When you have built a large part of your personal campaign narrative around being a rough, tough fighter of government corruption (as New Jersey's GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie has done), stories like this are bound to sting just a little bit extra:
Newly released travel records show that Chris Christie occasionally billed taxpayers more than $400 a night for stays in luxury hotels and exceeded the government's hotel allowance on 14 of 16 business trips he took in 2008.
"Generally, U.S. attorneys, assistant U.S. attorneys and all federal staff stay within the government rate," said Justice Department spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz. "The government rate is not a suggestion, it's a guideline."
Christie said he stayed in more expensive hotels only when cheaper ones weren't available.
"We always went for government rates first," he said. "I don't think there were a lot of stays in five-star hotels over seven years."
You would have to consult Travelocity, but I am pretty sure there aren't a ton of two-star hotels available for $400 per night.
This also does not, based on the stats, look like the occasional need to upgrade based on hotel availabilities. When you exceed government limits 87.5% of the time, that looks an awful lot like a pattern to the untrained eye.
The documents came to light based on a Freedom of Information Act request by Governor Corzine's team. The Associated Press had also filed an FOIA request, but it had not been fulfilled as of yet.
The folks at ethics watchdog CREW, for one, are not buying Christie's excuse, pointing out that one of the stays was at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington DC:
"I'm sure he knew better, and he chose to ignore the rules," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "There is never a situation where the only available hotel in Washington is the Four Seasons. If you stay there, you've chosen luxury and you've chosen to ignore the rules."
While everyone obsesses over whether Governor Jon Corzine is trying to subliminally attack Chris Christie's obesity, they forget that the consistent tagline of Corzine's media campaign has been that Christie has one set of rules for himself, and one for everyone else.
It would seem (absent a better explanation than "all of the hotels in big metropolitan areas were booked") that this incident helps to underscore the charge that Corzine has consistently levelled at his Republican foe.