Sen. Rand Paul is upping the ante in his ongoing spat over national security with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, calling it “sad and cheap” for Mr. Christie to invoke victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to make his point.
“It’s really, I think, kind of sad and cheap that he would use the cloak of 9/11 victims and say, ’Oh, I’m the only one who cares about these victims.’ Hogwash,” Mr. Paul said Monday on Fox News’ “Hannity.” “If he cared about protecting this country, maybe he wouldn’t be in this ’gimme, gimme, gimme all the money’ that you have in Washington or don’t have, and he’d be a little more fiscally responsive and know that the way we defend our country, the way we have enough money for national defense, is by being frugal and not by saying ’gimme, gimme, gimme’ all the time.”
In Colorado last Thursday, Mr. Christie warned that the “strain of libertarianism” running through both parties and championed by people like Mr. Paul is a “very dangerous thought.”
“I want them to come to New Jersey and sit across from the widows and the orphans and have that conversation,” Mr. Christie said. “And they won’t, ’cause that’s a much tougher conversation to have.”
Mr. Paul said that such intra-party squabbles in which he’s currently engaged aren’t very smart.
“[Christie] may have heard that, you know, the Republican party is on life support in the Northeast. Republicans are in danger of becoming an endangered species,” Mr. Paul said. “So It’s not real smart for Republicans to be attacking Republicans, but I would remind him that I think what’s dangerous in our country is to forget that we have a Bill of Rights, to forget about privacy, to give up on all of our liberty to say, ’oh, we’re going to catch terrorism, but you have to live in a police state.’ “
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• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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