Good Cop
[2013-11-06 20:00]

I found myself watching one of the shows with Anderson Cooper on CNN this evening as he and his panel discussed the recent re-election of Chris Christie for Governor of New Jersey.

The panel included Alex Castellanos (Republican strategist), Andrew Sullivan (conservative blogger), Christiane Amanpour (CNN correspondent, don't know her political leanings) and
PJ O'Roarke (author, self-identified on the show as Republican).

The question of Christie running for President in 2016 inevitably arose and Castellanos made some remark about how Christie comes across as the kind of guy who could kick Washington DC into action and break up the log-jam (to mix metaphors). There was some banter between the panelists and discussion about Christie's trouble with his own radical right-wing base, but no discussion about what is causing the log-jam in Washington in the first place (assuming that there is one).

This was, I think, a very deft move by Castellanos to (re)enforce the idea that the dysfunction in Washington is caused equally by Democrats and Republicans. Never mind that it was really the House Republicans that caused the government shut down, and that the Republicans that have been obstructionist since the day Obama was elected.

It occurs to me that this is just a political version of Good Cop/Bad Cop. Castellanos is trying to portray Christie as the Good Cop, since many people seem to be unhappy with the GOP. Maybe it should be called Good GOP/Bad GOP.