Christie nominates two for state Supreme Court, including gay African-American mayor:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced he is nominating Bruce Harris and Phil Kwon to the state Supreme Court. If confirmed, Harris would be the third African-American justice and first openly gay justice and Kwon would be the first immigrant and first Asian-American justice. . . . Steve Goldstein, the chief executive of Garden State Equality, a gay rights organization, said he was stunned when Christie called to tell him about the imminent nomination of Harris, 60, a graduate of Yale Law School. “As I told the governor right then and there, you could have picked me up off the floor,” Goldstein said.
The GOP will either follow Christie’s direction (and eventually embrace marriage equality, which Christie opposes), or it will continue getting beaten by Democrats who appear tolerant and liberal as they suffocate economic growth.
14 Comments for “The GOP’s Future (Maybe)”
posted by Tom Scharbach on
… by Democrats who appear tolerant and liberal …
Snarky, Stephen. You just can’t help yourself, can you?
But good for Christie. I think that sound we hear off to the side is Maggie choking on her feedbag.
posted by TomjeffersonIII on
Well, their are certainly ‘liberal’ Republicans and Democrats, just as their are certainly ‘conservative’ Democrats and Republicans. Again, it is not as clear cut as say, the UK where the party picks the candidates and can order them to vote the party platform or I think they call it ‘manifesto’. I am a undergraduate student and I know this, so why do older adults seem ignorant?
Also, I question the notion that Democrats or Republicans are automatically better or worse on the economy.
posted by TomjeffersonIII on
I grew up in a pretty rural party of the upper Midwest, so I tend to agree with ‘conservatives’ on certain issues, such as the 2nd Amendment. Raised Catholic, I also do not share the ‘liberal’ desire to banish faith from public life (although I do believe in equal rights for other religions). I like the idea of expanding free trade, but feel we should start with free nations. However, I do believe that the government has an important role in promoting equal opportunity, fighting poverty and the like (like health care() (generally ‘liberal’ ideas).
posted by Craig Howell on
Don’t get too excited just yet about Christie moving towards equality. Today he’s promised to veto any marriage equality law that passes the Legislature and is calling for a referendum in November. Christie completely ignores the fact that the NJ Supremes already ruled years ago that the lack of marriage equality violates the state Constitution.
posted by Houndentenor on
Was there ever any attempt here at “forging a gay mainstream”? Posts like this make it clear that there isn’t.
posted by another steve on
Oh, so if Miller toed the left-liberal line like 99.99 percent of LGBT blog sites, then that would be fine because he’d be “mainstream.” But deviate from that left-liberal party line, and suddenly y0ur a rightwing partisan (oh, let’s ignore all his criticism of the religious right). Love me, love me, love me, I’m a LIBERAL.
posted by Thomas on
You’re correct… Providing a link to the Koch funded Cato Institute propaganda machine is certainly the way forward for this nation…
posted by Houndentenor on
Cheap shots at Democrats are not the way to forge a gay mainstream. It’s been my experience that homocons are more defined by hatred of liberals more than anything else. That post is yet another example.
posted by BobN on
Well, it certainly didn’t take Christie long to use the black-gay-republican-supreme-court-nominee shield, did it?
By the way, has anybody bothered to look into the guy’s rather skimpy record? Is he even in favor of gay rights?
posted by Thomas on
Is the same Mr. Christie who later today called on the civil rights of gay New Jerseyians to be voted on the majority? Does the giddiness towards Mr. Christie still remain? (who in reality turns out not to disappoint at being a typical GOPer, aka bigot)…
posted by Jorge on
I don’t see this as significant (although calling Garden State Equality is an interesting touch). President Bush appointed openly gay people to administration positions, and that was a very good thing. By now that’s something that should be status quo. Given Bush’s subsequent high profile support for the Federal Marriage Amendment, it is reasonable for some to questionn where Christie stands on policy issues.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
The NJ newspapers are reporting that in addition to Christie’s veto statement and call for a statewide referendum, he has sent Republican legislators the word not to vote for equality. Don’t be surprised if we see a straight party-line vote, yet again.
posted by Hunter on
Hmm, real cute — link to the Cato Institute to “prove” that Democrats are suffocating economic growth.
Let’s see — lower taxes for millionaires, more breaks for corporations, and the economy will be fine. Just ignore the fact that it didn’t work under Reagan or under Bush I or II, it’s sure to be different under President Romgrich. Also ignore the fact that everything the Democrats have tried to do to stimulate the economy has been blocked by House Republicans, because Obama.
This by you is mainstream?
posted by Tom Scharbach on
The “GOP’s Future” reportedly told the Philadelphia Inquirer: ““The fact of the matter is, I think people would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South.””
I’ll grant you that Governor Christie was born in 1962 and still sucking on his mama’s breast when African-Americans were being killed, beaten and burned out in the South, but didn’t he learn anything about the Civil Rights movement when he was in school? Or is this another history rewrite uttered in an effort to line up votes in South Carolina as Christie looks 2016?
If this guy is the “GOP’s Future”, the GOP’s future looks bleak, indeed.