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While discussing the news of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's recent weight loss surgery and whether it's an indication that he's going to run for president in 2016, Hardball's Chris Matthews once again let his mouth overrun his brain and called Krispy Kreme doughnuts "Christie Kremes."

Oops.

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The chairman of the Republican Party on Sunday explained that he had a plan to turn around his party's recent losing streak by having less debates, earlier conventions, "hackathons" and more "marketing" -- cosmetic changes that give candidates fewer chances to damage themselves without any serious policy changes.

In an interview with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus on Face the Nation, CBS host Bob Schieffer noted that the GOP had recently completed a study after conducting focus groups and polling thousands of people about Republican losses in 2012.

"What did the focus groups -- what did they tell you about what people think about the Republican Party?" the CBS host wondered.

"They told us what you would think that they would think," Priebus sighed. "Number one, we're a little too math focused and not focused on people's hearts, so that we don't relate to average Americans more than we should -- stuffy old guys too much."

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The invitation of Ann Coulter to CPAC this year along with the rest of their guest list, continues to prove that they learned absolutely nothing from the last election. After making a weight joke about Gov. Chris Christie, who was shunned from the event, Coultergeist went on to explain that the reason Republicans lost the Senate is that some of their candidates, like Todd Akin, just failed to keep their mouths shut, and Democrats are supposedly the ones waging a war on women.

Ann Coulter CPAC: Pundit Tells Chris Christie Weight Joke, Calls Bill Clinton 'Forcible Rapist' :

Ann Coulter spoke at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, firing off an insult about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's snub from the annual conference.

"Even CPAC had to cut back on its speakers this year about 300 pounds," Coulter said.

Christie wasn't he only target of Coulter's insults. She also criticized President Barack Obama and made eyebrow-raising remarks about Sandra Fluke's haircut while addressing birth control and the war on women.

"That haircut is birth control enough," Coulter said of Fluke.

Perhaps her most extreme criticism was directed at President Bill Clinton.

"The keynote speaker at the Democrat National Convention this year was forcible rapist, Bill Clinton," Coulter said.

Keep keeing it klassy Annie. Here's more of some of her "greatest hits" from her speech this Saturday.

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President George W. Bush's former chief strategist Matthew Dowd is slamming the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) for snubbing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) while inviting former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), who he asserts "wasn't competent enough to keep a Fox News contract."

Wall Street Journal editor Paul Gigot on Sunday told an ABC News panel that CPAC had made a mistake by not inviting Christie after he pushed Congress for Hurricane Sandy relief funds and backed some gun-control legislation following last year's mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

"If I were CPAC, I would have invited Christie and let him say what he wanted on guns or anything else," Gigot insisted. "And if you disagree with him, boo him or what have you. But this is a time that the Republican Party needs to have a debate, and a pretty raucous debate."

"CPAC, to me, has totally diminished its credibility as an organization," Dowd agreed. "And you invite Sarah Palin, who wasn't competent enough to keep a Fox News contract? But she's invited to CPAC meeting?"

Democratic strategist James Carville, however, welcomed the CPAC move as something that could help Democrats by elevating fringe elements in the Republican Party.

"Any day that you have more Sarah Palin and less Chris Christie is a good day for James Carville," he quipped. "I'm all for it!"

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Yesterday during a discussion with Thomas Roberts and Jimmy LaSalvia of GOProud about why CPAC excludes gays and other groups from their conference the topic of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie came up, and his own lack of invitation to speak. Steve Schmidt, John McCain's campaign manager, had nothing good to say about CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, the distilled fringiest of the right wing fringe:

ROBERTS: “Why does the CPAC organization want to risk alienating burgeoning stars like a Chris Christie, not invite him?”

SCHMIDT: “Look, this CPAC convention is increasingly the Star Wars bar scene of the conservative movement. All that’s missing from that convention is a couple of Wookies.”

Schmidt would later go on to call Mitt Romney's appearance last year, where he declared he was "deeply conservative as a Governor", simply "kowtowing" to the extreme right.

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Chris Christie may have looked like he was joking with David Letterman the other night but he was his usual bullying self when he called a Scottsdale, Arizona doctor to lambaste her. As KTVK notes, "Dr. Connie Mariano was the White House doctor for nine years, encompassing parts of both Bush administrations and the entire Clinton presidency." So perhaps she does know a thing or two about the stresses involved in being a president.

via Political Wire

Dr. Connie Mariano, the former White House doctor who drew the ire of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) for saying his obesity was not healthy -- he called her a "hack" -- actually got a phone call from the governor, KTVK-TV reports.

