David Brooks On Christie: People 'Want a Bully to Go to Washington' -
crooksandliars.com
DAVID BROOKS: No, I -- some of that, I agree with. He should have expressed more regret about the people who were inconvenienced.
MARK SHIELDS: Yes.
DAVID BROOKS: It should be said also the level of small-minded petulance that exists in politics is never to be underestimated.
People do nasty, cheap stuff all the time, because they are caught up in some small-minded politicalness of it. As having said that, though, I thought Christie did reasonably well. I thought...
JUDY WOODRUFF: At the news conference.
DAVID BROOKS: At the news conference.
If he knew about what was happening at the time, his career is really damaged. But so far, there has been no evidence that he did.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Because he denied.
DAVID BROOKS: He denied, flatly denied.
So, if an e-mail comes out showing he knew, then he is in deep trouble. But, so far, I thought he expressed naturalness. He expressed humiliation. He walked us through in intimate detail how he found out about it, how he fired the people.
I thought it was Christie. Now, my friend Mike Murphy, the political consultant, says the essence of Christie, he doesn't come in small doses. He comes in big doses. And the challenge for Christie as a candidate has always been, will people accept somebody who comes on that strong?
But if he comes on that strong as even a little bit of a bully, which is sort of what he looks like in this, it could be that people want a bully to go to Washington. If they're going to vote for Christie, they don't want a charmer. They want a big bully. And this will not hurt him, I think.
I think some politicians would be hurt by this kind of scandal. He will not be hurt, because his image, as a big, tough, bully, that is what you are hiring him for if you are going to elect him president. And so this is consistent with that image, I think.
|
