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Chris Matthews Show Panelist Says Chris Christie Won’t Pay Republican ‘Crazy Tax’

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On Sunday Morning’s The Chris Matthews Show, panelist Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal Constitution may have coined a phrase that will help to define the 2012 Republican presidential field. Speaking about the unlikelihood of a run by Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), Tucker said that the rising GOP star would be unwilling to pay the Republican “crazy tax” of pandering to the likes of the “Birthers” (and their Pied Dog-whistlers like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin), and denying science. Ozzy Osborne, we’ve got the DNC on line 1.

Despite the fact that Christie has said, over and over again, that he will not run in 2012, the energy around the NJ Governor has proven irresistible to pundits. The Matthews panel (guest-hosted by Nora O’Donnell) ticks off several great reasons to believe Christie won’t run, before Tucker delivers her gem:


I don’t know if Tucker is the first to use the phrase, but it is whip-smart, elegant, and more bumper sticker-friendly than Whip ‘em Out Wednesday. The difference, of course, is that the “crazy tax” exposes things about Republicans that most voters won’t find all that attractive.

Thanks to Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), the “birther” issue is, once again, alive and kicking, but even absent Abercrombie’s efforts, there’s an ugly, racially-tinged conspiracy subculture among Obama opponents (beginning with Hillary Clinton) that has continued to strengthen since the President took office. Many who don’t believe the “birther” garbage are a little more open to the idea that he’s a “secret Muslim,” and those who reject both of those “theories” still see resonance in their overall theme that President Obama “just ain’t one of us,” is not a product of the “real America” that Sarah Palin spoke of during the 2008 campaign.

Unfortunately, the rest of America has grown tired of these attacks, which is why Bill O’Reilly became so incensed at David Gregory for daring to ask House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to denounce them. His failure (and the failures of Eric Cantor, Michele Bachmann, and soon, every other GOP hopeful) to do so  makes them look crazy.

O’Reilly, to his credit, strongly dismisses the idea that the President is some kind of Indo-Kenyan Manchurian Secret Muslim, but fails to recognize why it’s a big deal that Republican leaders will not. As Robert Gibbs pointed out, the President himself has demonstrated a willingness to do the same when the shoe was on John McCain‘s foot.

Going into 2012, Republicans are going to have to decide if keeping the “Birthers” and their spiritual brethren happy is worth alienating independents and conservative Democrats who not only want this crazy talk rejected, but who will question the judgment of those who don’t. If team Obama is smart, they’ll also highlight the contrast between the “un-American” rhetoric, and the high marks the President gets for protecting the US from Al Qaeda.

You can believe that the President is an un-American, secret Muslim sleeper, and you’ll look crazy, or you can believe that he’s killing too damn many terrorists, and look idiotic, but if you try to say you believe both…well, time to put the lotion in the basket.

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  • NORBIT

    Wow, what a story, Tommy.

    Do you think it’ll generate more interest than the J-Woww one?

  • WCinWI

    Hahaha…

    The more that trickles out about Christie, the more his chances don’t look good because no offense, you need the conservative base. Now if he wanted to run as the 3rd party candidate, he’s got a shot.

    Some conservatives love him, some think he’s a squish. They’d vote for him over Obama but they wouldn’t come out in droves for rallies and such. They’d come out more than other candidates, but not as much as needed.

  • WCinWI

    Also, the birther issue is a Lefty issue. Ask Hillary.

  • espo222

    Tucker is right. Anyone who questions whether or not Obama was born in the US, just needs to look at his birth certificate. Maybe that was a shot at Matthews because he has raised the question of why Obama doesn’t just show his birth certificate, himself.

  • http://TheDividedStatesBlog.com Publius219

    I’ll be honest. I don’t give a shit if he was born in America or not.

  • http://gordonbloyershow.com gordonbloyershow

    Cynthia Tucker must be the sister of Cynthia McKinney. Both are LOONS.

    Here is PROOF that it is the democrats are INSANE and Tommy too.

    Rep. David Wu’s staff confronted him over concerns about his mental health
    Published: Friday, February 18, 2011, 9:03 PM
    Updated: Saturday, February 19, 2011, 10:30 AM

    WASHINGTON — Three days before the Nov. 2 election, U.S. Rep. David Wu’s most loyal and senior staffers were so alarmed by his erratic behavior that they demanded he enter a hospital for psychiatric treatment.

    Their concern had been spiking for weeks in tandem with the Oregon Democrat’s increasingly unpredictable performance on the campaign trail and in private. He was loud and sometimes angry, some of them told The Oregonian. He said kooky things to staff and — more worrisome with a tough election fast approaching — around potential voters and donors.

