How could you say no to this face.
The
New York Times reports on Gov. Chris Christie's apparent obsession with lavish travel on other people's dime. His new London trip was by all accounts a bust or a borefest, but his insistence on five-star lodging and other perks will cost New Jersey taxpayers
at least $40,000; his trips to Dallas Cowboys games on the owner's plane has launched (yet another) state ethics inquiry; his jet-setting around the nation in dubious attempts to do the business of New Jersey while in, say, Iowa has made him the subject of ridicule in the state he theoretically governs. But the
Times paints a fuller picture of just how lavish Christie's tastes have been, as when he jetted off to Jordan and Israel on
Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson's private plane:
King Abdullah of Jordan picked up the tab for a Christie family weekend at the end of the trip. The governor and two staff members who accompanied him came back to New Jersey bubbling that they had celebrated with Bono, the lead singer of U2, at three parties, two at the king’s residence, the other a Champagne reception in the desert. But a small knot of aides fretted: The rooms in luxurious Kempinski hotels had cost about $30,000; what would happen if that became public? [...]
[A Christie spokeswoman] described King Abdullah as “a friend” the governor met at a salon-style dinner in New York hosted by Michael R. Bloomberg, who was the mayor at the time. “King Abdullah invited the governor and his family to Jordan as his personal guest so the two families could spend time together,” she said on Sunday.
Oh, well, if it was just a visit between friends. Likewise, we are to think of Adelson's loan of a private jet as just a favor between friends, even though Adelson had a personal interest in a New Jersey online gambling bill at the time. (Christie did not deliver, by the way.)
While previous New Jersey governors have flown commercial for trade missions, Mr. Christie flew privately for three. (His spokeswoman said he flew commercial to London.) He has taken family on all. He stays in five-star properties: the King David in Jerusalem, the Intercontinental in Mexico City. The hotel in London, the Corinthia, has a Baccarat chandelier and masses of flowers refreshed every morning.
And even when he is doing an ostensible favor for an ostensible friend, it's gonna cost them.
He made it clear when he campaigned for Mr. Romney in 2012 that he would do out-of-state events only if he was given a private plane, even during the primary, when the candidate’s wife was still flying commercial to save money. The Romney campaign came to understand that he preferred a Cessna Citation X, which, its manufacturer boasts, has exotic wood interiors and a Rolls-Royce engine.
The
Times notes that most of this would be illegal if Christie were president, leading to some obvious questions: one, why does the man still want to be president, and two, how long would it be before he "accidentally" slipped back into his old patterns, and three, no really—are we sure Air Force One is
refined enough for this fellow's tastes?
The other question is why anyone else still thinks this chucklecluck is high-office material. Honestly, people, America has petty grifters by the tens of thousands; give another one of the poor bastards a turn on the Jordan Champagne reception circuit for a change.