Oh Christie, Christie, Christie. The New Jersey Governor today again tried to explain those comments last week in which he said that white Southerners should have been allowed to vote on civil rights gains for blacks in the 1960s. But while the big guy was talking he went and called an openly gay New Jersey Assemblyman "numbnuts." D'oh!
Basically, as you can see in the video above, Chris Christie gets why you are upset over his statements and assures you he didn't really think that a referendum on civil rights was possible at the time ("The political climate in the South didn’t give them the option to have a referendum back then...They wished they would have had the option, but the political climate did not permit it, meaning they would not win."). But he also takes offense in the way that his statements were focused on with laser-like precision by the media and his liberal opponents. Specifically, he called out Assemblyman Reed Gusciora for being a "numbnuts" when he released a statement last Thursday saying "Govs. Lester Maddox and George Wallace would have found allies in Chris Christie over efforts by the Justice Department to end segregation in the South."
While we wait for a response from Gusciora—we suspect it will have something to do with "numbnuts" being a name more suitable to the schoolyard than the statehouse—perhaps it will put you at ease to know that Christie says "he met this morning with leaders in the African-American community who, he said, understood his comments were not intended to be 'racially insensitive.'"
Update: Assemblyman Gusciora told us that numbnuts seemed like "Jersey talk" and that it seems like a "term of endearment" (at least, back in his high school days it was) so he's not taking Christie's remarks too seriously. However, he says, "Marriage equality is important," and believes if Southern governors had put black voting rights up for a vote during the civil rights movement, it would have been defeated. "Civil rights should not be a ballot issue. Legislators should vote their conscience."
