Chris Christie Lost Out on the Job He Wanted. And His Bad Year Got Worse.
By KATE ZERNIKEJULY 15, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/16/nyregion/chris-christie-lost-out-on-the-job-he-wanted-and-his-bad-year-got-worse.html?action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&module=Trending&version=Full®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article
“Black Thursday,” one of Gov. Chris Christie’s least favorite local newspaper columnists called it, under a headline that declared it his “worst day ever.” At the least, it was the New Jersey governor’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
On Thursday morning, one of his closest confidants pleaded guilty to a felony charge of abusing power at the agency that Mr. Christie tapped him to lead. By that afternoon, federal prosecutors had charged a former cabinet official in connection with the same case, which spun out of the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal that has dogged Mr. Christie for nearly three years.
Then he did not get the job he had been publicly pining for, and on which he had pinned his hopes of political resuscitation. Donald J. Trump, who is expected to become the Republican nominee for president next week, picked someone else as his running mate, despite an endorsement that dragged Mr. Christie’s poll numbers to record lows at home and alienated him from moderate Republicans he once called friends.
And that was before a storm knocked down a tree and power line outside Mr. Christie’s house, starting a fire beside it. When a local television station asked the governor if he still had electricity, he gave a thumbs down, which might have been answering the question, or summing up the previous several hours, or months.
Mr. Christie was an early, enthusiastic investor in Mr. Trump, becoming the first major establishment Republican to endorse him, just a week after he dropped his own once-bright presidential ambitions after a dismal showing in the New Hampshire primary in February.
He has been one of Mr. Trump’s most abiding defenders and advisers as the candidate set off flares about banning Muslims from entering the United States and building walls along the border with Mexico.
Yet even as Mr. Trump’s stock rose against expectations, Mr. Christie’s crashed.
“He was such a lap dog and tried for it so hard, he ended up not just losing badly in the presidential stakes — I think he just looks much weaker than he was before by his rabid pursuit of Trump,” said Ed Rollins, a longtime Republican strategist who is now advising a “super PAC” supporting Mr. Trump. “It was not a glorious couple of years here, or for the citizens of the state.”
Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence appeared for the first time in public together since Mr. Pence was named as Mr. Trump’s running mate. Here’s how we analyzed it.
When Mr. Trump confirmed on Friday morning that he was picking Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana as his running mate, the initial reports were that they would make their first appearance together in Bedminster, N.J., where Mr. Trump has a golf course and plans to be buried. It would be “the site of Trump’s mausoleum and the burial ground of Christie’s political aspirations,” in the words of Julie Roginsky, a Democratic strategist close to two former Christie administration officials charged in the lane-closing case, Bill Baroni and David Wildstein.
The Trump campaign later said the appearance would be in Manhattan.
But even without an announcement in his backyard, Mr. Christie has suffered embarrassment at the hands of Mr. Trump.
He set off internet ridicule on Super Tuesday when he stood behind Mr. Trump, mute and obedient. As they appeared together, Mr. Trump mocked the governor for eating too many Oreos, and for all but moving out of New Jersey as he campaigned for president in New Hampshire.
Mr. Trump appeared to relish poking fun at his effusive booster: “I hated to do it but I had to make my point,” he said, after accusing Mr. Christie of abandoning his state.
Mr. Christie’s staff had to fight back against reports from within the Trump campaign, quoted in The New Yorker, that the governor had fetched food from McDonald’s for Mr. Trump. (On Friday, the New Yorker humor columnist Andy Borowitz further mocked him with a spoof headlined: “Furious Christie Refuses to Pick Up Trump’s Dry Cleaning.”)
In the end, Mr. Trump seemed to all but ignore any loyalty from Mr. Christie, picking Mr. Pence, who had endorsed a former rival to Mr. Trump, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.
“It’s death by humiliation,” Ms. Roginsky, who is also a Fox News contributor, said. “Slow, twisting and played out in public, like a reality show elimination.”
On Friday, Mr. Christie’s office declined to offer a statement on Mr. Pence. The governor appears to be left with the prospect of campaigning even harder for Mr. Trump in hopes of getting a post in the administration, should Mr. Trump win.
Photo
Mr. Christie gave a thumbs down when asked if his home had electricity on Thursday, after a storm took down a tree and power line. Credit Rich Schultz/Associated Press
But that would have to happen against the wishes of Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is said to be no fan of Mr. Christie, who, as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, sent Mr. Kushner’s father to prison. And the governor would face a tough confirmation fight should he be nominated for a post such as attorney general.
Mr. Christie will have to endure more heartburn between now and Election Day.
The trial in the bridge case is scheduled to begin in September, and defense lawyers have promised to savage him and show that he knew about the lane closings, despite his protestations and “tell it like it is” slogans. The charges announced on Thursday — that Mr. Christie’s associates negotiated bribes with United Airlines — will continue to play out with the sentencing in the case of David Samson, former chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, in October.
“I was going to say he could be secretary of transportation, but that probably wouldn’t be a very good thing for him,” Mr. Rollins said of Mr. Christie. “Though he has some experience there, controlling bridges and planes and that sort of thing.”
In an interview with MSNBC last week, Mr. Christie let on, unusually, that he wanted to be chosen as Mr. Trump’s running mate.
“I’m a competitive person, so I’m not going to say it won’t bother me if I’m not selected,” he said. “Of course it bothers you a little bit, because if you’re a competitive person like I am and you’re used to winning like I am, again, you don’t like coming in second. Ever.”
Still, he said, “I have a job to do.”
But his constituents are less and less patient with him. His poll numbers, stratospheric after his handling of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, fell after the bridge scandal broke in 2014, and dropped even further after his endorsement of Mr. Trump. The two most recent, last month, put his approval at 26 percent.
“I can’t imagine, given where the state of public opinion is now, that there’s anything he can do to make things better,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.
“I think if Trump wins, Trump will find something for him,” Mr. Murray said. “He’ll take anything, as is kind of obvious.”
No worries. A couple of years ago, I had a pages - long argument with some longtime posters on A2K about something along the lines of 'the only people who know what it feels like to be (whatever), are people who are (whatever)'. I thought then and now that it's a pretty no-brainer type, self-evident thing. But some folks just didn't see it that way.
