I've been following Chris Christie for a long time, but not as long as the great bloggers over at Blue Jersey. Since I know how very lazy most reporters are, I'm going to make it as easy as possible for them to move away from the carefully-crafted media adulation of the governor. Hopefully they'll actually look at all this!
Oh, and just let me throw in this tidbit from The Awl's Abe Sauer before I forget:
Easy enough for just about anyone to remember: Lobbyist Chris Christie worked to remove securities fraud from a consumer fraud act on behalf of an organization run by Bernie Madoff.
Now, back to Blue Jersey:
When Chris Christie first ran for Freeholder and was sued for defamation, it wasn't his fault and he did nothing wrong.
When Chris Christie went from "not a candidate for US Attorney" to being appointed US Attorney after he was directly responsible for raising hundreds of thousands (and his brother donates hundreds of thousands) for Bush, the donations had nothing to do with it.
And when many top NJ lawyers pointed out that Christie didn't have any experience in criminal law and his appointment was directly connected to the above hundreds of thousands in donations for Bush, that was just a coincidence.
(but wait....there's more!)Adam L :: Chris Christie has lost the benefit of the doubtWhen Chris Christie suddenly got off the list of US Attorneys to be fired at the same time he issued bogus subpoenas to Senator Menendez weeks before the 2006 election, the timing was just a coincidence and Christie's word should be trusted.
When Chris Christie gave his top aide Michele Brown a $46,000 loan and didn't report it on his tax return or other disclosure documents, that was just an oversight and not a conflict of interest.
When it was discovered that criminal-turned-informant Solomon Dwek, the man who Christie turned from bank fraudster to briber-of-elected-Democrats,donated to Bush directly through Chris Christie, the two were in no way connected.
And when Michele Brown pushed to have the Dwek bribery arrests of elected Democrats announced at an opportune time during the campaign, there was nothing wrong with that. The same Michele Brown that had the $46,000 unreported loan from her boss Chris Christie.
When Chris Christie gave his former boss John Ashcroft a no bid deal worth at least $30 million, despite Ashcroft having no experience for this work, he demanded that he be given the benefit of the doubt.
When Christie's brother was not indicted, despite being found by the SEC to have made 1,600 illegal trades, bilking investors out of almost $1.5 million and netting himself $1.5 million, it was just a coincidence.
When the US Attorney from NY didn't prosecute his brother for securities fraud and then got a multi million no bid deal from Christie himself, it was just a coincidence.
And when it was discovered that Chris Christie violated the Hatch Act by discussing running for Governor while still a US Attorney, that was "an attempt to smear him".
When Chris Christie also gave a multi-million no bid deal to buddies Herb Stern and John Inglesino and then Inglesino raised tens of thousands for his campaign, there was no "quid pro quo".
When Assemblyman Richard Merkt said that same John Inglesino tried to bribeMerkt to drop out of the Governor's race with a "major position", it was denied, and Christie knew nothing about it anyway.
And when Chris Christie went the wrong way down a one way street, causing an accident, sending the biker he hit to a trauma center - then didn't get a ticket when he identified himself as US Attorney - he did nothing wrong.
And when Christie was caught in an apparent lie about being sued by that biker, that was just a misunderstanding and he had forgot.And when Chris Christie was stopped for speeding in an unregistered and uninsured vehicle, only to pull rank and not get a ticket, his position as US Attorney had nothing to do with him being able to leave without his car being towed.
When Christie hijacked the Race to the Top application process, only to lose $400 million for the state's students and then get caught in at least two apparent lies, that wasn't his fault - it was Obama's and Bret Schundler's.
When a recent DOJ report identified Chris Christie as being the biggest offender of overbilling the Government for extravagant and unsubstantiated travel expenses of all the US Attorneys, it was because nothing other than 5 star hotels and limos were available.
When Chris Christie recently was caught inflating numbers about the ARC tunnel cost, that wasn't done on purpose for political reasons.
And now Chris Christie has decided that he's now a scientist and doubts global warming, he should be trusted to be skeptical?
Let's face it. The man has a carefully crafted false bravado persona that is in direct contrast to the layer upon layer of lie, conflict, hypocrisy, insider deals, abuse of authority, quick tempered emotional decisions and favoritism. And quite honestly, if he was a Democrat and not Republican, he'd be skewered, mocked and hated by the right - and rightfully so.