Said Mariano: "It was essentially the tone of the press conference only louder. It was hard to get anything across."

Ironically, Mariano said she is a Republican and liked Christie but said her future support for him in a 2016 presidential campaign is damaged:

"The way he acted lately I don't think so. He wasn't very nice to me. Politically if this is the way he handles stress... is this presidential? I'll have to think about that. Is this a presidential way to behave? C'mon."

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MSNBC's Melissa-Harris Perry gave New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie a well needed break from the typical fawning we've seen over him and his high approval ratings in the wake of Hurricane Sandy -- and a dose of reality of what he's in for when voters start taking a closer look at his record if he throws his hat in there for the 2016 presidential primary race.

Pump your brakes, Gov. Christie:

Long after images of Hurricane Sandy’s devastation vanished from our television screens, one very visible–and very vocal–reminder has made it impossible to ignore the ongoing struggles of Sandy’s victims: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

His advocacy for New Jersey’s recovery effort has extended his 15 minutes of national fame far beyond his speech at the Republican National Convention. In fact, his popularity may even have him thinking he can stretch that 15 minutes all the way to the White House in 2016.

But let’s not get too hasty. Because in my open letter this week, I’d like to remind the governor of a few things that may make him–and American voters–want to think twice.

Dear Gov. Christie,

It’s me, Melissa. Well, there’s no denying it–you are definitely having a moment. Since last year when you put partisan politics aside to praise President Obama’s disaster response to the recent kick in the pants you gave House Speaker John Boehner, it seems you’ve become the voice of America’s frustration with Washington. And as a resident of a city that knows all too well what it means to rebuild in the wake of catastrophe, I know the people of New Jersey are grateful to have you as a champion.

You can tell by your 73% approval rating. And even more impressive, as a Republican governor of a blue state, you’ve managed to get 62% approval among Democrats, 70% among women, and 69% among people of color. That makes you almost a shoo-in for re-election this year. No doubt all that love has got you feeling like it’s all aboard the Christie train–next stop, the White House!

But not so fast. I’m going to need you to pump your brakes.

Your ability to lead people through the aftermath of a disaster does not qualify you to be president of the United States. Just ask Rudy Giuliani.

Oh, that Time Magazine cover line certainly had it right–you are the master of disaster. It’s just that the disaster struck long before Hurricane Sandy came ashore. Let’s hope you do a better job presiding over the state’s storm recovery than you’ve done presiding over New Jersey’s economic recovery. Because New Jersey’s economic performance ranked 47th in the nation in 2011. And right now, the [New Jersey] unemployment rate is 9.6%–surpassing the national rate by almost 2%.

It seems, governor, that residents are still waiting on that so-called “Jersey Comeback” you claimed had already begun.

And so much for your reputation for telling the hard truths–or telling the truth at all. When you ran for governor, you promised not to cut pensions, property tax rebates, or education spending. When you became governor, you promptly cut all three. Oh, and there’s also the matter of those other cuts you proposed–the tax cuts for New Jersey’s wealthiest residents. You even went so far as to veto–not once, not twice, but three times–a tax increase on millionaires.

Given your policy preferences for the wealthy, is it any wonder that it took a natural disaster and some convincing from President Obama before you could get some reciprocation in your love for Bruce Springsteen? You know his every lyric, so you also know that The Boss–I mean the real Boss–in his songs celebrates the working class. The same folks who suffer when you refuse to raise the state’s minimum wage or when you cut the earned income tax credit for low-income residents, or cut $7.4 million from reproductive health care services.

Thanks to you, the women of New Jersey now have six fewer family planning clinics. Those that remain saw 26,000 fewer patients after your budget cuts. That’s fewer breast exams, fewer cancer screenings – fewer lives that could be saved with preventative care. So yes, by all means, enjoy your moment. You’ve earned it.

But thanks to your policy record you’ve also earned what’s coming to you in 2016–and I have a feeling America’s voters are going to give you exactly what you deserve.

Sincerely,

Melissa

Check out the link above for Melissa's panel discussion on the Governor's record.

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After we saw New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Rep. Peter King tear into House Speaker John Boehner for cancelling the vote on Hurricane Sandy relief over the holidays, Jon Stewart took his turn upon returning from vacation this Monday and he got some knocks in at the rest of the House Republicans as well.

