WP: It's Her Party and She'll Cry If She Wants To (C. T. Whitman)

[kskiska]

Christine Todd Whitman, the former New Jersey governor who was President Bush's first administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is violating the omerta of Bush alumni with a memoir that touts the importance of moderates to the future of the Republican Party and flays Bush and his team for ignoring the country's middle. Whitman charges on Page 3 that Bush's three-percentage-point margin in the popular vote is the lowest of any incumbent president ever to win reelection.

"The numbers show that while the president certainly did energize his political base, the red state/blue state map changed barely at all -- suggesting that he had missed an opportunity to significantly broaden his support in the most populous areas of the country," Whitman writes. "The Karl Rove strategy to focus so rigorously on the narrow conservative base won the day, but we must ask at what price to governing and at what risk to the future of the party."

Whitman was a bit of a misfit in the Bush Cabinet, coming in as a supporter of abortion rights and taking a job that is not a quick route to popularity in a GOP administration. She left in June 2003, clearly unhappy.

The book gives a flavor of how different the White House mind-set was before Sept. 11, 2001. Whitman writes that after meeting with the president-elect at a hotel suite in Washington, she had no doubt that Bush "wanted a strong environmental record to be part of both his agenda and his legacy."

"The belief was reinforced when Karl Rove told me after that meeting that I would be one of just three cabinet officers who would help determine whether the president would be reelected," she writes. "I took Rove to mean that the work I would do in building a strong record on the environment would help the president build on his base by attracting moderate swing voters. As it turned out, I don't seem to have understood Karl correctly." Whitman does not say exactly what she meant, but she goes on to write about her many scars and frustrations in dealing with what she calls the "antiregulatory lobbyists and extreme antigovernment ideologues" that she suggests hold too much sway over the party.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41511-2005Jan1.html

[FDRrocks]

1. Half O/T. Wasn't Howard Stern's very vocal support for her...

a huge factor in her getting elected to NJ Governor?

[americanstranger]

6. Absolutely.

That's why she named the rest area on the NJTP after him (it's since been re-named, BTW).

-as

[FDRrocks]

8. I remember reading about it in Private Parts....

just wasn't sure if Howard was playing up his role. That being said I was not too surprised to find out she is relatively moderate in the party, giving that Howard backed her up.

She can still go bite one though. :)

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. what she meant was...

Rove wanted the public to think the Chimp was protecting the environment, instead of what is really happening. They are raping our plant to line their own pockets. Duh. we get it!

[salin]

26. Giving "cover" - while the real point is paying off campaign supporters

aka mining, energy, lumber and other industries - at the expense of the environment.

[lovuian]

3. I pat her on the back for speaking out but her condoning

the air quality in 9/11 will be her haunting legacy

We haven't seen yet the damage to the New yorkers lungs yet give it Time!!!

[Swamp Rat]

4. Whatever Christine...

:eyes:

[The Zanti Regent]

23. Swamp Rat, she never looked better, proud of you!

and it's nice of you to show the world precisely what that pod creature looks like!

[Swamp Rat]

25. Thanks!

Just trying to let the sheeple know they are being eaten.

[baby_bear]

5. You would cry too

...if it happened to YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.

:puke:

b_b

[bain_sidhe]

7. What's she running for now?

I'm sorry, but the time to speak up was when she actually had some power to do something about it. Speaking up now smacks of opportunism, hence my question.

[Prodemsouth]

10. Yea!!!! someone gets it. Me thinks it is a Senate seat. I heard Corzine

is thinking about running for GOV.

[Prodemsouth]

9. This talk of moderation is to separate her from Bush and is for statewide

consumption, nothing more. A senate seat in NJ? Arnold is trying to do the same thing in CA. Blue state Repugs don't want to be tied to Bush. They want to increase their appeal to voters in these states. Hopefully you Blue state Dems will not let them get away with this. But if Kerry is any indication of how Blue state people fight I don't have much hope. Also some post I have seen here defending Chaffee, who has a much worse voting record than the hated Lieberman, give me no reason to hope.

