To be fair, and put the topic into perspective, cough cough, Sharia is legal in parts of the UK & Australia; this is why some in the GOP are freaking out. The US constitution protects us from Sharia, that is excellent, Islam is bad & false, but it is possible to cheat in the US... sometimes rules are bent, like, all the way.

In closing, proposals to pass anti-Sharia law are too in the US, now, are too reactionary & based on ignorance, but it is not coming 'out of the blue'... Islam is indeed perverting many minds (it's the fastest growing religion) with sexism, abuse & murderous theology... it is a death cult of epic proportion & should not blown off anymore than Christianity should be blown off, cough cough, Blackwater, cough cough, W. Bush, cough cough, Catholicism in Africa influencing AIDS, cough, belief without evidence, cough, Leviticus, cough, science is good, ah-hem, ethics is good, excuse me.

 Bravo for your "Rewrite" segment tonight, and Bravo to Gov. Christie for saying what he said.  I don't normally agree with anything he says or does, but on this, he, and you Lawrence, are right on target.  You can add my clapping to your standing ovation.  Finally a Republican who speaks the truth about this issue.

Regardless of the debatable issues - SO refreshing to see a guy say something (that did apparently make some sense) that he thought was the truth without "catering" to anyone. In this environment of half truths and rhetoric it was powerful. Maybe he SHOULD run for president.

The commentary tonight on Obama not liking to be confronational??? Give me break! That comes withe territory he has chosen - perhaps Christie can mentor him.

Even a broke clock is right twice per day but I'm glad that he finally said something in support of America instead of continually running the country & it's citizens down.

it is a shame the Dems will always drink the kool-aid. can'tyou see this is a set-up, it's a set-up. Look what he did when he got the Dems. in New Jersey to vote with him,and what did he do "stripped the union." Please people educate yourselves,you don't have to be lead into a ditch.

 What's behind this is, of course, bigotry.  There is no bigotry, epsecially in the united States, as dangerous and ignorant as christian bigotry.

Sharia Law is as relevant to my law-abiding life as Christian Law, Jewish Law, Law and Order, L.A. Law, Jude Law or any other type of law. This argument is and always will be an irrelevant anti-Muslim attack from the Christian zealots (the ones that thought it was just fine to depose Saddam Hussein and crusade the Western Christian ideals into a broken country). It's as important as the crusade to oust the president based on his citizenship and all of the disinformation that the Right Wing propagandists used in an absurd and embarrassingly epic fail.

And, jenny, there's is NO koolaid like Republican koolaid...birtherism, death panels, this sharia nonsense, tax cuts produce jobs, and on and on. All of it fiction and mythology spread by drug-damaged, college dropout, failed top 40 DJ's like Beck and Limbaugh. Even Governor Ralph Kramden here can't take it anymore.

Christie is even more amazing in that he was on Meet The Press (June 26, 2011) and said the following:

MR. GREGORY: Let me get you to assess the president's performance in a couple of other areas. Afghanistan, do you think he's pulling troops out too fast?

GOV. CHRISTIE: You know, David, as the governor of New Jersey, I got to tell you, I'm not going to put my judgment in place of the president of the United States who is briefed on this much more extensively than I am. And so I'm just not going to go there with that. I will tell you...

MR. GREGORY: You said that you wouldn't have pulled troops out.

GOV. CHRISTIE: ...and I said--I'm not a nation-building guy. I'm not a nation-building guy. And I do think that we have achieved a lot of what we wanted to achieve in Afghanistan, especially after the murder of bin Laden. But he knows a lot more about this than I do. I'm not going to go down that road.

That's right. He stated that the U.S. government MURDERED Osama bin Laden.

Oops. Duplicate.

What's Herman Cain going to campaign on now?

Holy cow, has he gained weight! He looks like someone put a straw into his belly button and used a bicycle pump to blow him up. I couldn't concentrate on anything else. What did he say?

Holy cow, has he gained weight! He looks like someone put a straw into his belly button and used a bicycle pump to blow him up. I couldn't concentrate on anything else. What did he say?

Holy cow, has he gained weight! He looks like someone put a straw into his belly button and used a bicycle pump to blow him up. I couldn't concentrate on anything else. What did he say?

I have opposed a great deal of what Governor Christie has done in his tenure as the leader of our state.  Today, his comments rightly deserve the respect and admiration of all of us. Thank you for awarding him this well-deserved standing ovation.  He was not a bully today ... and he showed that he has real guts and decency.  

ok, i have studied the Sharia law issue in detail. I can't believe media leaves so much important details out. By the way, I am not Muslim so don't bash me. Sharia law is basic contract law. Its like two people who enter a contract and within the contract it specifies that if their is a breach or a disagreement that they will go through arbitration rather than the public court. So two or more people first have to agree in writing that the contract or agreement they are entering will be based on Sharia law. If there is a breach, they go through the islamic court system (same as arbitration) rather than public court system. Both parties agreed in advance that they would accept the ruling of the Islamic court. If after the ruling, if one party refuses to honor the Islamic ruling, the other party may take the other to the regular court system for breach of contract. The regular court is supposed to enforce the contract that both parties had agreed on, just like any other contract. So everything you hear about Sharia law in the USA is fear mongering. It does not affect non-Muslims at all because obviously we would not agree to enter a sharia based contract. Stop the spread of hate and fear.

