Last week marked the first Republican presidential debate.  Frankly, it was a bit anti-climactic since Donald Trump, who leads all others by about 40%, didn’t appear.  Those of you who are regular readers of these pages know that I’d prefer someone other than Trump as the 2024 Republican candidate, because the four indictments against him, warranted or not, have damaged him beyond repair as a viable candidate.  That said, the rest of the field took the stage in Milwaukee.  The post-debate consensus was that Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Nikki Haley did well.  The donors favored Ramaswamy and DeSantis, with increased contributions.  I don’t know how all this will shake out, but unless Trump decides not to run, which is a long shot, how the others do is academic.  Which brings me to the subject of this week’s exercise.  Exactly what purpose is served by the presence on the stage of Chris Christie?  Christie got in the race for one reason, to bash Donald Trump.  The two once were friendly.  Trump helped Christie get elected Governor in 2009.  I know this because, on Christie’s inauguration day, I was in Sacred Heart Basilica for a pre-inauguration mass when Donald and Melania Trump walked past me down the aisle, causing a nun in front of me to comment, “His hair looks even worse in person.”  Christie later helped Trump in his 2016 election campaign.  The two had a falling out, I guess over Christie’s role, or lack of one in the Trump Administration.  Anyhow, Christie now says of Trump, “A lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog is not a leader.”  It takes one to know one.  These two really are two of a kind.  Not a leader?  Christie needs to look in his own mirror on that one.  I was at the opening of Christie’s campaign headquarters in 2009, and worked as a campaign volunteer.  Christie’s speech made him sound like the second coming of Ronald Reagan, but it was all talk.  Once elected, Christie couldn’t deliver, and he quickly alienated me.  Understand, I’m a life-long Republican.  If a Republican candidate has turned me off, he’s got a problem.  With Christie, it was “three strikes and he’s out.”  Once elected, Christie made changes to the State employee pension and health care systems that required higher contributions.  This was necessary.  When the judges were ordered to pay more, they sued, citing a provision of the NJ Constitution that prohibited reducing their compensation.  When the judges won in court, Christie went into Trump-like attack mode, complaining, “They [the judges] got one of their own to rule in their favor,” thus declaring one-third of his own government corrupt.  That was strike one.  Then in 2013, while Christie was flying all over the map to support other Republicans, he refused to appear to support conservative Gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli in a winnable Virginia election.  Strike two.  That same year, when Frank Lautenberg finally died, NJ had a special election for Senator.  Now, Republican Steve Lonegan was not going to beat Spartacus Corey Booker in NJ.  But, if you’re Mr. Republican, and a Republican candidate is running in a special election that you engineered in your own State, you should at least mention his name once.  Christie never did.  Strike three.  That being said, Christie is polling all of 2% for the 2024 race.  The liberal media is pushing him, crowing that he now is second to Trump in New Hampshire, with 9%.  A closer look at the numbers reveals that while 17% of Republicans view Christie favorably, a third of Democrats see him as favorable, proving that he’s more popular with them than his own Party.  Clearly, his only appeal is as a Trump basher.  At the debate, Christie was roundly booed when introduced.  Without Trump to kick around, he went after Ramaswamy.  But on substance, Chris Christie offered nothing.  Christie once again mentioned that he was a prosecutor.  To my knowledge, Christie never tried a case as a prosecutor.   In any event, he said the best way to fight violent crime is to have the federal government take over the prosecutions.  He said he would direct each of the U.S. attorneys to “take over the prosecution of violent crime in every one of those cities that are failing to do so.”  This is unworkable, and as a U.S. Attorney Christie should know this.  First, I’m not sure what he proposes is legal.  Not every State case can be tried federally.  The federal courts can prosecute gun offenders under what’s called the Trigger Lock program, and that should be used more often.  However even if legally possible, prosecuting all violent crimes federally is not logistically possible.  There are a total of 14 federal judges in Newark, to serve all the northern counties.  They currently handle about 750 criminal cases a year.  Essex County alone has 17 judges in the Criminal Division, and should have at least 5 more, to resolve more than 15,000 annual criminal Complaints.  Add the violent crime dockets from Bergen, Hudson, Passaic, and Union Counties, and the federal court system would collapse.  Christie’s proposal is downright stupid.  Christie then once again tried to characterize himself as the next Ronald Reagan, noting that “the last Democratic incumbent who was defeated was Jimmy Carter, and he was defeated by a conservative governor from a Blue State who knew how to get results, stood for the truth, who cared about accountability and stood strong and hard against waste.”  To paraphrase Senator Lloyd Bentsen, “I knew Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan was a great President, and Governor, you’re no Ronald Reagan.”  Apart from his absurd personal comparison, Christie’s political analogy wasn’t even correct.  California is a misbegotten Blue State now, but not when Reagan ran for election.  In fact, in the 10 presidential elections from 1952 to 1988 the Democrats won only one time, in 1964.  So Ronald Reagan was not a Blue State Governor.  It’s clear that the answer to the question.”Why Christie?” is, “because he bashes Donald Trump.”  That’s the only reason why Democrats, and RINO’s are tolerant of Chris Christie at this time.  When he’s longer useful to them he will be consigned to the ash heap of history where he belongs.