Panic In GOP Land Continues – Washngton Post Columnist Kathleen Parker is Full Out to Resuscitate NJ Gov. Christie

Calling Jeb Bush, Jeb You’re Our Only Hope

In the Washington Post each Republican leaning columnist has his or her pet Republican.  For the egregious Jennifer Rubin it was Mitt Romney, and she essentially served as his official campaign spokesperson masquerading as a reporter/opinion writer.  For Chris Christie the WP’s pet writer is columnist Kathleen Parker.

As reported earlier the Republican establishment is in total despair over the problems of  NJ Governor Chris Christie whom they saw as about the only hope for GOP salvation in the 2016 election.  So people like Ms. Parker are out to save Mr. Christie.  The blame must go of course to the news media, which is always to blame whenever they report what is actually happening with respect to Republicans.

The Times story cited a letter from Alan L. Zegas, attorney for David Wildstein, the former Port Authority executive and one-time Christie ally who, after an infamous e-mail exchange with Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly (“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee”), ordered the lane closings.

In the Times story, Wildstein was said to have “had the evidence” to prove that Christie knew contemporaneously about the lane closings. Later, the Times story was tweaked to reflect what the letter actually said: “evidence exists” that Christie knew at the time of the lane closings. Thank you for the clarification. What evidence? Whose? Where? The voice knows.

Does this work?  You betcha.  Attack the New York Times for its actual reporting and one becomes the hero of the American right.

Though Matt Drudge clearly isn’t a Christie fan (this must be terribly painful for the governor), the result has been a circling of conservative wagons by those who hate the media more than they dislike a moderate Republican — as foretold by a certain columnist weeks ago. Thus, Christie has been invited to speak at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference next month, to which he was conspicuously not invited a year ago.

And of course the attacks must go towards the accusers.

Meanwhile, Christie’s office has fired back, impugning Wildstein’s character, even going back to his high school days and calling him “tumultuous.” One can only imagine his yearbook inscription: “Dude, stay as tumultuous as you are and bridges will fear you!”

. . .

In a parallel saga, CNN recently poked holes in Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer’s storyclaiming that Christie’s office threatened to withhold Hurricane Sandy recovery funds if she didn’t support a development project the governor favored.

CNN cited not only contradictions and discrepancies but also evidence that Zimmer may have practiced the same tactics of which she has accused Christie. The executive director of the Hoboken Housing Authority had sued Zimmer, claiming that the mayor had “an unwritten policy of political patronage or ‘pay to play’ to reward . . . political supporters.”

What all of this leaves out of course is the fact that Mr. Christie appointed Mr. Wildstein to a very important, very powerful, very patronage ridden post at the Port Authority.  And Mr. Christie heaped tons of praise upon the man he now disparages.  Personally we don't think there is much to the charge that Mr. Christie was lying, we think his staff gave him plausible deniability.  But everyone must be enjoying Republicans hoist on their own petard, Republicans who use news media to trumpet the idea that Mr. Obama is Kenyan born revolutionary Marxist.

They don’t realize it yet, but the so-called main stream Republicans will soon have to turn to Jeb Bush, and some may even be contemplating it in private.  The hope here is that Mr. Bush runs and that Mr. Christie runs and that we all get to watch a spectacle that rivals the Ali-Frazier fights.  The contestants get battered, the audience gets entertained.