It is hard to know if this will qualify as a "Macaca Moment" in the New Jersey gubernatorial campaign, but the Corzine campaign squad posted a YouTube last night that Republican rival Chris Christie probably wishes had stayed under wraps for another few weeks:
There is a lot of peril for Christie in this video unearthed by Team Corzine, which was recorded a few years back. The surface-level pain for Christie is a video coming out two weeks before the election where he is loudly and forcefully declaring his affection for George W. Bush:
"Listen, I plead guilty to having raised money for Governor George W. Bush because I thought he was the best person to be President of the United States. And I did it in a completely appropriate fashion and enthusiastically for the President."
Politically, it is probably not advantageous to be seen as enthusiastic about a president who prepared to leave office last year with a 22 percent approval rating in the Garden State.
But there is another angle to this that might do greater damage to the political prospects for Christie. That would be his admission that his political (and financial) proximity to the Bush administration had been instrumental to his career advancement:
"There's no mystery to the fact that I was appointed to this job because, in part, I had a relationship with the President of the United States.
Anybody who receives a political appointment -- I am a political appointee -- there's going to be some measure of politics involved with that appointment."
Remember, back in the early days of this state's campaign cycle, how the conventional wisdom was that Christie's biography, and his time as a U.S. Attorney in particular, were going to be instrumental to his electoral success?
The image of the tireless fighter of corruption, especially amid the backdrop of a bevy of corruption cases in-state, was supposed to be the cornerstone to what would ultimately be a campaign narrative too good to fail.
Instead, look at how Christie's time as USA has instead diminished his campaign's standing, time and again.
- Ethics watchdogs called for investigation of Christie, on the grounds that he might have violated federal law by chatting up a campaign bid with the notorious Karl Rove while still employed as a US Attorney.
- The July arrests of a number of New Jersey politicos was initially hailed as a potential boon for Christie. That was tarnished a bit by the revelation that the acting U.S. Attorney in New Jersey (Christie's replacement and ally) might have violated ethics laws by coordinating with the Christie campaign.
- The image of Christie's tenure as US Attorney took a beating in August, as it was first revealed that he had lent nearly $50,000 to his assistant, Michele Brown, and failed to disclose that relationship. The nature of Christie's relationship with the U.S. Attorney's office was further highlighted that same week, when a video of Christie came to light where the Republican nominee was bragging about having "a group of U.S. Attorneys" that he implied he still had control over.
- Later, in revelations that bordered on the comical, we learned that Christie had repeatedly attempted to use his status as a U.S. Attorney to evade consequences related to the fact that he may well be the worst driver in the entire state of New Jersey.
And, finally, this new revelation. Not that this one is necessarily a surprise: that Christie was a lackey for the Bush team was something long suspected, and confirmed when he used his office to attempt to derail Senator Bob Menendez's election campaign in 2006 with a campaign of leaks and politically-timed subpoenas (despite Christie's best efforts, Menendez was elected with 53% of the vote in November of 2006).
Yet to hear it so clearly, without equivocation, from Christie's own lips is pretty jarring. One wonders how the voters of New Jersey will respond to it. The ground was already shifting a bit before this video came to light (just last night, CQ changed their rating on this race from Leans Republican to Toss-Up). This might cause it to shift even more.
UPDATE: From numerous comments, I may have defamed Christie unfairly in one way. Apparently, having never driven in the state of New Jersey, Mr. Christie (despite clipping someone going the wrong way on a one-way street) would not even make the medal stand in the "Worst Driver in the State" award. Apologies to those offended.