Maryland, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

By Michael J.W. Stickings

WaPo:

A bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland was approved by the state Senate, which advanced a measure that narrowly cleared the House of Delegates last week.

The final vote by the state Senate ended a yearlong drama in Annapolis over the legislation, and marked the first time an East Coast state south of the Mason-Dixon line has supported gay nuptials.

With the vote, the measure moves to Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), who has said he will sign it.

Maryland would join the District and seven states in allowing same-sex marriages. Supporters have cast the bill as a major advance in equal rights. Opponents have called it a misguided attempt to redefine the institution of marriage.

Opponents, of course, are bigots. Period.

(And, yes, that includes the bullying blowhard known as Gov. Chris Christie of my former home state of New Jersey. He's better than most Republicans on this issue, to be sure, but separate but equal isn't good enough.)

Voting rights

By Mustang Bobby.

New Jersey's legislature is on the verge of voting on marriage equality, and Gov. Chris Christie (R) is threatening to veto the law should it pass.  His stand is that it should be voted on by referendum, not "121 people in Trenton."

That's a weaselly way of getting out of it the discussion.  He's doing it so he doesn't have to take a stand and come across as a homophobic right-winger; hey, it's not the law, it's the process.  That's a typical chickenshit way out for a politician.  So far so good.  But then he goes and steps on the rake.

...he said, there's nothing "so special about this particular issue that it must be handled by a legislature."

"The fact of the matter is, I think people would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South," he said.

That didn't go over too well with some of the people who remember all too well what it was like to fight for civil rights.

The comment outraged many African-American leaders in the state, who pointed out that such a referendum never would have passed in the south during the 60s — and that many black people were also disenfranchised at the time.


“People were fighting and dying in the streets of the South for a reason,” Oliver said. “They were fighting and dying in the streets of the South because the majority refused to grant minorities equal rights by any method. It look legislative action to bring justice to all Americans, just as legislative action is the right way to bring marriage equality to all New Jerseyans.”


“The governor’s comment is an insult to those who had no choice but to fight and die in the streets for equal rights,” she added.


Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) had a similar take. “Dear God, we should not be putting civil rights issues to a popular vote, to be subject to the sentiments, the passions of the day. No minority should have their rights subject to the passions and the sentiments of the majority. This is the fundamental bedrock of what our nation stands for.”

Gov. Christie sounds like someone who has never faced any kind of discrimination. He has never lived a day in his life with the knowledge that there are laws that were written in such a way as to deny him a life with all his basic rights intact. Must be nice.

Rights are not something you vote on.  That's why they are rights; they are fundamental to the foundation of our country.  They are the essence of freedom; they don't restrict us, they liberate us.  And that is why a lot of people didn't like the idea of black people voting in the South -- or anywhere else -- and that's why they don't like the idea of same-sex couples having the same rights and responsibilities as straight couples.  It's not the act that enrages them (although some of them are really hung up on gay sex); it's the fact that they cannot abide the idea of people they hate and fear having the same rights as they do.

I'll give Gov. Christie the benefit of the doubt; after all, he just appointed an openly gay man to the state supreme court.  He's a privileged white guy who doesn't have the insight to know or understand what it's like to live without something, so it's easy to dismiss the call for a right that he's never been without.  That doesn't make him a homophobic bigot; it just makes him a jerk.

Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.

Chris Christie says Gingrich has "embarrassed" GOP

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Oh, really:

Romney surrogate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called Newt Gingrich an embarrassment to the Republican Party on Sunday, one day after the former House Speaker rode a late surge to victory in the South Carolina primary.

"I think Newt Gingrich has embarrassed the party, over time," Christie (R), who has endorsed Romney, said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Gov. Romney never has."

Never? How about all the flip-flopping he did when he decided to take his act from Massachusetts to the national stage? How about all his shameless pandering to the right in his pathetic attempt to woo the base?

Look, I'm hardly a Newt backer, even if I'm supporting him for the Republican presidential nomination (as Democrats should), but at least he's had some success, actually quite significant success, at the national level, and at least, however much of an egomaniac he may be, he has some genuine conservative ideas -- neither of which you can say about Romney, who has been a failure thus far at the national level (and who only won Massachusetts by selling himself as a progressive-friendly moderate) and whose idea of politics is to suck up to whatever specific electorate he needs to win (hence his current sucking up to the Obama-hating Republican base).

Gingrich has certainly embarrassed his party over the years, just as he has embarrassed himself, but he's hardly alone in this. Romney has done much the same, if not as a hypocritical bully and blowhard then as a shameless self-promoter who will do and say anything for votes.

Chris Christie -- New Jersey governor, Romney pal, bullying misogynist -- calls women stupid cocksuckers

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Slate's Torie Bosch:

On Sunday, Jan. 8., New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was speaking at a Romney for President rally in New Hampshire when he was interrupted by some female hecklers. It's difficult to make out exactly what Christie's critics were yelling, but it's something to do with jobs going down. Ever the class act, Christie's response: "You know, something may be going down tonight, but it ain't going to be jobs, sweetheart." He then goes on to insult the women by saying that if they were from Jersey, they wouldn't be so silly as to think that his policies don't support job creation.

