Comedian Bill Maher has called New
Jersey Governor Chris Christie's gay marriage veto “backward.”
On Friday's episode of HBO's Real
Time, Maher discussed Christie's decision to reject
the measure on Friday, one day after the New Jersey Assembly
passed it and on the same day that the Maryland House of Delegates
approved
a similar bill which paves the way for Maryland to become the
eighth state to legalize gay marriage.
When a viewer asked whether the
governor's veto was “not only dick-ish but also extremely short
sighted,” Maher responded that he took the governor's actions
personally.
“It's my home state. So, I take
these things a little personally, you know. When somebody from New
Jersey does something that I consider sort of backward, and I
consider this sort of backward on the part of the governor, it
bothers me.”
Panel guests Erin McPike, a reporter
with Real Clear Politics, said the Republican governor vetoed the
measure for “his base.”
Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer
said the move was very typical Christie.
“He panders to the very conservative
on pronouncements on all sorts of issues,” he said. “And he's
just wrong on the fundamentals.” (Watch
the exchange on HBO.)