Mark Shields on Christie's Weight: When You Sit in the Bathtub and Water Rises in the Toilet It's a Problem

October 1st, 2011 12:20 PM

The juvenile bashing of Chris Christie's weight hit a disgraceful low on PBS's "Inside Washington" Friday when a panel absent the guiding sanity of syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer chuckled and guffawed over the size of the New Jersey governor.

What posterity will certainly view as one of the more embarrassing episodes on this political talk show stalwart came when PBS's Mark Shields quipped, "When you sit in the bathtub, and the water level in the toilet does rise, it’s a pretty good indication that you probably ought to cut the second dessert" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

 


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EVAN THOMAS, POLITICO: Christie would be a very appealing candidate except that he weighs too much. I mean, it’s an issue that everybody is uncomfortable with but it’s really an issue. [...]

COLBY KING, WASHINGTON POST: He’s a guy that I would love to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner with at the same setting.

MARGARET CARLSON, BLOOMBERG: Yeah, the all you can eat. [...]

MARK SHIELDS, PBS: Now, the weight thing is a problem, and I can say that when you sit in the bathtub, and the water level in the toilet does rise, it’s a pretty good indication that you probably ought to cut the second dessert. And I think that’s a problem with the Governor.

Be advised the above playground discussion involved members of the supposedly esteemed media outlets Bloomberg, PBS, Politico, and the Washington Post.

I hope the heads of these organizations are proud of the way their respective members behaved Friday evening.