Uh-oh. Not the old Sept 11 speech again.

That's what Chris Christie gave at the Republican Governors Conference when he trotted out that trite reference (above) to the Sept. 11 attacks as justification for avoiding any discussion of the Obama administration's massive and unconstitutional surveillance programs.

Till now, Christie had wisely avoided any discussion of national security issues. That meant he could wait a couple of years before committing himself to a position on such thorny questions as that NSA spying.

Instead he jumped right in, channeling the man who ran the worst campaign in recent political history. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani had compiled an excellent record as a crime-fighter and tax-cutter while in office. But for some bizarre reason he insisted on turning every speech into a maudlin recounting of the Sept. 11 attacks and his role in them - which was nil. He went to a lot of funerals afterward, but that is not a policy position.

One wag joked that Giuliani was "running for president of September 11." Another said a typical Giuliani sentence was "a noun, a verb and 9/11."

Hey Chris: We all know 9/11 was a tragedy. But that doesn't mean we want the government spying on everything we do. Catching Islamic terrorists is fine, but once that program is put in place, it's just a matter of time before the feds start using it to catch us cheating on our taxes or using drugs whose manufacturers don't contribute to the political parties.

Worse, for some unknown reason Christie decided

to pick a fight with Rand Paul.

Hasn't our governor noticed that all of the energy in the GOP at the moment is located in Paul's demographic? And hasn't he noticed that the people Paul opposes are frankly insane?

Chris Christie: Channeling the biggest loser in recent Republican presidential politics.

That would be John McCain and Lindsey Graham. Ten years ago the public was eager to accept arguments for invading Mideastern countries for no logical reason. But after the debacles of Iraq and Afghanistan, there's zero appetite for another war. That's especially true of Syria, where McCain and Graham propose entering on the side of Islamic militants associated with Al Qaeda, terrorists who behead Catholic priests and eat the hearts of other Christians. I'd link to the videos but they're too disgusting.

The point is that the so-called "neo" conservative movement has been thoroughly discredited. it's no longer mainstream Republican politics. It's the lunatic fringe.

Yet here is Christie jumping in on the neocon side.

Steve Lonegan firing up the base at a tea-party rally

That's what this debate is all about. The neocons want us to have a permanent surveillance state because they want us to have a permanent war.

They also want us to leave our borders open to mass immigration of the exact sort of people who need to be watched, such as the Boston bombers admitted to the U.S. by George W. Bush a year after 9/11.

Immigration is another issue on which Christie is soft, just as McCain and Graham are. It's another left-wing, neocon position that will come back to bite him in the 2016 primaries.

The real, old-fashioned conservatives want the federal government to stop trying to run the entire world. As Rand Paul's father Ron has pointed out, if we don't attack people over there, they won't attack us over here.

Rand Paul actually understands this in great depth, thanks to his father. Christie does not have a clue what the debate is even about. He's a quick study once he latches onto a subject, but the subject of foreign affairs is one that is way over his head.

That was fine - until he opened his mouth. By lashing out at libertarians, he's ticked off a sizable segment of the Republican base for no reason whatsoever. And he's proven himself tone-deaf to the trends in Republican politics.

He should listen to that other Republican running for statewide office in New Jersey this year. That's Steve Lonegan, the ultra-conservative who's running to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the late Frank Lautenberg.

Lonegan addressed the first tea-party rallies ever held in New Jersey, on July 4, 2009, and he's been listening to grass-roots conservatives ever since. He knows they're fed up with the essentially left-wing internatiolism of the neocons. And here's what he had to say about this spat:

That's how a pro handles this sort of thing. As for Christie, he's looking like a real amateur here.

ADD: See the video below of the moment when Ron Paul's rise to national prominence and Rudy Giuliani's ended because of his clueless insistence on endorsing the left-wing position on foreign policy called "neo" conservatism. Watch as Rudy shows his complete ignorance of the traditional conservative position on foreign policy espoused by Paul. Watch also as he tries to score cheap political points off 9/11, just as Christie did last week.



Also watch the video below that at the 3-minute mark where Ron predicts in 1998 the war that began in 2001. That is followed by an interview with Osama Bin Laden in which he makes the exact point Ron made in the debate with Giuliani.