PHILADELPHIA, PA. — New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie, still an undeclared presidential candidate, told Republicans at the Northeastern Republican Leadership Conference Friday he can teach them to compromise better if a strong executive like him was running the White House, but is he barking up the wrong tree?
“My point is, I trust the American people, because everyone of you here today is nodding your head. You know. You know! Why aren’t we trusted to talk about it? I’m not saying my ideas are the be all and end all — my way or the highway. My gosh, I worked with the Democratic legislature in New Jersey,” he said, noting that the “my way or the highway” method stopped working six years ago.
“I know we’ve got to work together, and we’ve got to compromise,” Christie added.
Christie accused both Republicans and Democrats on the hill for their unwillingness to work together.
“That’s the problem with Washington, D.C. crowd. They forgot about compromise a long time ago — and that’s both parties by the way. They think it’s easier to stand in front of that bank of microphones and call the other side names,” he said.
“They give long speeches on the floor, hold the record, do nothing and then come home and say, ‘It wasn’t my fault. It was the other guy,’” Christie pointed out making a veiled insult at Republican presidential candidates Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, both of whom filibustered controversial legislation in the upper chamber in the past two years.
However, Christie may not get the warm reception he is hoping for from base Republican voters when it comes to compromising with Democrats. The Washington Post points to a Pew poll released in late May shows that a majority of Republicans want their leaders to be even more confrontational with President Obama.
According to Pew, “The survey finds deep differences in how Republicans and Democrats want President Obama and GOP leaders to deal with issues. Fully 75% of Republicans want GOP leaders to challenge Obama more often; just 15% say they are handling relations with the president about right and 7% say GOP leaders should go along with Obama more often.”
It continues, “Fewer Democrats (49%) want Obama to challenge Republicans more often; 33% say he is handling this about right while 11% want him to go along with GOP leaders more often.”
In fact, an NBC/WSJ survey from January backs up this finding. This survey shows that a plurality of GOPers believe Republicans in Congress cave too easily to Obama. At the same time, a plurality of Democrats in the survey say that Obama’s handling of the Republicans is appropriate.
Christie, however, believes compromise is the answer to what ails Washington. “Well the only person that can fix this is a strong president — same way in New Jersey where I worked across the aisle and worked with Republicans who were with me, he said,” as he went on to list his work with New Jersey’s Democratic legislature.