    Most of all, they were worried for Wu, a 55-year-old single father of two children.
    Beginning of the end

    For some staffers, the beginning of the end was Wednesday, Oct. 27, when Wu delivered a belligerent and rambling 19-minute monologue to Washington County Democrats that some in the audience said was inappropriate for the friendly crowd. His behavior left staff members aghast.

    That Thursday, on a downtown Portland sidewalk in front of Central Drugs, several staff members pleaded with him to get into their car for a private intervention. Wu refused and took off on foot. His campaign staff could only watch helplessly, afraid what their candidate might say or do.

    They returned to the campaign office and sent the few remaining people home. He later called in his employees and reprimanded them for blowing things out of proportion and accused the predominantly female staff of being overly emotional, sources told The Oregonian.

    On Friday, Oct. 29, Wu attended a fundraiser at which U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was the featured guest. Wu tried to get Sebelius to talk to his children on his cell phone.

    That evening, he talked his way through security at Portland International Airport in order to meet his young children at the gate, only to solicit votes from passengers as his kids skipped ahead, according to a report filed with Port of Portland police. Later, the duty manager was reprimanded for letting Wu past the security checkpoint.

    In the early morning of Saturday, several odd messages written from Wu’s private House of Representatives e-mail address were sent to some staffers, all female, with still others copied on them.

    One message was written in the name and voice of Wu’s son. “Cut him some slack, man. What he does when he’s wasted is send emails, not harass people he works with.”

    Yet another was purportedly signed by both children, who are adolescents. It praised the female staffer for sticking by Wu. “My Dad says you’re the best because not even my Mom put up with him for [REDACTED: #] years and you have. We think you’re cool.”

    Aides with knowledge of the messages told The Oregonian they were convinced all were written by David Wu. The messages were sent from his BlackBerry around 1:30 a.m. Moreover, the private e-mail address of a member of Congress is closely guarded and it would be highly unusual for another person other than the elected official to have access to the account.

    Wu also forwarded a cheery photo of himself dressed as a tiger for Halloween. He had both hands — paws — held up to either side of his face. He was grinning broadly.

    At that point, staff knew something was terribly wrong with their candidate. That Saturday, Oct. 30, they checked for available hospital beds and consulted with his psychiatrist. Veteran pollster Grove sent staffers the e-mail that signaled the end. She declined to comment for this story but earlier told The Oregonian that she would never work for Wu again.

    There was no doubt Wu was having a rough 2010. He had separated from his wife, and he faced a credible opponent — Republican Rob Cornilles — in a difficult year for all Democrats. He told people he had stopped drinking in July.

  • jo hoochie

    Publius219 said:
    I’ll be honest. I don’t give a shit if he was born in America or not.

    That is probably because you just don’t give a rats ass about America!

  • da-wdc

    What has Christie actually accomplished besides getting talked about on cable news?

  • bobmoses

    Tommy Christopher is another mindless liberal partisan who obsesses over birthers.

    What Christopher and the rest of the mindless partisan liberals refuse to accept is that nobody cares about the birthers other than mindless partisans who would drink Draino before voting Republican.

    So please, mindless liberal partisans, continue to obsess over this utter non-issue. Republicans are too busy making the tough choices that Americans want and all of your attempts to distract are failing miserably.

  • http://gordonbloyershow.com gordonbloyershow

    People know his name and they know where he stands unlike you. You hide behind a phony name and shoot off your mouth.

    da-wdc said:
    What has Christie actually accomplished besides getting talked about on cable news?

    People know his name and they know where he stands unlike you. You hide behind a phony name and shoot off your mouth and don’t accomplish anything.

  • da-wdc

    Dude, I’m not a governor. I’m a commenter on the Internets in my free time after work, with a phony name under which I’m perfectly happy to hide and I don’t particularly care if you think that’s a bad thing. Christie is a public figure and the governor of a state, it’s fair to ask what he’s accomplished to merit being considered a serious candidate for president.

  • Probably NOT wrong

    Cynthia McKinney and Cynthia Tucker had to have
    been seperated at birth! They could be sisters!

  • George C

    da-wdc said:
    What has Christie actually accomplished besides getting talked about on cable news?

    da-wdc said:
    Christie is a public figure and the governor of a state, it’s fair to ask what he’s accomplished to merit being considered a serious candidate for president.

    Hope this helps .

    http://tinyurl.com/34xkmc8

  • AmeriCuda

    Like all JOURNOLISTER liars in the media Tommy Christopher has to ‘make stuff up’ when the facts don’t support his own warped liberal views. In the article TC says

    Tucker said that the rising GOP star would be unwilling to pay the Republican “crazy tax” of pandering to the likes of the “Birthers” (and their Pied Dog-whistlers like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin)

    I watched the clip and nowhere did I see Tucker talk about the Dog-whistler Sarah Palin. Please show the transcript of where Tucker said this or admit that your journalistic integrity is on par with Ron Burgundy.

