Christie Whitman: Maybe a 'flaming defeat' for the GOP would be best

Christie Todd Whitman isn't just unhappy with the GOP field of presidential candidates — she's saying it's no "longer a stretch" to compare Donald Trump and others "to some of the worst dictators in history."

In an opinion piece on Politico, Whitman wrote the GOP's "use of hate and fear tactics" is not how the party should define itself, and compares Donald Trump to pre-World War II Hitler and Mussolini.

"In pre-WWII Germany, the economy was in ruins, people were scared, and they wanted someone to blame. Today we find ourselves with a nation of people who feel under attack both physically and economically and are fearful," wrote the former governor of New Jersey.

"As a Republican, I am particularly concerned by the rise of hate rhetoric within our party. We cannot ignore it, and we can no longer dismiss it as a passing fluke," wrote Whitman.

She said the the GOP was the party that ended slavery, and fought to desegregated the White House and public schools.

"We need a candidate who will take the lead in moving the Republican Party back toward its traditional, philosophical roots of respect for and belief in the individual, fiscal responsibility, pragmatic and realistic foreign policy, and real environmental stewardship," Whitman wrote.

Whitman hit on similar themes in an interview with NorthJersey.com and specifically mentioned current governor Chris Christie. "He’s being pushed to the right in order to get the nomination and in order to get any attention with Trump saying what he’s saying,” said Whitman, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency under President George W. Bush.

She suggestion the GOP needed to hit rock-bottom to move back to the center.

“It would be entertaining if it weren’t so serious,” Whitman said. “Part of me wants to say, ‘Let’s take the most conservative candidate we can get, let’s go down to flaming defeat and then maybe people will figure out that people are really in the middle.’”

Whitman, whose husband died in July, heads up the Whitman Strategy Group and serves on the boards of several organizations and charities.