Fiscal conservative Christie takes helicopter, limo to son's baseball game

[Lief 🗽]

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/05/gov_christie_arrives_at_sons_h.html

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Not enough money for teachers or schools or poor people, but this fat hypocrite can't walk 100 yards to a baseball field.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

That was excessive and stupid.

[dead0man]

That's pretty stupid.  Up there with hundreds (thousands?) of envirowhackos taking jets around the world for meetings to tell others to stop wasting resources.

[Joe Republic]

Not enough money for teachers or schools or poor people, but this fat hypocrite can't walk 100 yards to a baseball field.

Have you seen the guy?  Of course he can't walk that kind of distance.  It'd take him a whole day.

[Eraserhead]

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate this guy?

[tmthforu94]

Not enough money for teachers or schools or poor people, but this fat hypocrite can't walk 100 yards to a baseball field.

Have you seen the guy?  Of course he can't walk that kind of distance.  It'd take him a whole day.

I highly doubt it'd take Christie an entire day to walk 100 yards.

[Joe Republic]

Not enough money for teachers or schools or poor people, but this fat hypocrite can't walk 100 yards to a baseball field.

Have you seen the guy?  Of course he can't walk that kind of distance.  It'd take him a whole day.

I highly doubt it'd take Christie an entire day to walk 100 yards.

...

You've been elected President down in Atlasia, have you?  Interesting.

[Keystone Phil]

As the spokesperson said, it isn't a regular occurrence; it's done when the schedule dictates that it's necessary. If this becomes a regular occurrence, he absolutely deserves the criticism.

What I find amazing is the placement of the outrage: the helicopter doesn't seem to be the issue with people here; it's the fact that he had to take a limo from the helicopter to the field.

Anyway, it's great to see him using an AgustaWestland helicopter. One of their two main American offices is in my neighborhood.  

[Brittain33]

Not surprising, his champagne tastes on the taxpayer's dime while a U.S. Attorney were well-documented and aired during the gubernatorial campaign. It's a mark against him and would have hurt more if the dynamic of the election didn't favor him already. Should we be surprised that nothing has changed?

[tmthforu94]

Not enough money for teachers or schools or poor people, but this fat hypocrite can't walk 100 yards to a baseball field.

Have you seen the guy?  Of course he can't walk that kind of distance.  It'd take him a whole day.

I highly doubt it'd take Christie an entire day to walk 100 yards.

...

You've been elected President down in Atlasia, have you?  Interesting.

lol
I know you were being sarcastic. I've been known to make poor jokes.

[krazen1211]

Not enough money for teachers or schools or poor people, but this fat hypocrite can't walk 100 yards to a baseball field.

What a bunch of garbage.

First, this helicopter was bought by Corzine.

Second, NJ spending on teachers, schools, and poor people far outdoes the national average or any metric of your choice.

[Keystone Phil]

Not enough money for teachers or schools or poor people, but this fat hypocrite can't walk 100 yards to a baseball field.

What a bunch of garbage.

First, this helicopter was bought by Corzine.

Second, NJ spending on teachers, schools, and poor people far outdoes the national average or any metric of your choice.

Lief's main gripe seems to be with the limo. As if the limo wouldn't be used for other purposes instead of driving the Governor one hundred yards to a field...

[DrScholl]

It is really so hard to say that he's being wasteful? It's not necessary to defend everything a politician does just because they are a favorite. It's waste no matter how you spin it.

[krazen1211]

It is really so hard to say that he's being wasteful? It's not necessary to defend everything a politician does just because they are a favorite. It's waste no matter how you spin it.

It sure is. Although, contrary to the extreme ignorance shown in the first post, its nothing new. It started with Republican Governor Tom Kean, who used a helicopter about once a day.

Interestingly enough, his successor Democratic governor sold a couple of those helicopters to recover from a decade of sky high spending. Sadly, spending back then was a miniscule fraction of what it was during the Corzine years.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Who cares about the helicopter and the limo?
The real issue is if the state picked up the tab for the hot dogs he ate during the game.