  • roxsteady

    Pulizter prize winner is what Tucker is! Deal with that asshats!

  • Pablo

    …pandering to the likes of the “Birthers” (and their Pied Dog-whistlers like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin)

    Which Tommy links to his piece about him talking Birtherism with Robert Gibbs. No Palin, no Bachmann, just Tommy and Bob talking about Obama’s birth certificate, paying their GOP crazy tax.

  • Pablo

    I’m pretty sure Obama is the Twelfth Imam.

  • Lulany

    Wow, I had no idea Orly Taitz has been secretly working for Obama all this time!

  • lucky5

    gordonbloyershow said:
    People know his name and they know where he stands unlike you. You hide behind a phony name and shoot off your mouth.

    People know his name and they know where he stands unlike you. You hide behind a phony name and shoot off your mouth and don’t accomplish anything.

    Your friend Levin doesn’t like Christie. That won’t sit well with the party elite in the Republican base.

  • ganymede

    How much longer will the vast majority of Americans tolerate the antics of the rightwingers? That is certainly the question that is confronting Chris Christie. Obama is a secret Muslim socialist who as born in Africa and hates America. People get locked up in padded cells for less craziness than this. And yet, as I go through Mediaite comments, I still see the RW’s cherry picking their info from totally discredited sources. I don’t agree with Christie on a lot of issues, but he is from New Jersey, a state that has a lot of smart, educated people and where they don’t elect fools as a rule. Christie is much smarter than Gov Walker in Wisconsin who has stirred up a hornets nest with his hard right antics, so I suspect Christie will continue to work out his agenda in a relatively gentlemanly fashion while the Repiblican Party continues to implode.

  • Dave Richards

    da-wdc said:
    What has Christie actually accomplished besides getting talked about on cable news?

    He has accomplished more than Obama. He was an actual working lawyer, County Freeholder, lobbyist and United States Attorney.

    Other than being a community organizer and showing people how to mooch from the government, what has Obama accomplished? Oh, yes, he was a state senator form illinois who most often votes present so he wouldn’t get his hands dirty. Very similar how he handles his presidency. Spent 4 years in the US Senate giving flowery speeches.

  • Dave Richards

    roxsteady said:
    Pulizter prize winner is what Tucker is! Deal with that asshats!

    She’s a race baiting Pulitzer Prize winner.

  • bobmoses

    The Pulitzer Prize is an award for liberal idiocy, as is the Nobel Prize.

  • OxyCon

    Nobody watches “The Chris Matthews Show” and Cynthia Tucker is a bad joke.

  • WildMan

    Wow, Chrissy Matthews must be happy to see that there are 24 comments so far plus mine. That is just about how many viewers watch his daily ‘Softball’ show.

    Please Lord, give that Conservative hating Nora O’Donnell a new laugh. That thing makes you want to go out and shoot all the dogs in the neighborhood.

    Please, please, please Comcast get some adults to take charge of your lineup. This Kindegarten crowd on now is tanking PMSnbc big time!!!

  • jim bronson 990cc

    gordonbloyershow said:
    People know his name and they know where he stands unlike you. You hide behind a phony name and shoot off your mouth. People know his name and they know where he stands unlike you. You hide behind a phony name and shoot off your mouth and don’t accomplish anything.

    Where is your birth certificate, Mr. Show?

  • jim bronson 990cc

    Pablo said:
    I’m pretty sure Obama is the Twelfth Imam.

    Pablo, how low you have sunk…

  • Dem4Ever

    On behalf of America, I would like to appologize to the rest of the world for Mr. Barak Obama.  We are very sorry we ever even heard his name.  

  • Gasket

    Dem4Ever said:
    On behalf of America, I would like to appologize to the rest of the world for Mr. Barak Obama.  We are very sorry we ever even heard his name.  

    Are you speaking on behalf of the girbils nesting in your pants?

  • Gasket

    WCinWI said:
    Also, the birther issue is a Lefty issue. Ask Hillary.

    Nope. A Teabagger issue.
    http://www.examiner.com/rnc-in-washington-dc/majority-of-republican-primary-voters-are-birthers

  • Tedderman

    Pound for pound for pound,etc.,Chris Christie has got to be the repubelics best hope for the one nominated to loose.(not weight though)

  • WHarropson

    This lady makes an excellent point. She is describing accurately a condition that is conceivably present, and I will concede every point she makes if the left continues to be successful slandering honest Americans that doubt the eligibility of the POTUS, and all the other “crazy things” honest Americans believe. Slander is effective, but we can only hope that the dishonesty of the slanderers will be exposed for what it is. Anyone left or right who says that the document presented to attest to Obama’s origin of birth is proof that he was born in Hawaii is being dishonest. To call someone crazy for questioning the accuracy of a non original document, when the other is guarded by a bodyguard of lawyers.. is dishonest, and it is slander. In a dishonest media atmosphere where this slander is successful, all of this lady’s analysis is valid. What will independents say when the case is proven that the hidden secrets about Baracks eligability are something worth hiding? Will there be a crazy tax then?

