On Fox News Sunday yesterday, two big name Republicans faced host Chris Wallace's line of questioning.
One was former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who is all but officially a candidate for the GOP 2012 nomination. The other was Chris Christie, the rambunctious New Jersey Governor, who is one of the party's rising stars, and a favorite of cable and broadcast news producers because of his refreshing lack of polish (i.e. the dude's extremely blunt).
Christie has only been a governor for a little over a year, but has received so much hype (helped that he toils near the media capital of the country), that yes, there are some who say that he should run for the nomination for President himself next year (and you thought that it might be too early to tout Marco Rubio for President?)
But Christie said flat out yesterday he's not ready for the job, even though FNS Chris Wallace kept on pressing him on that:
Christie is a favorite amongst Republicans because of his tough, some would call arrogant, way that he's tangled with his opponents, which include representatives of public employee unions.
But he showed on Sunday that he doesn't speak in the usual tones of many elected officials who have been around for a lot longer time, making him rather refreshing. But when asked if he was one official who needed to heed the new call for increased civility in our public discourse, he politely disagreed:
CHRISTIE: Sure, there's nothing — there is absolutely nothing that is not civil about that at all. What I think the president was talking about was the type of things where people are getting so emotional and trying to get people to become in some cases violent.
That's — that's not being civil. What you just saw is being straight. I mean, you know, I had a teacher there complaining that she wasn't compensated. There's a whole list of things she wasn't compensated for. And I said, well, you don't have to do it. If you think you're not being compensated fairly, then don't do it.
And I don't think there is a thing about that that is not civil. What I think we've become in this country, and this is why I make a distinction between hostility and vitriol and straight talk, is we've become so politically correct. And we have so gotten into this figuring out how not to answer a question, how to be completely neutral about things. And people have become fogged over listening to political conversation that's like that.
What I'm doing in New Jersey is when they ask me a question, I give an answer.
WALLACE: Well, OK. Let's talk about one of those. Last year, when New Jersey Democrats threatened to shut down the government because you had a disagreement with them about a tax they wanted to re-impose on the wealthy, you said fine. I'll veto the budget. I'll go back to the governor's mansion and I'll order a pizza.
CHRISTIE: Right.
WALLACE: Should Republicans in Washington take the same hard line in opposing the president about raising the debt limit and on federal spending?
CHRISTIE: Well, what I would suggest is that Republicans in Washington should do what we did in New Jersey. You very clearly articulate your position, why you think it's important for the future in this case of the country, for me and the future of the state of New Jersey, and go out and make your case.
I mean, I could say the things that I said, because I went up to the public and made my case. And the public, in poll after poll and interaction and town hall, said Governor, cut the budget. Don't raise taxes.
And that is why Democrats in New Jersey ultimately voted for the budget. Not because of my charm and good looks. So I think what Republicans in Congress have to do is go out to the public and make their case. They won the election on those arguments. Now articulate those arguments and have the guts to put up or shut up.
This article appears in Jan 13-19, 2011.