Good for Gov. Christie. He speaks his mind and doesn't worry about offending the Tea Party. A man who has some principals. I don't think he gives a rat about being President. He has a good job now and has said for months he doesn't want to run. Not sure why they continue to harp at him on this. Just because a person is Republican doesn't mean they are blind to the ways of the Tea Party. Not all of them are radicals.

I am a liberal democrat from Paramus, New Jersey, who looks forward to watching the Lawrence O'Donnell show. However, I was disappointed at his cheap shots at New Jersey in his defense of Governor Christie. In applauding Governor Christiem Mr. O'Donnell committed a great right, but in knocking New Jersey, he resorted to stereotypical name calling, which is not worthy of a serious political analyst.

Chris Christie has a good education and he well knows that the Sharia issue is a red herring. It has nothing to do with our secular laws and only effects Muslims. It has as much chance of "subveritng" our Constitution as do Rabbis forcing Rabbinic Law on the Gentiles in America so that US becomes Kosher. This counrty was Founded by DEISTS who avoided a National Established Church-(and MASS. style "theocracy")-common in Europe since the disquieting "victory" of Christianity in Late Antiquity and the imposition of state backed Orthdoxy. One reason that it is so ironic and even funny to hear about "secular" Europe. Europe secularized. US was founded as a Secular State-despite majority of Christians and strong religious movements. America was the experimental realization of the ideas of the 18th Century Philisophes-and Jefferson and Franklin count as Philosophes. But back to Christie. He belongs to a Party that depends on Redneck Bigots for election-at least to National office. I"m sure he's not the only Republican who knows better.

It looks simple in this case. He defended a friend he thought was a good appointment to the Courts. So maybe-despite what most of us on this Blog think of him, he proved that he has integrity. Some things are more important than Political office. It is pretty clear that an American style sub Christian Neo-Fascist outlook is on the rise-I think Christie was loud and emphatic when he called it crazy crap-that's all it is-H L Mencken's "booboisie" in the back reaches of the Republic<<<

Good for him!!!

 Thank you Governor Christie for appointing and standing by Sohail Mohammed as the state's first Indian-American Superior Court justice. I am very impressed by your speech where you confronted the crazies, the intolerants, the fear mongers and the hate mongers. As a participant and leader of Jewish-Muslim-Christian and Jewish-Palestinian dialogue groups in San Diego, CA I know personally how difficult it is to work with and talk to people with false stereotypes of the "other".

And thank you Lawrence O'Donnell for this segment and the standing ovation.

I watched the show last night. In the last few months, Larry and others have become the flip side of Fox; willing to say anything, even things that make no sense, if it fits the idealogical purpose. The gentleman who listed Mitt Romney among the losers because no candidate ever won after losing four years prior must not recall firsts do happen - unless I missed something, President Obama is our FIRST African American President. Then, the Last Word, where Larry equated Governor Christie's defense of a Muslim lawyer he nominated to the bench with the nonsense in this Country about Sharia law. Christie did not in any way address the people worried about Sharia law being applied in our courts - he was calling people worried that a Muslim judge in NJ would apply Sharia law as opposed to US law just because he is Muslim crazies - Christie was agreeing that Sharia law should and would not be applied. What happened to Larry's smarts and reasonableness?

According to these Republicans, if Sharia law is not to become American law, (whatever Sharia law is) is Christianity to become American law?

as much as he is a stick-wad.

I do have to stand and applaud as well. well done Mr Christi.

smiling now if you can just continue rolling like this!

Ok; so now all of a sudden I am wishing Chris Christie is running for president.

This coming from an Arab American liberal who will do everything I can to get president Obama reelected.

as much as i like and respect lawrence o'donnell, and as smart as i think he is, i'm shocked at how badly he misunderstood what actually happened here. christie spoke out here not to defend the judge--he spoke out to defend himself. in his world, everything is about him, and the criticism of this judge was criticism of him personally for appointing him--this is why he spoke out. let's face it, he's had plenty of opportunities to speak out against "the crazies" as he calls them. where was he when herman cain spewed his ignorance? or gringrich? or any of the other demagogues on the right. he only upset now b/c it's his judicial appointment being criticized.

don't kid yourself--christie's ego and arrogance are as large as his waistline. he'll suck up to "the crazies" as soon as he sees as it being in his self interest.