Gov. Chris Christie is trying to make enough noise that he can somehow take New Hampshire and make himself relevant for the nomination of the 2016 GOP presidential candidate. He obviously has Marco Rubio in his sights, since he became the de facto Republican establishment candidate, but the Florida Senator is falling in the polls.
Christie took a page out of Rand Paul's book, who called for Marco to resign and attacked Marco Rubio, for not showing up to work (Senate) and doing his job (vote).
HALPERIN: You've highlighted differences between you and Marco Rubio in terms of leadership experience and you've criticized him for some of the ways he's conducted himself as a senator. What are two issue differences between you and Marco Rubio that you would like voters to know about?
CHRISTIE: The issue differences really all flow, Mark, from the way you actually get things done. Let's look at the spending bill that just got passed in the Congress. Senator Rubio said he was opposed to it, yet he did not show up to speak on the floor. He didn't show up to cast his vote. When you're governor of New Jersey, you don't like spending, you use the line-item veto and you line-item it out and you make the argument to people. You show up and you get the job done -
HALPERIN: I'm sorry, Governor. Will all due respect, that's a -- I understand there's a difference there in terms of your posture and your experience. But I'm asking about position differences that you think are significant between you, rather than process things.
CHRISTIE: Well, no, because - But Mark, this is an important position. You know, it's about -- you say you oppose spending, but you do nothing about it. That should tell people something about kind of effective leader someone might be. You have to figure out ways to do it. He should have shown up on the floor and made his case to his colleagues against that bill if he was so opposed to it. He didn't. That is a huge substantive difference between the two of us.
The New Jersey governor is feeling good about nabbing the endorsement of the NH newspaper, but he's got a big mountain to climb since the right wing base hates him. And the establishment hasn't gravitated over to him with the Bridgegate trial coming up in 2016.
