"Last night Jon Stewart tore into the state level response to the first Ebola patient in New York City, writes Salon's Sarah Gray, "starting with the knee-jerk quarantines set up by Governors Christie and Cuomo."
"'Why does Christie have to be such a dick about everything!” (Jon) Stewart exclaimed" (video below).
Well, because he's set to run for the Repub nomination for President, silly man.
As found in the video below, Christie had self-righteously patronized caretaker and nurse Kaci Hickox by remarking "I know she didn't want to be there. No one ever wants to be in the hospital. I suspect,and so I understand that. But the fact is I have a much greater, bigger responsibility to the people and the public, and so I think when she has time to reflect she will understand that as well." Digby responded
No, she is not a silly bimbo who didn't understand her situation and "upon reflection" will understand that Daddy Knew Best. She is a medical professional, an epidemiology specialist, who knows very well that Chris Christie is completely ignorant about protecting the public from this disease and had no business spending several days talking about her as if she was a spoiled child who needed to go to bed without her supper. He betrayed his ignorance by repeatedly saying she was "ill" and hoping that she "recovered" even tough she has tested negative and has no symptoms at all. (It was assumed that he meant she had Ebola but looking more closely at his comments it's possible that he was saying she was having a mental breakdown. That's what gaslighting pigs like Christie commonly do...)
That hospital quarantine actually took place in an unheated tent with a portable toilet for a bathroom. Will Bunch termed the move "bone-headed, tone-deaf and cowardly." Now that the policy has been reversed, apparently with a nudge by the Obama Administration, it appears bone-headed, and it was clearly cowardly.
As quintessential Chris Christie, however, it was hardly tone-deaf. .Simultaneously defending his initial move and attacking his opponents, Mr. Macho threw some red meat to the base, declaring "I will take whatever steps are necessary to protect the public health of the people of New Jersey, and if someone wants to sue me over it, they can." Hickox hired a legal team, it threatened to sue, and promptly the governor had a change of heart.
But of course Christie wouldn't concede he had budged an inch. "I didn't reverse any decision," contended the Governor, because a Republican can never be seen as unsure, indecisive,or admitting to a mistake. And now, he may be able to avoid a lawsuit and still not be held accountable for a bone-headed move.
Prior to Christie reversing but not reversing his policy, Digby had added
Judging from what I read around the internet this week-end, the right-wingers think Christie's jackboots are awesome. He can lock up nurses in FEMA camps all day long on a whim and it's fine with them. All it takes for their little authoritarian skirts to show is a little tough guy action toward a woman and they're on board.
It helps if it is a woman, but this is a character who once called a former Navy SEAL an "idiot" (video below). It's what he does, and he does it well, exciting conservative voters and impressing much of mainstream media.
Nonetheless, Steve M. believes Christie made a tactical error in claiming "There’s been no reversal or change in any way to our policy or to our approach" because it will prevent him from
actively playing the victim card. If he were whining now that he was forced to do this by jackbooted Obama administration thugs, or possibly by evil trial lawyers (as Newell notes, Hickox was threatening a federal lawsuit), he might be looking good right now in the eyes of Limbaugh and his crowd whining now that he was forced to do this by jackbooted Obama administration thugs, or possibly by evil trial lawyers (as Newell notes, Hickox was threatening a federal lawsuit).
At worse, however, Christie did himself no harm among Repub primary voters because he will be seen as doing whatever he reasonably could to make at least one liberal Democrat and member of Doctors Without Borders suffer. He can be seen as standing up to the Obama Administration as much as reasonably possible and, just as importantly, maintaining his manhood. And if he can derail Scott Walker from being derailed in his gubernatorial re-election bid in Wisconsin, it will indeed have been a fine election season for Governor Christie.
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