Christie drops appeal of gay marriage ruling

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

Post Politics
Christie drops appeal of gay marriage ruling

By Aaron Blake
October 21 at 9:57 am

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) administration announced Monday morning that it will drop its challenge to a court decision legalizing gay marriage – a decision that assures that same-sex marriages that were set to be performed starting Monday will be valid going forward.

The case was set to be argued in January, but the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Friday that same-sex couples could wed starting Monday.

In its ruling, the court also suggested that the Christie administration’s case was unlikely to succeed – a fact that Christie’s office cited while dropping its case Monday.

<snip>

It continued: “Although the Governor strongly disagrees with the Court substituting its judgment for the constitutional process of the elected branches or a vote of the people, the Court has now spoken clearly as to their view of the New Jersey Constitution and, therefore, same-sex marriage is the law.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/10/21/christie-drops-appeal-of-gay-marriage-ruling/

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Also got a NYT Breaking News alert.

Congrats!

And edit to add - the NJ gubernatorial election is in 2 weeks so...

[Laelth]

1. Smart move, politically.

He's positioning himself for a 2016 run, but he's in a tough spot with the Republican base on this issue. On the one hand, he's getting this item out of the news. On the other hand, he's appealing to the base by saying he opposes gay marriage. Makes sense.

-Laelth

[TlalocW]

7. I don't think it's that smart (for him)

No matter what he says, he's still going to be looked on as a governor who surrendered to 'teh gays!' by the lunatic fringe of his party, and he already has image problems with them since he's been cozy with the great Satan himself, President Obama. He won't be getting the GOP presidential nomination anytime soon.

TlalocW

[Laelth]

10. I hope you are right.

Christie is the only real threat I see on the 2016 horizon. That said, he appears to be positioning himself as well as he can manage for a 2016 run, and I think he made a smart move in this case.

Frankly, I hope this does hurt him with the Republican base, but I doubt it will. Most of the base will pull the lever for the R no matter what he does in regards to the issue of gay marriage. In the end, I think they will forgive him so long as he says he opposes it. That's what he managed to achieve with his dismissal of the lawsuit referenced in the OP.



-Laelth

[TlalocW]

11. Not necessarily

While it may be true that in the general election republicans will pull the lever for the R no matter what, it's the more conservative base that chooses who gets to the general election in the first place. Before Christie can run against the democratic nomination, he's going to have to run against 10 to 20 republicans who will probably all be extremely anti-gay, and they're going to tear him to pieces of this.

TlalocW

[Laelth]

13. Spot on.

Getting the nomination will be his challenge. That said, for the past two Presidential cycles, the grumbling neo-nazis have selected people who were allegedly moderate and centrist, i.e. McCain and Romney, and I have no reason to believe that the powers that be in the Republican Party will not assure the same outcome in 2016. They know what they're up against, and I think they will select an alleged moderate, i.e. Christie.

-Laelth

[bklyncowgirl]

17. It will be interesting to see.

The real right wing nut jobs believe that they lost in 2008 and 2012 because they had to settle for a moderate.

The GOP powers that be are going to have to find someone who can appeal to the base and at the same time doesn't scare off swing voters and the big money. A folksy, smiley, aw shucks sort of southern or Midwestern governor who can pull off the hat trick of massaging the right wing's erogenous zones while at the same time seeming to be a nice guy you'd like to have a beer with might be able to do that.

I don't think that Christie, at this time can pull it off.

[Laelth]

18. Ted Cruz is their best choice if they want to go that route.

Cruz has the advantage of being Hispanic, and that may pull a lot of votes their way, but, frankly, I hope they do run Ted Cruz. I think he would get slaughtered in a national election.

-Laelth

[bklyncowgirl]

20. I hope so too.

I imagine the powers that be will make sure that Cruz is pretty well smeared from here to Canada. Speaking about Canada....

[Shampoobra]

9. Or...

...he's angering the base by dropping his challenge to gay marriage, while appealing to a political demographic who will not vote for him.

My theory is, he wants to be on the right side of history. He doesn't want to be remembered as one of the Republican governors who publicly opposed gay marriage.

And he has nothing to lose, politically. Depending on the county, he's projected to win roughly twice as many votes as Democratic candidate Barbara Buono.

[Laelth]

14. That's an appealing theory.

I would love to believe that a Republican would actually consider how he or she will be remembered by historians, but my experience has led me to believe that they don't give a damn about that. They are (perhaps rightly) invested in the here and now, and I think Christie sees himself as President one day. As such, I see all of his moves as merely prelude to his run for the office of the President. Honestly, I hope I am wrong about that, but I doubt it.



-Laelth

[TwilightGardener]

2. He did the right thing--good for him.

[onehandle]

3. NJ needs to smarten up. Crisco is running to leave NJ, not work for it. nt

[DonViejo]

4. The letter

<img class="absimg" style="left: -1px; top: -1px; width: 904px; height: 1169px; clip: rect(1px 903px 1168px 1px); display: block;" src="">

<img class="absimg" style="left: -1px; top: -1px; width: 904px; height: 1169px; clip: rect(1px 903px 1168px 1px); display: block;" src="">

<img class="absimg" style="left: -1px; top: -1px; width: 904px; height: 1169px; clip: rect(1px 903px 1168px 1px); display: block;" src="">

<img class="absimg" style="left: -1px; top: -1px; width: 904px; height: 1169px; clip: rect(1px 903px 1168px 1px); display: block;" src="">


http://www.scribd.com/doc/177761838/10-21-2013-Hoffman-Dismissal-Letter

[bigdarryl]

5. He Knew he was going to loose this with the State Courts

The NJ Supreme Court is pretty liberal.Even though Krispy Creme Christie has been trying to stack it with Conservatives

[William769]

6. Kick & highly recommended.

[efhmc]

8. So is it now a done deal or can it be rescinded through any other method?

If not, then congratulations.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. I would not be surprised if outside groups

try to do in NJ what they have failed at doing in California but the cases will most likely be thrown out for similar reasons as those in CA.

[efhmc]

15. Great. wonder when they will stop fighting?

[proverbialwisdom]

16. NJ Star Ledger: "There's some law about making a mayor cry, " he joked. "It's illegal."

Photo Galleries:

http://photos.nj.com/4505/gallery/first_same-sex_couple_married_in_jersey_city_oct_21_2013_/index.html#/0
Jersey City

http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2013/10/senate-elect_cory_booker_marries_seven_gay_and_lesbian_couples_in_newark.html (scroll to bottom of article)
Newark

[Arkana]

19. Just because he's not slapping the bouquets out of their hands

doesn't mean he approves and it does not make him any less of a fat, pompous ass.