Anti-socialist action hero Chris Christie disembarks
state helicopter to attend son's baseball game
Among the contingent of Iowa Republicans
who hoped to convince Chris Christie to throw himself into the 2012 presidential race: businessman Bruce Rastetter.
Iowa entrepreneur Bruce Rastetter, who participated in the dinner, told the Des Moines Register that Christie had again said he would not run for president but that he had accepted an invitation to speak at an event in Iowa in July.
"He understands the country's problems but feels very strongly that he has that commitment to New Jersey to continue to serve," Rastetter said.
The Iowa businessman declined to speak to a group of reporters waiting outside the governor's mansion following the meeting.
And just who is Bruce Rastetter? According to the New York Times, Rastetter is "a co-founder and the chief executive of one of the nation’s larger ethanol companies, Hawkeye Energy Holdings." Ethanol, of course, is heavily subsidized, meaning that Rastetter has made millions from what he'd call socialism if it benefited middle-class or low-income Americans.
Rastetter's lobbying group, Growth Energy, claims it wants to phase out ethanol subsidies, but you have to read the fine print: while they say they support phasing out subsidies for blending ethanol fuel, they want the money saved to be spent on building an ethanol fuel delivery infrastructure, including pumps that allow consumers to pump ethanol, and they want to use government power to incentivize the development of ethanol-friendly vehicles.
This doesn't necessarily say anything about Chris Christie, but it is an instructive look at the incredibly hypocrisy of the GOP's financial backers. They rage against what they call socialism...but only when it's a version of socialism that doesn't directly pad their bottom line. They aren't against government as a matter of principle. What they're against is government helping anybody but themselves.