Last week, Chris Christie renominated the current Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, Democrat Stuart Rabner, to another term in office. This was smart New Jersey politics, but not smart national politics, especially if he wants to win over conservatives in a GOP primary in two years. Nominating a Democrat to the Court? Yeah, that will not go over well among the true believers.
“If he’s president then we can expect a Christie Court to look no different from an Obama Court,” conservative activist Brent Bozell said in a statement. […]
The reaction from national conservative activists, as reported by Eliana Johnson of National Review, has been very negative. Brent Bozell said Christie flipped “his middle finger at conservatives,” and Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network told Johnson that Christie “is showing Republicans that the priority he places on the judiciary is very low.” Christie defended his decision by saying, “The fact is that when you compromise you don’t get everything you want.” The problem Christie faces, though, is convincing conservative activists that he actually wants the same things they do.
To these conservatives, compromise is a mortal sin.