That's right, he makes an aggressive oral sex remark, as if the women are nothing better than cocksuckers (to put it bluntly) who should submit to the force of his dominant manliness, and then calls them stupid. This is the sort of thing that you expect to hear in a good deal of the hardcore porn that men like Christie consume with such enthusiasm -- "Suck it, you stupid bitch!" -- and that, given the mainstreamization of such porn in recent years, contributes to the ongoing social oppression of women, specifically as objects for men to use and abuse at their leisure, too stupid to do anything other than serve, and sexually satisfy, their male overlords.

Think I'm over-reacting? Think I'm making too much of it? Read again what he said (or watch it below -- the New Jersey GOP put up the clip itself, apparently proud of Christie's response "rather than recognizing it as flagrantly demeaning, even misogynistic," as Bosch writes).

Here's the governor of New Jersey, a leading national political figure and one of Mitt Romney's key surrogates, dismissing women -- hecklers, but still women -- by telling them to suck his dick and then insulting them. He's not just a bully, as we've seen so many times before, he's a sexual thug who apparently treats women like shit.

Nothing surprising there, perhaps, but what of Romney? Shouldn't we judge people by the company they keep? Shouldn't we hold his good pal Christie against him? There he is, right behind Christie, yukking it up, smiling happily at Christie's sexist retort, playing right along, apparently in agreement. Judge him accordingly.

Quotes of the Day: Noonan, Will, Brooks, and Gerson take down The Newt

By Michael J.W. Stickings

The campaign to destroy Newt Gingrich, or at least his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, is well underway.

It's coming from renegades like Ron Paul (who's obviously acting on his own), Capitol Hill establishment types like Pete King (who's obviously playing his part in a more organized campaign), Romney surrogates like Chris Christie (who's obviously doing his pal's bidding), and, of course, from big-time conservative pundits who can see clearly that Newt, an unprincipled egomaniac, would be a disaster for the GOP. For example:

Peggy Noonan: "He is a human hand grenade who walks around with his hand on the pin, saying, 'Watch this!'"

George Will: "There is almost artistic vulgarity in Gingrich's unrepented role as a hired larynx for interests profiting from such government follies as ethanol and cheap mortgages."

David Brooks: "[Newt] has every negative character trait that conservatives associate with '60s excess: narcissism, self-righteousness, self-indulgence and intemperance. He just has those traits in Republican form."

Michael Gerson: "Gingrich's language is often intemperate. He is seized by temporary enthusiasms. He combines absolute certainty in any given moment with continual reinvention over time."

Can you smell the fear? Can you sense the panic? If conservatives of this caliber are going after Newt with such aggressiveness, it's only because he's become such a formidable frontrunner, and because he's gaining such momentum that he may very well be approaching the realm of inevitability.

Christie calls Obama "bystander" on supercommittee failure, displays characteristic idiocy

By Michael J.W. Stickings

In case you missed it, New Jersey Governor (and all-around bully and blowhard) Chris Christie slammed President Obama on Monday:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ripped President Obama for the failure of the debt supercommittee, calling the president "a bystander in the Oval Office" in comments Monday.

"I was angry this weekend, listening to the spin coming out of the administration, about the failure of the supercommittee, and that the president knew it was doomed for failure, so he didn't get involved. Well, then what the hell are we paying you for?" Christie said in Camden, N.J. "It's doomed for failure, so I'm not getting involved'? Well, what have you been doing, exactly?"

This is complete and utter bullshit, as Steve Benen explained yesterday:

The New Jersey governor added that he's "astonished" that the president "refuses" to just call people into a room and solve problems. This is the kind of criticism the media finds compelling, but which is nevertheless idiotic.

The president has tried every negotiating tactic that exists to get congressional Republicans to work on finding solutions. Obama has tried hands-on talks; he's tried keeping his distance. The president has tried hard sells and soft sells, directly and indirectly. He's made private appeals and public appeals. He's made arguments based on policy, polls, and principles. He's tried charm offensives, combativeness, and everything in between. He's made partisan, bipartisan, tripartisan, and nonpartisan arguments, all in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, GOP leaders will be open to good-faith compromise.

And yet, nothing has worked. Nothing. 

Obama isn't blameless, to be sure, but he should be blamed for being so willing not just to compromise with Republicans but to agree to a deal that leans heavily Republican. He should not be blamed for not trying to reach a deal. If anything, he's gone out of his way, much to the ongoing chagrin of progressives, to get a deal done. (Actually, he hasn't really gone out of his way. It's more that his way isn't the progressive way.)

If there is blame to be assigned here, and there most certainly is, it is the Republicans who must be blamed. There hasn't been a deal only because, being anti-tax absolutists, they have been absolutely unwilling to budge on revenue increases even when the president, with Democratic support, has offered them massive spending cuts even to major entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

The president has been anything but a bystander throughout this whole mad exercise, from the debt ceiling talks through to the supercommittee (which was never going to reach a deal, let's be honest; it was just for show). And for Christie to call him that is just plain ignorant.

(Yes, let's make him our Craziest Republican of the Day.)

**********

Nice location for some gubernatorial remarks. What is that behind his right shoulder, a big jar of garlic powder?