[genieroze]

11. I told my husband she was a moderate.

He used to get mad at me because I didn't hate her when she was Gov of NJ. I used to tell him she tried to clean up NJ, that she was an environmentalist and she did fix the DMV in the state. I no longer mind going to get my car registered or inspected. She was actually pretty decent for a Republican. It ticked me off when she left to work for *. My husband said I told you she's a dirt bag she ran away from NJ to be a * bot. I told him, she will never last, she's pro environment and pro choice.

[The Zanti Regent]

12. Moderate Republican is an oxymoron

right up there with military intelligence

[LetsGoMurphys]

13. Ali G

Ali G had some fun with her as well

[LetsGoMurphys]

14. Ali G

Ali G had some fun with her as well

[chelaque liberal]

20. Got that one right!

[sandnsea]

36. Liberal Republican

Don't let them hide behind moderate when they support abortion rights, gay rights, and a clean environment; just like those looney liberals do.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

43. I don't

know her labor record, but unless it's good, I don't think she should be called a liberal.

[sandnsea]

44. It's framing, labeling,

These so-called moderate Republicans get away with the pretense of social ethics without having to ever really stand up for their supposed moderate values. They trot out their "moderates" every Presidential election so all the "moderate" Republicans can pretend to have a social conscience while keeping their precious tax cut. Start labeling those values liberal, because they are, and force these moderates to choose. Right wing greed and religious lunacy or the tolerance and progress they say they represent. Force their hand. Whitman wants to be pro-choice, pro-environment, then she needs to deal with them being liberal values, just like liberal Democrats.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

45. Ahh, OK

I see what you're sayin'. That's a good idea.

[Erika]

15. Bush's pillar of lies is slowly crumbling

through the guts of women such as Whitman. He sold moderates down the river and many of them are damn mad. Especially women and environmentalists.

[saracat]

16. Yeah, well she sure didn't give a F-ck about us during the election.

Notice she held her criticisms until AFTER the election. I say they are ALL rotten and we should NEVER again extend an olive branch to the "moderate" repukes. They will stab you in the back as quick as look at you.

[chelaque liberal]

21. That's the first thing I thought too.

[The Judged]

33. She probably voted for Kerry, and expected * to be soundly defeated.

... like most Re-uglicans friends of mine that swore that they could not vote for * or a Democrat, so they were staying home in protest.

Oh, this is the group that magically disappeared off the face of the Earth following the Election 2004 theft. Notice the MSM hasn't mentioned them, yet we all know they exist.

I wonder if the Re-uglicans cast their registered members votes for them, when they didn't show up?

[americanstranger]

34. And, her protestations to the contrary,

she is complicit in issuing a bogus 'all-clear' for air quality in Lower Manhattan in the wake of 9/11.

She fucking knew the air was still a toxic soup that extended all the way into Brooklyn, yet she still announced that the air was safe. If she had any conscience, she would have opened her mouth then - not saved it for aq freakin' book.

All the respiratory disease that will afflict New Yorkers is your fault, Christie. Retrospect will do none of those poor people any damn good.

God, I loathe these people.

-as

[xchrom]

17. there are no republican moderates.

she is simply whoring her own ''legacy''.

[bklyncowgirl]

18. She may be crying now but she supported Bush during the election.

Alright, maybe she wasn't quite as gung ho as John McCain but she did her bit for the party. This critical book carefully timed to come out AFTER the election is basicly designed to continue her appeal. I'm assuming she'll be running for Corzines Senate seat in 2006 and wants to put some distance between herself and the Shrub.

I'm not saying that she's not a moderate--clearly she is and her environmental policies as governor were pretty good. That being said, she ain't no Richard Clarke or even Paul O'Neill.

[wtmusic]

28. She's a 'ho with integrity

She was 'ho-ing for Junior and now she's 'ho-ing for her publisher.

[snippy]

19. The problem with moderate republicans is that they are the most

important and vital supporters of people like Tom Delay, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson. Without the blind and unwavering support of moderate republicans all of these people and others of their evil ilk would be stuck representing only their narrow minded, hate mongering, bigoted minority. It is only because moderate republicans without any principles like Whittman vote to give huge amounts of power to someone like DeLay that he has any significant power at all.