Stewart singled out Representatives Paul Ryan and Steven Palazzo for voting against the bill once Boehner finally did bring it to the floor, and as we noted here as did Think Progress, they weren't alone. 67 of them voted against the bill, 37 of whom had previously asked for disaster aid for their home states.

Here's how Stewart concluded his rant:

“This is just a simple down the middle, black and white, cut and dry, warm cup of what would Jesus or any other human being that is not an asshole do, and you blew it,” Stewart remarked.

Ryan said he opposed the disaster relief funds because the legislation contained “pork-barrel spending.”

“It’s one f**king page,” Stewart said, aghast. “It’s two paragraphs that add 9.7 billion to the national flood insurance program and nothing else. There is as much pork in here as in the mini-fridge in the break-room at PETA. There is no pork in this thing!”

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After the outrage we saw from members on both sides of the aisle the evening House Speaker John Boehner cancelled the vote on hurricane Sandy relief and the subsequent displays by Gov. Chris Christie and Rep. Peter King, among others, leave it to Bill Kristol who has never seen a dime of military spending he didn't love, to come to the defense of John Boehner.

Sadly, as Media Matters noted, he wasn't alone. And his fellow guest on Bret Baier's Special Report, Charles Krauthammer was right there with him as well. The excuse given by Kristol and Krauthammer here was primarily based on concerns that the bill was larded up with some pork that the House didn't have sufficient time to look at, even though the Senate had passed their bill a week before they were asking for this vote to be taken in the House. If that was a real concern, apparently it doesn't matter much now, since Boehner caved to the political pressure and is going to have the House vote "to shore up the National Flood Insurance Program on Friday and will vote on another $51 billion Sandy spending package on Jan. 15."

Whatever the excuses, it seems they were more than happy to give cover to Boehner and the House Republicans for being incapable of being responsible and caring about doing the job of actually governing this country, rather than continued political brinksmanship we've seen from the House and John Boehner and his cohorts taking their vacation time around the holidays, instead of tending to the needs of those suffering in the aftermath of that storm.

Here's more from the Media Matters post on Kristol:

Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol: "I Think The Speaker Was Entirely Right To Pull The Bill." During an appearance on Fox News' Special Report, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol said, "I think the Speaker was entirely right to pull the bill." He added: "$60 billion is about one-tenth of this year's federal domestic discretionary nondefense spending. This is not like, gee, a couple hundred million dollars for some really important, urgent thing." [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 1/2/13]

Kristol never seems to have those same concerns about our military industrial complex. That's the only jobs program that Republicans seem to support and I've never heard Kristol express any concern over what the waste there is contributing to our budget deficit. Unlimited funds for the Pentagon. Hurricane victims, well you can wait. And don't dare include any pork in that spending because lord knows we can't have that as long as it's going for people who just had their homes destroyed in a storm and to help their state's infrastructure recover.

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I'm sure we're going to see more of this over at Fox as the evening goes on this election night. Bill O'Reilly was already getting the excuses ready if Romney loses the election -- O'Reilly already blaming a potential Romney loss on Hurricane Sandy:

With results still rolling in, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly is already prepping to blame a Mitt Romney loss on Hurricane Sandy, Obama’s visibility in the wake of the storm, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s (R) praise of the President:

O’REILLY: I did pick up two things. On the exit polling, Hurricane Sandy was prominent in the exit polling. And that is really interesting. Because it just impacted a bunch of Northeast states who would vote for Barack Obama but the country was so locked in on this fierce storm. Americans like storms. And they were — and there was Chris Christie and president Obama walking down the beach, you know, with a little ‘Seth in the Moon Glow’ music behind him and it just wiped the Governor’s campaign off the map. For five days. Five days Mitt Romney disappeared from the national debate and from the media headline.

And what would a night on Fox be without Bill-O managing to get in a little race baiting as well -- O’Reilly: Minorities and women voting Obama because they ‘want stuff’:

O’Reilly went on to predict that Romney would lose the election if he lost Ohio.

“How do you think we got to that point?” host Megyn Kelly wondered.

“Because it’s a changing country,” O’Reilly insisted. “The demographics are changing. It’s not a traditional America anymore and there are 50 percent of the voting public who want stuff, they want things. And who is going to give them things? President Obama.”

“The white establishment is now the minority,” he added. “And the voters — many of them — feel that this economic system is stacked against them and they want stuff. You’re going to see a tremendous Hispanic vote for President Obama, overwhelming black vote for President Obama and women will probably break President Obama’s way.”

“People feel that they are entitled to things. And which candidate between the two is going to give them things?”