Christie targets Paul, warns of 'dangerous' libertarianism in GOP

[Geee]

The Hill:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ® on Thursday denounced the "strain of libertarianism" on national security in the Republican Party as "very dangerous," and made it clear his comments were meant to cover Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a possible 2016 presidential rival.

 

 

"This strain of libertarianism that's going through parties right now and making big headlines I think is a very dangerous thought," Christie said at an event sponsored by the Aspen Institute.

Asked if he was referring to Paul, Christie said: "You can name any number of people and he's one of them."

Christie's comments on a panel that also included Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker come days after the House narrowly defeated an amendment to a defense spending bill that would have prevented the National Security Agency from doing surveillance on people not under investigation.

[Draggingtree]

July 31, 2013, 12:49 pmby Ross Douthat

Why Republicans Miss The Realists

Chris Christie’s comments attacking Rand Paul and other right-wing civil libertarians, extracted by my colleague Jonathan Martin in an Aspen forum last week, have generally been interpreted as setting Christie up as a spokesman for Republican hawks in a looming 2016 battle over the party’s direction on foreign policy. On Friday, Politico’s Alexander Burns ran down some polling numbers that help explain why the more hawkish perspective is no longer an obvious political winner, even in a G.O.P. primary:

 

… there are also more than a few daunting data points for the anti-Paul coalition within the GOP – signs in public opinion research that the country has moved substantially from the Bush-era national security consensus.

As Matt Yglesias pointed on Twitter, those Pew numbers on civil liberties included a striking turnaround since 2010 (not 2008, as one would expect if it were all just a partisan swing) among Tea Partiers and conservatives, who now tilt more sharply than G.O.P. moderates in favor of the proposition that the government has traded too much liberty for security. So as odd as it is, especially for anyone who experienced the Bush era,

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/why-republicans-miss-the-realists/?_r=0

[Valin]

@Geee

 

Christy has a point.