By Matt Rooney
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Former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman has been back in the news a bit lately, Save Jerseyans, after she called on Republican governors to demand Donald Trump resignation back in July.
Irrelevant? Sure. But she once had a title, and she still has an “R” after her name, so the Media is more than happy to give her a platform to rip other Republicans.
Should she still have the right to claim Republican affiliation?
“I’m someone who has served as a Republican governor. I’ve served two Republican administrations, I grew up as a Republican,” Whitman opined to another outlet this week. “There are times when you just put policy ahead of politics. You’ve got to call out this man. I believe he should resign and I think Republicans should at least start to move in that direction.”
Born into a Republican family she may’ve been, yet we all know you can’t be ‘born’ a conservative. You need to choose to adopt a certain set of principles.
Christine Todd Whitman hasn’t just vociferously opposed Donald Trump for being mean (?), or too independent from the ruling establishment of which she is a legacy member; she put pen to paper and endorsed Hillary Clinton in October 2016. Principled? Or just petulant?
Her vocalized qualms preexisted Trump. She criticized the George W. Bush-era GOP after leaving her post as EPA chieftain (we all remember that stupid ‘It’s My Party, Too’ book), and she happily dumped on Mitt Romney, too, for allegedly failing to stand up to his base.
Whitman also isn’t a ‘moderate’; she’s a full-fledged liberal. She’s a well-known and unapologetic pro-abortion (vetoed a ban on PARTIAL BIRTH abortion which even some Democrats supported), big government, environmental radical (read: supporter of business-killing regulations) whose legacy as governor includes lot of extremely not fiscally conservative borrowing and the destabilization of our pension system, a problem which continues to plague our state’s bloated budgets decades later.
I’m not even going to get into her 9/11 first responder controversy here; some blunders (like being terrible at your job) aren’t necessarily a partisan affair.
For all of the above reasons? And more? She has another perhaps less-well-known distinction, familiar only to Save Jersey readers: only Phil Murphy, Bob Menendez and Cory Booker elicit more negative social media reactions when we post about than Whitman who remains universally disliked by New Jersey taxpayers of both parties. If I only cared about traffic? I’d write about her a few times per week!
FYI: I’m not going to lecture our friends in the Middlesex GOP for roping her into a fundraiser with fellow former governors Kean and Christie on October 5th; as a Camden County Republican, I understand how hard it is to get attention for an event, let a lone one where you’re trying to raise much-needed cash in a blue county.
She’s entitled, of course, to believe whatever she wants! Free country. I’m also a big tent guy; in a two-party system for a country of 320+ million souls, you and your party mates can’t agree on everything. It’s impossible.
It’s also 2018, after all! You can technically identify as anything you want, or so we’re told: species, gender, animal, mineral, etc. and so on.
The question nevertheless remains: is this really still her party, too?
I’ll dispense with the suspense: no. It’s not, and it hasn’t been for a long time. She’s about as Republican as Charlie Crist or Lincoln Chafee. On most of the major issues, she’s more of a Green than a Republican or even a Democrat.
So why is she still here? Other than making her more interesting to television bookers and producers? Only she knows the answer.
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