This is a great catch by Noah Rothman. A tale of two Chuck Todds. Today, while engaging in political analysis on his MSNBC show “The Daily Rundown,” Todd said New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is between a rock and hard place with the scandal surrounding the closing of the George Washington Bridge: “Neither answer is a good one,” Todd said. “Either [Christie] is not in control of his own administration or he has created a culture where this is assumed to be acceptable behavior.”
This is the same Chuck Todd, though, who pushed back hard against Marco Rubio when the Republican Senator from Florida suggested that an Obama White House whose IRS was comfortable crippling the Tea Party with harassment in the lead up to the 2012 election had a “culture” problem.
To that charge, Todd swung at Rubio: “Both sides play politics,” Todd shot back. “And both sides like to try to figure out the motivations of the other side when they are talking to political supporters. This is not new to the American political system, Senator.”
Moreover, Rubio had numerous examples of the Obama White House’s permanent campaign of intimidation tactics. Todd only has one regarding Christie. But there was just no way Todd was going to let the “culture” narrative against Obama see the light of day.
When it comes to the Republican Christie, though, Todd is the one helping to light the fuse of the “culture” narrative.
This is a problem for Christie. Todd is a genius at keeping alive political narratives that damage Republicans long past their stale date.
During the 2012 president election, NBC’s political director blistered Republican Mitt Romney for weeks over Todd Akin’s stupid comments on rape. This, even though Romney disavowed Akin’s comments immediately.
And after the Obama Administration left our consulate in Benghazi unsecured and then lied about the September 11 anniversary al Qaeda attack, Todd led the charge to keep the political heat off of Obama by attacking Romney over his criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of Benghazi.
As Rothman points out, the media have already latched on to the “culture” narrative with Christie and are gearing up to ride it straight through to the Sunday shows. And after his masterful press conference Thursday, unless Christie is lying about his role in the bridge closing, that is all they got. But as we have seen in the past with the narrative weapons used against Romney, it is all they need.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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