Fiscal conservative Christie takes helicopter, limo to son's baseball game

[CitizenX]

The disagreement between cinyc and Keystone Phil is pretty good example of why the Republicans won't win in 2012.

That makes about zero sense.  I'd still vote for Christie for President in a heartbeat, despite whether I think he's in the wrong here.

Heartbeat?!  Ohhh... I don't know if I would use that word around Christie.  If he runs I hope he gets a good VP.  That VP would literally be one heartbeat away from the top job!

In all seriousness I had high hopes for Christie.  In the past I defended him but he's turning out to be the same hypocritical Republican.  My mom and dad worked for a living.  They went to very few of my games.  He does not deserve a helicopter ride to see his sons little league game while teachers are being laid off.  That is totally inappropriate.

[CitizenX]

...no and what's worse is that you know that that isn't what I was saying. I said that elected officials are afforded some privileges to do their jobs. You said he should sit in traffic like everyone else. I say that that isn't always reasonable but since you want to play this "he should be stuck in the same situation as his constituents!" game, I presented you with another example: constituents don't get a security detail. Should he be like them in that regard, too? You knew my point. You opted to twist it to avoid answering.

I twisted nothing.  Without some link to taking a helicopter, you have no real point.  A governor has a security detail because he's a high profile person subject to threats, real or imagined, from time to time.  A governor who takes a helicopter to his kid's baseball game is doing so due to a time crunch or rush hour traffic - something all of us face at times but only a select, elite few get to solve by having the taxpayers fuel up a helicopter to fly us to the game and then whisk us off to a meeting with Iowans to discuss our political future.

I don't have to link it to the helicopter. My point was that elected officials are and ought to be provided with certain privileges to get their job done. You complained that constituents don't get to take a helicopter to escape traffic. Well, the constituents that have to walk the streets of Newark, Trenton and Camden don't have security details. The point: a Governor is going to have certain perks. If they aren't excessive and/or abused, I don't have a problem with them.

I don't mind if he takes a helicopter to see his son play if it isn't a regular occurrence and if he's put in a time constraint because of duties pertaining to being Governor. The latter meeting obviously wasn't related to his job as Governor but we haven't heard anything about what he was doing before. I think it's safe to say that it was related to his job. If it was, I'm sympathetic and can let it slide if it is a rare occurrence. If he wasn't able to get to his son's game on time because it was sandwiched between two political events then taking the helicopter is wrong.

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...so then you really don't care to make him wait in traffic.

What?!

No governor should take a helicopter to see his son's game.  And they definitely should not be doing it while firing state workers.  Where are the Libertarians?!  You should not take money out of my paycheck to fly a helicopter to your son's game.  A helicopter from the state capitol to a meeting with the school teachers union or the chamber of commerce can be explained, but a baseball game.  No way.

EPIC FAIL.