weswelker#83

Chris Christie (R-NJ), Governor of NJ, just took a State Helicopter to his son's baseball game, where a limo carried him the 100 yards to the field. He then flew off with his wife. While he calls for savage cuts in medicaid to the poor.

Gov. Christie arrives at son's high school baseball game in State Police helicopter | NJ.com





Remember only eleven years ago, when doing something like that brought down Massachusetts Acting Governor Jane Swift?
Why Jane Swift Should Resign - The Tech
And now it's just business as usual.

chicowalker

This isn't necessarily a big deal. If they own the helicopter, there may be a need to use it at times, anyway -- pilot training, etc. and it's unclear what his schedule was -- maybe the helicopter was needed for his transportation elsewhere.

(I find the limo less likely to be appropriate, even if it was less expensive)

khayos

Yeah, I'm okay with a little abuse of resources. Like with Obama, you want to make sure he's got the best protection & transportation because you don't want anyone taking him out.

chicowalker

"the best"? most people know there's a bit of a difference b/t the governor of New Jersey and the President of the US

But if it's needed for security, it isn't abuse -- not even "a little" abuse.

khayos

You could define any use as "abuse". And transportation is a factor too -- time management. Should we rehash all the arguments over Pelosi's use of government jets?

Mrs.PatsFanInVa

If who owns the helicopter? It belongs to the NJ State Police and is intended for "homeland security duties and transporting critically injured patients."

It seems his schedule was pretty clear - The governor had no public events on his schedule, offering no insight to where he might have been traveling from. He had a private meeting at 6:30 p.m. at Drumthwacket, the governor's mansion, in Princeton. He is meeting with a group of Iowa donors who have publically expressed a desire to persuade him to run for president in 2012.

I find them both pretty darn disgusting.

Real World

This screams "do as I say, not as I do" on the surface. Is it an abuse of resources? That depends. If he explicitly took the chopper just to get to the game, then I'd say yes. If he was on state business and then stopped at the game, not so much. My position is that I don't think pols should use choppers and jets as taxis for personal lives.

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
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Mrs.PatsFanInVa

Well, we know where he was going to - but not where he was coming from....and it sounds as though his office wants to keep it that way.

The governor had no public schedule Tuesday but had a dinner meeting later at the governor's mansion in Princeton with a delegation of Iowans who tried - unsuccessfully - to persuade him to run for president.

Drewniak declined to release his schedule for Tuesday or say where the governor was coming from when he arrived at the game.

NJ gov. takes state helicopter to son's ballgame - Forbes.com

weswelker#83

First, NJ is a small state, why can't he drive?
Second, this is not even official business, it is leisure.
Third, he can't walk 100 yards?
NJ is cutting all forms of government, how in the world can he justify this expenditure?

Mrs.PatsFanInVa

That would be fine - and while we're at it, we could discuss her hypocrisy when she cuts Medicare and Medicaid and food stamps and teacher salaries.

Oh wait...she didn't do any of those things, did she?