[Keystone Phil]

It is really so hard to say that he's being wasteful? It's not necessary to defend everything a politician does just because they are a favorite. It's waste no matter how you spin it.

I don't mind you disagreeing with my defense. I do mind the comment that I defend everything someone (Christie, in this case) does because he is "a favorite" of mine. I call out other favorites when I think they're wrong. I'll do the same for Christie when I think he's in the wrong. I don't think using the state helicopter when there is a time constraint is a waste. If he was making a habit out of it and there wasn't a time constraint, he'd be wrong.

[RI]

No, the real issue is that he left in the fifth inning. Douchebag.

[Iosif]

Not enough money for teachers or schools or poor people, but this fat hypocrite can't walk 100 yards to a baseball field.

Have you seen the guy?  Of course he can't walk that kind of distance.  It'd take him a whole day.

He's more than a little chubby, isn't he? He's about 9 stone past morbidly obese. He's actually quite repulsive to look at. How hard is it to stop eating? He can drop a stone a month with a simple diet. Someone on his staff or in his family really needs to sort him out. Cut down on the carbs, give him a salad for lunch and get him to walk as much as possible. He's a coronary waiting to happen.

If I was his doctor though I'd recommend bariatric surgery. He more than fits the profile. The state of New Jersey should cover the expenses - it'll be cheaper in the long term than dishing out for the host of medical problems that he has coming to him in a couple of years. There's no excuse for being that overweight.

[King]

The most interesting part of this story is that Drudge isn't mentioning it and FOX News gave an older video about Christie and his conservative credentials top billing on the front page over it.

Or I guess that's the least interesting as it's not surprising at all.

[cinyc]

As the spokesperson said, it isn't a regular occurrence; it's done when the schedule dictates that it's necessary. If this becomes a regular occurrence, he absolutely deserves the criticism.

What I find amazing is the placement of the outrage: the helicopter doesn't seem to be the issue with people here; it's the fact that he had to take a limo from the helicopter to the field.

Anyway, it's great to see him using an AgustaWestland helicopter. One of their two main American offices is in my neighborhood.  

Please.  New Jersey isn't that large.  You can get from one end of the state to another in 4 hours, tops.  There is no need for any New Jersey governor to use a helicopter to fly anywhere, let alone to and from his kids' baseball game.  It's excessive, especially when the state is looking to squeeze every penny.  And the optics simply stink.  

And yes, New Jersey governors from both parties have a history of pulling these shenanigans - from Corzine's excessively speeding motorcade getting into an accident while he was flaunting the law by not wearing a seat belt in the front seat to previous governors' misuse of helicopters.

If Christie wants to do the right thing politically, he'd admit he was wrong and sell the chopper once and for all.

[Keystone Phil]

Please.  New Jersey isn't that large.  You can get from one end of the state to another in 4 hours, tops.  There is no need for any New Jersey governor to use a helicopter to fly anywhere, let alone to and from his kids' baseball game.

Yeah because some of the worst traffic in the country is certainly not a problem in New Jersey...  

[cinyc]

Please.  New Jersey isn't that large.  You can get from one end of the state to another in 4 hours, tops.  There is no need for any New Jersey governor to use a helicopter to fly anywhere, let alone to and from his kids' baseball game.

Yeah because some of the worst traffic in the country is certainly not a problem in New Jersey...  

You mean the same traffic the governors' constituents have to deal with every day without being able to fly above it in a helicopter at taxpayers' expense?  Let the governor deal with the same traffic that his constituents do.

[Liberté]

Christie was never a "fiscal conservative".

[King]

The disagreement between cinyc and Keystone Phil is pretty good example of why the Republicans won't win in 2012.

[Liberté]

The disagreement between cinyc and Keystone Phil is pretty good example of why the Republicans won't win in 2012.

cinyc is absolutely correct. There's no reason the Republicans can't win if they man up and boot out the cranks.