A. Barton Hinkle on Chris Christie's Bogus Attack on Rand Paul

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Credit: Bob Jagendorf / Foter / CC BY

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie recently took a swing at Sen. Rand Paul over NSA spying and libertarianism, telling Paul he should try making his case to a victim of the September 11th terrorist attacks. As A. Barton Hinkle observes, in one regard, Christie had a point: It certainly is hard to tell someone who lost a loved one on 9/11 that the government should refrain from taking any step that conceivably might prevent a future attack. It is hard because doing so could add to their pain, and people of good will do not want to make anyone's suffering worse. But, as Hinkle also points out, in another more important regard, Christie is wrong—as Christie's own behavior should demonstrate.