New Jersey's Chris Christie is a "tough budget-balancing Republican," but he holds plenty of views that don't mesh with conservative orthodoxy, notes David Frum. So why do the likes of Ann Coulter love him so, even though it "makes no ideological sense?" Frum thinks part of the reason is that he "perfectly exemplifies" the notion that "conservatives tend to care much more how a politician speaks than what a candidate says," he writes at Frum Forum.
"If he were a soft-spoken, conciliatory Northeastern budget-balancer, he’d be dismissed as a Bill Weld/Mike Castle RINO," declares Frum. "But instead, he’s an-in-your-face confrontationalist. So he can favor handgun control and still be the Coulter choice for president. Just so long as he’s rude about it." (More Chris Christie stories.)