When Lurking In The Shadows, Mind The Gap
As badly as the Republican Party want to sweep it under the bridge, Chris Christie's "Bridgegate" scandal, as it's being called, isn't going anywhere. Worse still, it's getting bigger and harder to ignore:
The special committee investigating the manufactured traffic jam at the George Washington Bridge plans to issue a subpoena for Gov. Chris Christie’s re-election campaign organization, a source involved in the probe told NBC News on Thursday.
The chairman of the committee had planned to subpoena only Bridget Kelly, Christie’s since-fired deputy chief of staff, and Bill Stepien, who managed both of the governor’s campaigns, the source said.
But the subpoena list grew after the committee hired Reid Schar, a high-powered former federal prosecutor, the source said. The chairman, Assemblyman John Wisniewski, told reporters that roughly 20 subpoenas would be issued — 17 people and three organizations, all in New Jersey.
Funny story: Amid the scandal that has now sucked in most of his inner circle, and now many from his re-election campaign, Christie is about to lend some of his re-election "magic" to Rick Scott in Florida this weekend.
Now, if anyone needs a boost, it's certainly Rick Scott. He's never crawled up from the bottom of the approval ratings barrel in all his time in office, and he was already losing in the polls for re-election before he even had an opponent.
Ouch.
So it's understandable that a fundraiser with the Republican's latest presumed golden Presidential hopeful, the latest in a long line of flameouts (cough-Rubio-cough) would be more than welcome. After all, the two have a lot in common, they're both disasters for their states, and neither lets his lack of popularity, or lack of ability to face reality while spinning it get in the way of "governing." And while, like Charlie Crist before him, Christie also hugged President Obama recently, Christie brings in the cash (or he used to) so naturally, that hug can be overlooked when money is involved.
Unfortunately, all those fundraising and campaign plans were made before the drip, drip, drip of rumored revenge politics began seeping out over New Jersey, something Scott knows a little bit about himself. Now as Christie's good soldiers are dodging subpoenas left and right, does this mean the Christie-Scott fun and games are over?
Of course not! I mean, Ka-Ching!
No, they're still going to go ahead with their whirlwind tour (as of this writing, anyway) with big donors and deep pockets in Florida, they just don't want people to know about it so much. That's why they're going out of their way to make sure they aren't seen in public together. Worse, those donors are becoming skeptical about throwing cash at not one, but quite possibly two big losers.
So as far as the Republican Party of Florida is concerned, please, pay no attention to the two governors wining, dining, and relieving those multimillionaire's of their money behind the curtain! Nothing to see here, move along!
From one who resides in the state that brought America the infamous Mitt Romney 47 percent video, may I just say this: Good luck with that.