  • WHarropson

    Tommy, I’d like to ask a question of you. Is it your opinion that it is crazy to doubt an un-original document? Is it crazy to imagine that the hidden inaccessable (to the public) document may may not exist or have conflicting information. Is it crazy really to doubt the word of a Hawaii state bureaucrat with regard to the contents of a protected document, the release of which might reflect negatively on the State of Hawaii? Is that really crazy or is it just a useful (and effective) slander of the enemy? I do want your personal opinion on this if you don’t mind. Thanks in advance. If it’s not safe for you to do so, I understand.
    http://tinyurl.com/46ngafq Do I hear whistling in the dark?

  • Gasket

    WHarropson said:
    This lady makes an excellent point. She is describing accurately a condition that is conceivably present, and I will concede every point she makes if the left continues to be successful slandering honest Americans that doubt the eligibility of the POTUS, and all the other “crazy things” honest Americans believe. Slander is effective, but we can only hope that the dishonesty of the slanderers will be exposed for what it is. Anyone left or right who says that the document presented to attest to Obama’s origin of birth is proof that he was born in Hawaii is being dishonest.

    Is it being dishonest because it disproves what you want to prove or is it dishonest because it’s a fraudulent document…or both? Do you think the Secret Service (this is an organization that ensures that our current currency is legal and fraud proof) would let a fake Obama BC slide through? Yes, you birthers are crazy. You are quick to lurch onto anonymous postings on the internet as “proof” but reject affirmations by federal, state and local government officials. That is not being reasonable. It’s being irrational and batshit crazy.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Sampat/517152299 Mike Sampat

    Palin dissed the birthers so I don’t think it’s fair to call her a Pied dog-whistler. But that’s kind of funny so…

  • WHarropson

    Gasket said:
    Is it being dishonest because it disproves what you want to prove or is it dishonest because it’s a fraudulent document…or both? Do you think the Secret Service (this is an organization that ensures that our current currency is legal and fraud proof) would let a fake Obama BC slide through?

    First off I’m not trying to prove anything exept that taking the word of a bureaucrat on the contents of an original document is not proof. What makes you sure the CIA had anything to do with verifying documents? I will concede that the Cert of live birth is a legal document (made legal by the seal of the Hawaiian bureaucracy) but being a legal document doesn’t mean it reflects accurately the original (if it exists). Your faith in bureaucracies and the CIA is commendable comrad.What you want to be crazy is no more than healthy sceptisism.

  • http://gordonbloyershow.com gordonbloyershow

    jim bronson 990cc said:
    Where is your birth certificate, Mr. Show?

    The same place yours is.

  • WHarropson

    WHarropson said:
    Is it crazy really to doubt the word of a Hawaii state bureaucrat with regard to the contents of a protected document, the release of which might reflect negatively on the State of Hawaii? Is that really crazy or is it just a useful (and effective) slander of the enemy?

    I hate it when I misphrase something. here’s the correction.

    Is it crazy really to doubt the word of a Hawaii state bureaucrat with regard to the contents of a protected document, the release of which might reflect negatively on the State of Hawaii? Is that really crazy or is calling it CRAZY just a useful (and effective) slander of your enemy the honest American Sceptic of liberal bureaucracies and policies?

    This is speculation on my part but what if the original document on file has an attachment to it that summarily threatens the well being (of one kind or another, legal physical or otherwise) anyone who releases it’s content? You have to ask yourself what defensive legal (or thug) measures millions of dollars can buy. I just want what Chris Matthews want’s. I just want what the Governor of Hawaii wants.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Mangan/100000213524770 David Mangan

    “His failure (and the failures of Eric Cantor, Michele Bachmann, and soon, every other GOP hopeful) to do so makes them look crazy.”

    No it doesn’t, except in your obviously oxygen-deprived brain. I watched that show for five minutes in sheer amazement that two airhead ditzes like Norah O’Donnell and Cynthia Tucker could be on the same program without some sort of natural disaster occurring in harmonic convergence.

    The Atlanta Constipation Bi-yotch is simply stupid and contributes nothing but unintended comedy to the show. I’d love to get the numbers on that unwatched program, which will soon be replaced by half-hour blender ad shows if the Matthews vibe is sinking into the mire as fast as Norah’s brain.

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