By Dan Cirucci | via Dan Cirucci’s Blogspot
Call it sanguicolous.
That’s probably the only way we can explain it.
And you say “what?”
Sanguicolous.
Yeah, we know it’s an unusual word. So unusual that spell check doesn’t even recognize it.
But we’re using it in reference to Chris Christie’s penchant for verbal jibes. And we’re thinking, maybe his capacity for loquacious sparring is just sanguicolous — which means, maybe it’s just in his blood.
You know, sorta like a wayward cell, lurking, lurking and then — Kaboom!
Because sometimes we’re at a loss to explain it any other way. We really are.
We thought this the other night during the GOP debate when Chris Christie came at Marco Rubio in a manner that could only be described as ferocious, even by North Jersey standards. Christie’s relentless attack was just this side of chilling.
Yes, Rubio was rattled. He basically folded. He was like Mack without the knife. And Christie’s assault might not have succeeded quite so much if it was reciprocated. But that’s another story.
What struck us was not just Christie’s tenacity but also his delight in the blows he seemed to have landed. He did everything but jump up and down and raise his hands over his head Rocky style.
Sure, it’s Christie’s nature to turn bellicose now and then, especially when he thinks it might suit his purposes — and even sometimes when he doesn’t seem to think about it at all. Saturday night ‘s salvo was quite calculated, to be sure. But other attacks have seemed far more spontaneous.
And yes, we all know that Christie’s mom was an adept arguer who could unleash zingers faster than you can say “Newark.” We know because Christie has told us about it many, many times. She was sharp, she was verbose, she raised her voice, she had her wits about her. In short, you didn’t wanna tangle with her.
So, there’s definitely a learned factor here. But heredity cannot be discounted. And with Christie we think a good part of it is just in the corpuscles.
The plus side of this is that he’s a passionate person. No question about that. There’s a blood rush that drives Christie onward — super protoplasms that generate the competitiveness; the will to succeed and even a winning human quality that can touch your heart when you least expect it. It’s all there. We know because we’ve seen it up close and it’s quite convincing.
But like a bigger-than-life brawler who seeks to dominate every ring he enters, Christie can pounce with a Richter scale impact that The Terminator would envy.
That’s what happened Saturday night.
And that’s what led us to the realm of sanguicolousness.
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