There go Chris Christie's presidential aspirations

Chris Christie has of late become the latest target of Republican man-love over at the sausagefest that is Morning Schmoe. I suppose that in an era where a screeching lunatic like Michele Bachmann is a potential presidential candidate, your garden-variety bully who declares war on teachers, plans to replace state toll collectors contractors making ten bucks an hour with no overtime, and relishes the prospect of inflicting pain on all New Jerseyans EXCEPT the wealthiest, who won't have to pay another penny in taxes, no matter how many people get thrown out on the street or die from lack of health care for the indigent, would look like a Republican demigod.

But I think he may have blown his chances with this one:

Last week, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) announced seven judgeship appointments to the New Jersey Superior Court, including the appointment of Sohail Mohammed to serve on the court in Passaic County. Mohammed is an immigration lawyer in Clifton, NJ who notably defended many Muslims caught up in post-Sept. 11 dragnets, in which the Department of Justice quickly and secretly arrested hundreds of Muslims in the wake of the attacks. Often, the false pretense of an immigration violation was used to hold these men for many months, even though a vast majority of them had no connection to terrorism whatsoever.

Several prominent anti-Muslim voices on the right have reacted with characteristic vitriol to the elevation of a Muslim in the U.S. justice system, calling Mohammed “the enemy” and accusing Christie of turning New Jersey into a “Sharia State.

This is actually one of the few things Christie has done that shows something other than knee-jerk Republican idiocy. Mohammed has been an intermediary between law enforcement and the state's growing population. More visionary stuff like this and less "Fuck the Poor and Middle Class" policy, and I might even give him kudos.