[Neshanic]

22. She's quite the good Rockefeller Republican is she not?

Shuts her pie hole until it's safe, and now pulls back the curtain a bit...so she can show she is in line with New Jersey's republicans, a detested lot of the most useless group of voters that can exist.

[merh]

24. I am glad to see that a rethug is vocally expressing their concerns

about the future of the party! Since the election is has been "what can the dems do?" Hell, there have been tons of threads here whining about our party, crying "we lost" and we must restructure, refine, move the right, move to the left, etc.

It is about time someone voices the problems that DO exist within the rethug party. They are in chaos, but no one notices on the outside.

[Neshanic]

27. Uh...it's all about Christy. There is no inner soul searching.

It's called, "get me elected in New Jersey".

[susu369]

29. Uh-oh - poor Barney

Since Christie gave Barney to bu$h*, I hope he doesn't take it out on the innocent animal after her book comes out.

[demgrrrll]

46. Really, Maybe they will do a National Lampoon Magazine style

magazine cover with Barney. If you don't do what I say the dog gets it!!

[Politicub]

30. Let the Whitman smearing begin!

I'm sure all of the GOP's talking heads are lined up for the news show circuit.

[hatrack]

31. Woe, woe shall be the cry

Hear now the howl of "I was deceived! DECEIVED!!" from a politician who should have been experienced and intelligent enough to know the difference.

I don't know what's more contemptible - Whitman's willingness to just sit there and take it for years as Bush & his minions flat-out pissed in her face, or her sudden post-election (of course) "realization" that her party is in the hands of Dominionists, liars and criminals.

Sorry, Christie - we don't care about what you have to say.

[Kber]

32. As an NJ resident, I'm a bit concerned about this

Tom Delay could never get elected here, but Christy could (and did btw). NJ is a moderate state. Whether we lean left or right, we ain't getting too far from the center.

That's OK if we are voting for a gov - he / she will be able to maintain a centrist stance. But run for Senator, where you are expected, even required, to tow the party line, and it's dangereous. It won't make a bit of difference that she probable has more in common w/ Hillary Clinton than Tom Delay. She will vote with Tom.

If she had been better at standing up to the radical right the last time she had a chance, I wouldn't worry as much, but the woman has an unfortunate track record of caving under pressure.

[Skittles]

35. Ms. Whitman played the obedient Bush Whore when they needed her

she can F*** HERSELF

[AlCzervik]

37. Yup, her record at the EPA is shameful.

[whalerider55]

38. a poem for Christie

A new book's been written by Christie
To give her sad rep a new twistie
she's no breath of fresh air
so i realy don't care-
in fact, let her sit on her fistie.

whalerider55
the poet deploreate

[AwakeAtLast]

39. Ms. Whitman apparently did not expect

the flea count to be so high after waking up from her nap with the dogs! What did she expect? Oh, yeah, a powerful place in the GOP. Sorry fi'you!

[Piperay]

40. Glad

that she is speaking out, would have been nice if it was sooner but 'better late than never'.

[K8-EEE]

41. She's Pulling A "McCain"

Trying to distance herself from insane shit that she was in the position to speak out against when it was IMPORTANT like DURING THE ELECTION YEAR MAYBE? Instead she tiptoed and cowtowed to BushCo and did the "I Quit For Time With My Family" BS and NOW she's worried that there's no moderate voice, she could have BEEN one!

Pisses me OFF...

[stanwyck]

42. Whitman and McCain

are both realizing they're mortal. And they need karma cleansing. Guess what? Too late. When they should have stood up, they stood down. Just like their cowardly fly-boy who stood down from his Guard training when 300 young Americans a week were dying in Viet Nam. The heavily financed training of George W. Bush was wasted on a spoiled young man who didn't show up. He leapfrogged over hundreds of worthy young men to get his spot...and then he squandered his position. McCain was a victim of the same well-financed swiftboat liars when he ran against GWB in the primaries. Yet McCain stood up for GWB. That's shameful. He jettisoned his integrity. He put his party before what is best for America.
Sorry, Christie. You betrayed us. You and John. Too late for redemption. When we needed you to speak the truth, you abandoned us.
Your atonement is too little, too late.

[Erika]

47. Amen n/t