Are the media being fair to Chris Christie?
Karl Rove breaks down national coverage of New Jersey bridge controversy
It is more likely that Governor Christie will be impeached and removed from office – in 2014 – than that he will ever wind up running for the GOP presidential nomination.
Why?
Because Democrats – unlike our current House Republicans – know how to run a gut-cutting, down-and-dirty-if-necessary investigation against a political opponent.
They know how to take aim – and then keep their eye on the target – no matter what.
They know they have most of the media with them – and they thus are not afraid of “over-reach.” And they have the killer instinct that almost all Republicans lack.
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The Bridgegate scandal is the latest perfect example: the emails ordering up the traffic jam first made it into the public domain last Wednesday, January 8. By the following Monday, on January 13 – a mere five days later, the Assembly and Senate Democrats had already named not one but two Special Investigative Committees armed with Special Counsels and widespread subpoena power. The Assembly Speaker said, “The investigation will go where it goes.”
In other words, they are free to go down any tributary – as long as it helps them sink Governor Christie.
Their enmity toward the governor is two-tracked.
First, they despise Christie and harbor grudges over the condescending, demeaning way he has treated them over the past four years.
He has called Senate Democrats “animals” and even suggested people should “take a bat” to Senator Loretta Weinberg, the Senate Democratic leader, who is an elderly widow.
Second, the national Democrats see Christie as the only current threat to Hillary Clinton’s presidential ambitions in 2016.
Now that he might be in trouble, the party – from the top down and including the Democratic donor class – is encouraging the Trenton Democrats to “take out” and “finish off” Christie right now.
So these two committees in Trenton now have free rein to do whatever it takes to ruin Christie. They have motivation, memory (of how he has treated them), money and momentum as more and more tales of political retaliation, payback and vendettas comes into these two committee.
His circle of aides is at the moment in a state of total panic. They read and saw the Chairman of the Assembly Special Committee John Wisniewski, openly talking on last Sunday’s Face the Nation" that “impeachment is a possibility here.”
Wisniewski believes that using governmental resources to exact political revenge is a crime – and thus the governor's action could lead to impeachment.
Christie’s aides are all worrying about themselves right now – and asking these questions:
1. Do I need to hire a lawyer?
2. Should I be the first to offer to talk in return for immunity?
3. If I wait too long, maybe someone else I am working with will make that deal first and I won’t be able to get immunity. How should I handle that?
4. Can I even talk to the people I work with?
5. Can I ever get another job?
6. Is Chris Christie worth sacrificing my career for?
As for friends he can rely on, Christie has fewer friends inside the New Jersey GOP than he should have.
He has systematically bulldozed so many fellow Republicans that they are tentative and tepid in their support.
For four years it has been known inside Jersey politics that if you made even the mildest criticism of the governor, he would come after you with a vengeance. Payback and punishment have become the rule over the past four years.
Right after the election this past November, Christie tried to dislodge Senate GOP Leader Tom Kean, Jr. – the son of Christie’s political mentor, former Governor Tom Kean.
The elder Kean sees this as an act of betrayal.
Oh, and Christie failed to dislodge Kean, Jr. from his leadership post.
If impeachment comes and makes it to the New Jersey Senate, does the governor believe Senator Kean will go out of his way to save him from a conviction?
What we are witnessing is an overly-arrogant Republican governor who has gone out of his way to insult and offend people who dare to disagree with him coupled with a hungry Democratic Party armed with indignation, money and subpoena power.
This all adds up to one thing: he does not survive in 2014.
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