Chris Christie gets standing ovation from MSNBC show

**Danny** · 08-05-2011

Lawrence O'Donnell Gives Chris Christie A Standing Ovation For Defense Of Muslim Judge (VIDEO)

Lawrence O'Donnell was so bowled over by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's staunch defense of a Muslim-American judge that he gave the Republican what he said was his show's first standing ovation.

Christie drew widespread attention for calling critics of Sohail Mohammed, a lawyer who he appointed to a judgeship in New Jersey, "crazy" and "ignorant" and saying he was tired of hearing "crap" about Sharia law spreading in the United States.

On his Thursday show, O'Donnell played extended clips of Christie's exchange with a reporter, and professed himself to be repeatedly flabbergasted that someone so often mentioned as a potential GOP presidential candidate would be so "reasonable" about Muslims. He said he could not believe that Christie would dare to get on the wrong side of anti-Muslim Republican primary voters. After the clip ended, he said it was worthy of the show's "first standing ovation," and he and his staff actually closed out the show by gathering together and applauding Christie.

When someone form the GOP displays tolerance and shows a willingness to disregard the many crazies in his own party he deserves a standing ovation. I was going to make a post about my respect for Christie even before I saw the article but I just read it and had to post right away.

Christie has shown extreme integrity in not following traditional GOP talking points in my opinion. I've never heard him follow the usual GOP line of how it's "President Obama's Debt Limit Increase" or the typical hyper partisan BS you see from the right. Even though I disagree with Christie and many issues, he seems to be a man more interested in governing and less interested in partisan politics which makes him a prime candidate for the White House in 2016. Lawrence doesn't think he can win the GOP nomination though because he's to reasonable. We'll see.