New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has sent President Obama a letter saying, "Hey Obama, you better not send us any Syrian refugees!"  Look, Christie is tough!

But then Christie forgot to send a similar letter to his state welfare agency telling them not to cooperate.  Christie says he is powerless to stop unvetted refugees from coming into New Jersey, but he does have power not to render them aid and comfort.

Gov. Chris Christie conceded in a radio interview on Friday that he never sent a directive to state agencies to block Syrian refugees from being placed in New Jersey, saying he had no power to stop the federal government.

The Republican presidential candidate was responding to a POLITICO New Jersey story that showed Christie never sent a memo to state officials on the subject, despite saying in a letter to President Obama that he would direct the state Department of Human Services not to participate in the resettlement of any Syrian refugees.

The governor told FOX News Radio host Brian Kilmeade that his hands were tied.

"There was no reason," Christie said, when asked directly if he followed up since his note to the president. "I sent the letter, Brian. There is nothing else for me to do."

Christie, the tough guy, is oddly resigned to defeat.

He has long  supported amnesty for illegal aliens in the past, which would legalize many unvetted millions.  His memory isn't so good, because he says he can't remember either way whether Muslims celebrated 9/11 in his own state of New Jersey.  He had also warned his fellow Republicans not to "overreact" to the planned mosque near the site of the World Trade Center.

And then there was the Hamas-affiliated judge Christie put on New Jersey's superior court:

When the United States government attempted to deport Mohammed Qatanani, New Jersey's pols and wannabe pols like Christie, quickly came to his aid. Despite the fact that Mohammed Qatanani was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization that is behind both Al Qaeda and Hamas, despite his own guilty plea to being a member of Hamas, and despite the fact that even in the United States, he had defended a charity that provided funds to children of suicide bombers (this is done as an incentive to reassure terrorists that if they die their families will be taken care of), Qatanani was not deported. ... Christie called Qatanani, "a man of great goodwill" and "a constructive force" and allowed Charles McKenna, one of his associate attorneys to testify on behalf of Qatanani. Afterward Christie tapped McKenna to head New Jersey's Department of Homeland Security. McKenna had spent a good deal of time on Muslim "outreach[.]"

Now Christie has nominated Sohail Mohammed, Qatanan's former lawyer, to a Superior Court judgeship.

How does any of this make Christie a great security hawk?  He's soft on illegal aliens and soft on Hamas terrorists and their sympathizers.  When have we ever heard Christie speak out against illegal aliens or radical Islamic terrorists?  Almost never.  He's a tough guy, all right, but never tough on the right issues.

Still, I want Christie to keep touting his credentials and to keep running, for all the good work he is doing for Marco Rubio.

This article was written by Ed Straker, senior writer of NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.