. He spends the second part, about Trump, complaining about being the victim of such a person.
…Legendary tough guy and breaker-of-balls Chris Christie sold his soul to get the Vice Presidency, and ended up being offered a one-way plane ticket to Vatican City — probably the only real offer he ever got. Despite where it comes from, it’s hard not to see the humor in this.
Christie sold us all out three years ago, and now, in print, he’s doing it to himself. That doesn’t make up for anything, but it is good for a laugh or two — which all too often is the most politics has to offer these days.
What all these books reveal in that all these people are backstabbing jerks, with no honor or dignity, but with a high sense of self-importance and arrogance. One of the targets in Christie’s book is former Ohio governor John Kasich who rubbed Christie’s nose in the fact that he lost badly in the presidential primary race. But don’t run away with the idea that Kasich is a good person just because he does not get along with Christie and Trump. Kasich is someone else who has been trying to keep his distance from the taint of being a Republican in the Trump era but a recent story by Julie Klausner shows that he too is a jerk with a strong sense of entitlement.
The ordeal actually started in the Alaska Airlines lounge at JFK airport in New York, where Klausner said she heard Kasich talking loudly on his cell phone, bragging about his recent deal to become a contributor with CNN.
Her next encounter with him was on the plane. She said she boarded the flight to San Francisco later than normal and found Kasich sitting in the seat she was assigned in first class.
“Basically there was a pilot sitting in the seat that was originally assigned to John Kasich,” Klausner said on her podcast. “And … when a pilot flies, and often it’s last-minute as it was in this case, they bump the person in the class that paid the least. And I’m not shading Kasich for getting a deal that was somehow better than mine … I’m just saying he happened to have been bumped.”
Instead of moving to a downgraded seat where he was assigned, however, Kasich took Klausner’s seat and didn’t move.
As Klausner waited for her seat, she said airline employees told her Kasich was rude to them and, in a bit of irony, they mistook him as a politician who worked for Republican President Donald Trump. (Kasich is a vocal Trump critic.)
…“The funny thing about it is when I tweeted about it, I realized people on both sides hate him,” Klausner said. “Because I guess Republicans hate him because he’s like, you know, not fascist enough, and then obviously people on our side hate him because he’s just a bad person. Just having interacted with him or interacted near him, I never met anyone so douchey and obnoxious and just dripping with disdain for people who in his mind aren’t as important as he is. I hope he – I don’t know. I hope he goes away forever. He sucks.”
The lesson here is an obvious one. Just because you are a critic of Trump does not mean you are not a jerk. This is something that many in the ‘liberal’ media seem to ignore, giving platforms to truly awful people just because they are Trump critics.
I went to a Christmas (not “Holiday”) party a few years ago, hosted by wealthy members of a church. A gay (and married) member, after talking to me for ~2 hours and well aware I was a liberal, told an anti-Hispanic joke. So nice: a member of one marginalized group throwing another marginalized group under the bus. I remember thinking “just because you are gay, doesn’t mean you aren’t an a-hole”. At least here we have white male a-holes throwing other white male a-holes under the bus.
“a member of one marginalized group throwing another marginalized group under the bus. ”
Last guys don’t necessarily finish nice.
I was at OSU back when Kasich was running for student government. Every time he lost, he’d bitch and moan about how it had all been rigged and the vote was invalid for one reason or another (sound familiar?). As far as I can tell he hasn’t changed a bit since then. Klausner’s story rings absolutely true to me. He wasn’t fit for student government, he’s not fit for state government, and I can’t tell you how surreal it was when he ran for President (and looked to me to be the best of the Republican lot running).
That includes Matt Taibbi himself, unfortunately.
Cat Mara @#4,
You may want to take a look at this and this before making a final judgment about him.
#5
This sort of thing is why I now hold back on condemning someone on the basis of first reporting. Especially when the person is on the left, as in that case it is entirely possible that the smear is an exaggeration or out of context nothing blown out of proportion by the right, as they chortle with glee at making the left eat another of their own.
@ Mano No. 5: Thank you for the second link.
@Homs No. 6: That’s true, you’re absolutely correct. I have found myself wresting with this vary concept in reading about Virginia’s Lt. Governor.
Jeff Hess
Have Coffee Will Write
“Just because you are a critic of Trump does not mean you are not a jerk.”
Look, I understand that I’m an old grump. But have we forgotten what we should have learned from 1945 on? Just because Stalin did an overall fine job fighting Mr. Schicklgruber does not mean he was not a jerk.