Addiction Nov 4^th

Governor Christie has a fascinating video out there. Check it out by googling Christie “pro-life.” Christie is pro-life but he has come down hard on those who he claims are only pro-life while the “infant” is in the womb. He is shown giving a truly impressive talk to a small group of supporters about the need to be pro-life after the child is born regardless of the person’s circumstances. He begins with the example of his mother who tried to give up cigarettes and could not. She died of cancer but no one suggested that she not be treated because the addiction was her own fault.  He contrasted this attitude with that shown toward a close friend who became addicted to Percocet, a pain killer first prescribed for a painful back. His point was that all lives are precious and that while being pro-life is easy when the innocent infant is in the womb we need to be consistent and support a pro-life position later in life as well, even if the life, by then, has been messed up.

Good for Christie! I don’t agree with some of his utterances but on this he is certainly right. I am not pro-life if this means that the fertilized ovum moving down the Fallopian tube is considered a human being. I find that equivalent to believing that an acorn is an oak tree and that squirrels are guilty of deforesting the country. Christie is not quite so pro-life when it comes to the death penalty. New Jersey does not have one at the moment but a push to get one on Christies’ desk for his signature was recently defeated. Christie, with typical right wing inconsistency, said that if it got to his desk he would sign it.

Republican Governors do occasionally have their moments of Christian charity. Recall Ohio’s Governor Kasich extending Medicaid…and then paying for it by not being invited to CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Committee, holding a conference in his own state. Who knows what price Christie will have to pay; he is already suspect for making nice with President Obama who had come to New Jersey to inspect storm damage.

There is another fascinating angle here. How did this clip of Christie making his case for encouraging life after birth get on the internet? Apparently it started with “The Huffington Post,” a rather left leaning outfit. I picked it up from tuning in to Rachel Madow last night at nine o’clock. Rachel is very bright but sometimes annoyingly stretches 15 minutes’ worth of stuff to an hour so I just watch the first fifteen minutes. She showed the Christie tapes and they certainly surprised me. Madow thought this would re-energize Christie’s campaign and it might very well.

This tape, now with many millions of “hits,” must be a plum for conservatives, so where are the conservatives? David Limbaugh, the more vitriolic younger brother of Rush Limbaugh declares Christie’s comments platitudes. Apparently the tapes are arousing waves of apathy on the right; that would figure.