Don't string me up but ...

Big man for smaller government?

Okay, this might destroy my blue bonafides, but I kind of admire this guy. He's tough, plain-spoken and breathlessly un-demagogic. I'm just grateful for every conservative politician who isn't foaming at the mouth about stem cells, reproductive rights, religion or guns. Maybe my standards have been lowered, but we have a history of pragmatic and respected Republican pols in PA -- from John Heinz who was lionized by the common people in Democratic PGH to Arlen Specter to Tom Ridge. We have some flakes too (cough Santorum). Christie is not a flake. He's a straight-ahead fiscal conservative which the folks across the river arguably need right now to prevent fiscal collapse.

Some people slap the "bully" label on him. Christie has stated that he advocates "adversarial collective bargaining," which sounds like tough-guy talk until you realize it is the norm in the private sector. Ed Rendell engaged in it in PHL during his first term as mayor and he is a Dem. folk hero.

As much as I support unions and the right to collective bargaining, nobody says it should be easy. Christie's point that if you're a CEO and it's your money, you negotiate as if it counts, because it does -- it's your bottom line. However negotiating in the public sector means "other people's money" and it is far too easy to give away the candy store with no pain to self and a positive payoff in campaign contributions if you are seen as union-friendly.

We're hemorrhaging here and you can blame the evil bankers and you'd not hear me raise a squawk, but it's we middleclass folk who have to take the brunt of it and make it work. We always do. It sucks, but that doesn't make it less true. Want to have a bonfire and roast some derivatives traders. I'll be there with bells on. But we all suffer from the rich men's greed until we put a stop to it. Different issue.  

Back to Chris Christie and NJ politics. My younger (Republican) brother was the mayor of a small NJ borough. He was elected with impressive numbers after he donated about a year's worth of legal assistance to secure flood relief for the township. Toward the end of his term, he had the temerity to propose that the borough's police and fire merge with the larger borough that surrounded his smaller one. A recent NY Times article talks about this unique situation in NJ, where every little podunk town has its own emergency response system which means a lot of waste and redundancy. In my brother's case, the savings would have been in the millions to the tax base and the good people of his constituency rewarded his prudence by egging his house, leaving threatening messages on his home phone. Needless to say, they tried to recall him while still in office then rode him out on the rails in the next election.

I told him no good deed goes unpunished. I told him about favorable coverage of Christie in the Inky last year. He was genuinely shocked that a "mainstream liberal paper" (not my opinion, mind you) had anything nice to say about the new guv. Unspoken, was that his Democratic older brother would have a similar positive take. 

What we don't get in these polarized times is that the fact based respectful debate between fiscal conservatism and social activism is balanced and necessary. We should help the neediest of our population. And we should be able to pay for it. Nobody should be demonized for taking one side or the other, as long as they're working with facts instead of pandering to emotions.

Make me barf!

I'll tell you, I saw the Time mag cover "Obama (hearts) Reagan" and it made me want to hurl. Reagan was the trendsetter for everything that is wrong about today's Republican party. Ideology over principle. Show without substance. Teflon. Telling people what they want to hear instead of what we need to hear. Reagan trained up a new army of wingnuts who think patriotism means selfishly voting with their wallets and prayerbooks instead of what's good for the entire country. Reagan might as well have been Gordon "Greed is good" Gekko. So what is the best hope for leadership in this country doing embracing a such a demagogue? 

I'd be far happier if O embraced the fleshy, still very much alive Chris Christie. Then we could have a real discussion about what's gone wrong and how to fix it.

One more thing. PA Guv Tom Corbett is talking about emulating Chris Christie. You want to make "smaller government" I say fine. Start with the boondoggle that is Harrisburg where we have more state reps per unit of population than any other state than New Hampshire. If Corbett sent about half of those hillbilly nosepickers back to their one horse towns, even I'd vote for him. PA is proof that more representation is not better representation. See table below:

Population and State Legislative Size Population   Legislatures            State  In  2005  Population  Rank  Total  Size  Total  Rank*  Senate  Size  Senate  Rank*  House  Size  House  Rank*  Alabama  4,557,808  23  140   24   35  16  105  16  Alaska  663,661  47  60   39   20   25   40   30   Arizona  5,939,292  17  90  35  30  20  60  26  Arkansas  2,779,154  32  135  26  35  16  100  18  California  36,132,147  1  120  29  40  12  80  22  Colorado  4,665,177  22  100  34  35  16  65  25  Connecticut  3,510,297  29  187  9  36  15  151  6  Delaware  843,524  45  62  38  21  24  41  29  Florida  17,789,864  4  160  17  40  12  120  13  Georgia  9,072,576  9  236  3  56  4  180  3  Hawaii  1,275,194  42  76  36  25  22  51  27  Idaho  1,429,096  39  105  32  35  16  70  24  Illinois  12,763,371  5  177  13  59  3  118  14  Indiana  6,271,973  15  150  18  50  6  100  18  Iowa  2,966,334  30  150  18  50  6  100  18  Kansas  2,744,687  33  165  16  40  12  125  10  Kentucky  4,173,405  26  138  25  38  14  100  18  Louisiana  4,523,687  24  144  22  39  13  105  16  Maine  1,321,505  40  186  10  35  16  151  6  Maryland  5,600,388  19  188  8  47  9  141  8  Massachusetts  6,398,743  13  200  6  40  12  160  5  Michigan  10,120,860  8  148  20  38  14  110  15  Minnesota  5,132,799  21  201  5  67  1  134  9  Mississippi  2,921,088  31  174  14  52  5  122  12  Missouri  5,800,310  18  197  7  34  17  163  4  Montana  935,670  44  150  18  50  6  100  18  Nebraska  1,758,787  38  49  40  49  7  N/A  N/A  Nevada  2,414,807  35  63  37  21  24  42  28  New Hampshire  1,309,940  41  424  1  24  23  400  1  New Jersey  8,717,925  10  120  29  40  12  80  22  New Mexico  1,928,384  36  112  31  42  11  70  24  New York  19,254,630  3  212  4  62  2  150  7  North Carolina  8,683,242  11  170  15  50  6  120  13  North Dakota  636,677  48  141  23  47  9  94  21  Ohio  11,464,042  7  132  28  33  18  99  19  Oklahoma  3,547,884  28  149  19  48  8  101  17  Oregon  3,641,056  27  90  35  30  20  60  26  Pennsylvania  12,429,616  6  253  2  50  6  203  2  Rhode Island  1,076,189  43  113  30  38  14  75  23  South Carolina  4,255,083  25  170  15  46  10  124  11  South Dakota  775,933  46  105  32  35  16  70  24  Tennessee  5,962,959  16  132  28  33  18  99  19  Texas  22,859,968  2  181  11  31  19  150  7  Utah  2,469,585  34  104  33  29  21  75  23  Vermont  623,050  49  180  12  30  20  150  7  Virginia  7,567,465  12  140  24  40  12  100  18  Washington  6,287,759  14  147  21  49  7  98  20  West Virginia  1,816,856  37  134  27  34  17  100  18  Wisconsin  5,536,201  20  132  28  33  18  99  19  Wyoming  509,294  50  90  35  30  20  60  26  TOTAL 296,410,404   7,382  1,971  5,411 * Due to equal sizes of legislatures or legislative chambers, rankings may not range from 1 to 50. Source: http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=13527