YOU CAN MULCH YOUR "CHRIS CHRISTIE FOR PRESIDENT" STICKERS NOW

A lot of wingers have been talking about Chris Christie for president, eventually if not in 2012. (Hell, Christie was endorsed by endorsed by Dale Peterson!) But forget it, folks -- it's all over for him, thanks to this unforgivable Politico interview:

... On the hot-button topic of immigration reform, he said he has long declined to "demagogue" the issue as a former U.S. Attorney, because "I come from law enforcement and it's not an easy issue."

But he did intimate that he thinks stringent state-by-state laws -- such as in Arizona -- are the wrong approach....

"This is a federal problem, it's gotta have a federal fix," he said. "I'm not really comfortable with state law enforcement having a big role."

He said that without border security, enforcement of existing laws and a "clear" path to legalization for immigrants, there would never be a fix....

Christie spent most of the interview hitting wingnut pleasure centers -- calling for lower taxes, denouncing his state's teachers' union, and so on. Very little of the story is about immigration. And yet here's a Politico follow-up:

A few readers have asked for a fuller version of Chris Christie's discussion of immigration....

So here's a bit more detail on his view....

"What I support is making sure that the federal government [plays] each and every one of its roles: Securing the border, enforcing immigration laws, and having an orderly process -- whatever that process is -- for people to gain citizenship."

He added: "It's a very easy issue to demagogue and I'm just not going to participate in that." ...

I consider myself a pretty fair expert on conservative correctness, and Christie has gone way, way over the line.

Now, he's allowed to say that this should be the feds' job -- the most fervent supporters of the Arizona law say they don't want to be the ones to rid the state of the Immigrant Menace, but they're forced to, because the feds won't act. What Christie's not allowed to say is that we need a "process ... for people to gain citizenship." The conservatively correct attitude is: Any path to citizenship is amnesty. Seal the borders! Seal the borders! Seal the borders! He calls that "demagoguing"? Demagoguing this issue isn't a bad thing, as far as the people who've been his biggest fans recently are concerned. Demagoguing this issue is mandatory.

It's been nice knowing you, Chris. Sucks for you that you'll never leave Jersey now. (And it sucks for us Democrats that now the GOP will never put an unappealing lout like you on the ticket.)