In the Trump-infested waters of the Republican primaries, it's nigh impossible to see how even the killer whale Chris Christie could survive all the bloodletting. That Christie will add considerably to it, however, is unquestionable. And delectable.
I’m running for President of the United States because the truth still matters. We need leaders that are willing to stand up and tell it like it is.
— Chris Christie (@GovChristie) June 6, 2023
That’s what this campaign is about.
With apologies for mixing my oceanographic metaphor, I expected Christie to come out swinging. I didn't really give the matter much thought, since Christie has as much chance of beating Trump as Trump has of beating Jack Smith. But Robert Costa is paid to think about such things, which I would have, too, if CBS News also paid me to do so.
(thread) Have covered Christie closely since his run for governor in 2009. Watching his NH town hall tonight. He's now in the race. A few observations... he's starting this bid on low simmer. Reintroducing himself to voters, casting himself as a thoughtful, seasoned GOP hand...
— Robert Costa (@costareports) June 6, 2023
He adds that "Christie's message on Trump is notable because it's not hard-line or emotionally anti-Trump. No anger tho pokes fun at Trump. Mocks. It's the shrug and sigh anti-Trump coalition."
That shows — it would seem — that the former New Jersey governor applied prudence to politics, that he too has given the matter some thought. He'll poke, he'll prod, he'll bait (sorry) Trump, but he won't taunt the Trumpers with potent truths about Trump. He'll go just so far, then pull up.
In promoting the guy, the WSJ's Peggy Noonan wrote a few days ago, "[Will his campaign] be a suicide mission? I don’t know. But those kamikazes took out a lot of tankers." (And so we're back to sea metaphors, and bloodletting.)
My only thought at the time was, "What else does Christie have cooking for the remainder of 2023 and 2024? He might as well have some fun, kicking Trump around." Likewise, that seemed to be, or at least I suspected, that that was the essence of Noonan's thoughts. Yet Costa says Christie will do more nudging than kicking.
But wait. Charlie Sykes seems to have watched someone and some thing other than Costa's Chris Christie and his "low simmer," writing, as Sykes does this morning, about his "scorched earth announcement last night." Indeed, the Boston Herald quotes the Now Candidate as having blisteringly said:
A lonely, self-consumed, self-serving, mirror hog is not a leader. So now we have pretenders all around us, who want to tell you 'pick me, because I’m kind of like what you picked before, but not quite as crazy, but I don’t want to say his name.' Because for these other pretenders, he is — for those of you who read the Harry Potter books — like Voldemort. He is he who shall not be named.
Well let me be clear, in case I have not been already. [Laughter.]
The person I am talking about, who is obsessed with the mirror, who never admits a mistake, who never admits a fault, and who always finds someone else and something else to blame for whatever goes wrong but finds every reason to take credit for anything that goes right, is Donald Trump.
That was a low simmer? I gather the intoxicated Costa had a full bladder from too much bourbon and spring water, and so he was in the head when Christie let loose his soft, shrugging, serene cannon balls about Trump as a "self-consumed, self-serving, mirror hog" of a Voldemort.
After reading only Mr. Costa's Twitter item, I was going to write in this post, "I confess an error. I expected Christie to come out swinging. But he didn't." I then thought I should snoop around a bit more before committing myself. Good thing. I would have looked as a foolish as Robert Costa.
For not only is Christie going for Trump's left and right external jugular veins, he is seeking to disembowel him. Glory be, blood everywhere in the Republican primaries. Make me smile.