The "Restoring Honor and Dignity" Party

This story from Dan Balz's new book about the 2012 campaign sounds a hell of a lot more plausible than the bit from the book about Mitt Romney not really wanting to run:

Christie threatened to drop "f-bomb" at 2012 GOP convention

Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., threatened to drop the "f-bomb" during a nationally televised speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention....

Christie was given the keynote address at the 2012 GOP convention - a coveted speaking slot reserved for rising stars. There, his "big" personality came out in a big way: when organizers told Christie that they were scrapping a three-minute introduction video before his speech due to time constraints, the governor insisted they reconsider. When they pushed back, according to Balz, Christie told a member of the production team "to ask the director if he had ever heard anyone say 'f***' on live television, because that's what he was about to do if the video didn't run."

After another sharp exchange, Christie said he wouldn't deliver the speech if the video didn't run. Romney's convention team leader, Russ Schriefer, intervened, instructing the director to play the video.

Yup, if they didn't introduce Christie with this insipid, oleaginous bit of video treacle, he was threatening to embarrass his party and his candidate by having a foul-mouthed adolescent temper tantrum on live TV:





Me, I would have put the speech on ten-second delay and then told the egotistical SOB precisely where he could stick him temper tantrum. Then again, I'm not a buttoned-down Mormon.

Please recall that the many, many right-wingers who begged Christie run for president in 2012, and will beg him again for 2016, include quite a few who say that it's the death of American civilization as we know it whenever the current president sits in the Oval Office without his jacket.

Incidentally, the "draft Christie" crowd includes a lot of famous names:

Balz reveals how pervasive the effort to draft Christie into the race became during the summer of 2011, when figures including former President George W. Bush and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger contacted the popular New Jersey Republican, entreating him to throw his hat into the ring....

In addition to Bush and Kissinger, former first ladies Barbara Bush and Nancy Reagan and billionaire businessman David Koch also pushed Christie in the direction of a run.

Not that we didn't know this already, but it can't be repeated often enough: the Democratic electorate's favorite Republican is a Koch favorite, and he would be a Koch president. Never forget that.