CHRIS CHRISTIE’S ASTOUNDINGLY STUPID DECISION

Let’s start with two facts:

-If there is a government shutdown because the two major political parties are at an impasse, you can bet the Republican part of the equation is going to be nailed for it.  It happened during the Clinton-era shut-down, and it is happening in New Jersey today.

-If shutting down the government during a holiday weekend requires shutting down beaches and parks – thus ruining that weekend for countless citizens – they are going to be irate about it.  As they should be.

Now, what do you say about the Republican Governor of New Jersey, who is being blamed for shutting down the beaches and parks of his state, then deciding to spend the weekend at an estate on one of those beaches, basking in the sun with his family, while every other citizen cannot?

I would call that governor astoundingly stupid.  But I am only using those words in an attempt to be kind.  That is far from the actual language I would use in describing such behavior to a friend, far less personal, and far less profane.

From Andrew Mills and Claude Brodesser-Akner’s article for the Newark Star-Ledger:

People hoping to visit Island Beach State Park this holiday weekend were not allowed in because of the state government shutdown Gov. Chris Christie ordered amid the state budget standoff in Trenton. 

But there was one family there: Christie’s. They are using the summer beach house provided by the state for a weekend down the Shore.

And here are exclusive aerial photos by NJ Advance Media showing Christie surrounded by wife, Mary Pat Christie, and others. (You can open the photo gallery here to see all the photos.)

It would be hard to overstate the stupidity of this decision under any circumstances.

But this is an election year.  And Governor Christie’s Lieutenant Governor, Kim Guadagno is running to succeed him.

Given Mr. Christies current polling numbers, Ms. Guadagno is facing a near-herculean task.  But now, with that picture of Christie and his family essentially saying “I’m the Governor and I can use the beach even if you can’t, so piss off”?  Barring some equally astounding behavior by the other side, you can kiss her chances goodbye.

I would love to be a fly on the wall when Lt. Governor Guadagno expresses her “appreciation” – unless, of course, she’s on the beach with him.

One last thing:  when Marie Antoinette, France’s last Queen, was told the people had no bread to eat, she supposedly said “Let them eat cake”.  This is Chris Christie’s version of that quote – and, at his weight, what kind of a field day might some media have if they wanted to sarcastically, maybe visually, point it out?

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UPDATE:  We have an explanation/defense from Governor Christie.  Here it is:

“The governor has two residences in New Jersey.  One down at the beach, at Island Beach State Park, and one at Drumthwacket, which also is in Princeton.  The governor is allowed to go to his residences and I’m at my residences.  I’ll tell you this, I said last Monday, a week ago today, that no matter what happens, we were coming here as a family this weekend.”

Unbelievable.

Yes, Governor Christie, you have a legal right to be there.  Just as you have a legal right to sit at a table eating a caviar appetizer, double order of lobster and expensive wine, while hosting a lunch symposium on how to address hunger and poverty in New Jersey.

But you would never – at least I think you would never – eat that dinner during a lunch symposium on hunger and poverty. Why?  Because it is sickeningly insensitive to the people you would be discussing – people who almost certainly could never have such a lunch, or anything near it, in their lives.

Yet that is exactly what you are doing by being on the shut-down beach with your family – your own private beach that no other New Jersey citizen can be on, just like a king.’

If you can’t see what is wrong with this, you are beyond hope.