Oh, man. Chris Christie must just be screaming his head off in some expensive hotel room somewhere. What a boneheaded public relations move by a candidate this close to Election Day.
Here in New Jersey, former US Attorney Chris Christie's watched his comfortable lead shrink down to nothing in his contest against the Democratic incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine, and surprising upstart independent Chris Daggett, endorsed by NJ's largest paper, and nipping at Christie's votes.
AP has Christie saying if elected, he'd loosen up on the austerity measures placed on state employee travel expenses by Corzine, but just for his closest advisers. That's big talk given that Christie campaigned on cutting government waste, touts his personal integrity and gripes that Corzine mismanaged state spending. But Christie's baffling remarks play right into a key Corzine campaign theme: one set of rules for Christie, and another for everybody else, a theme that reverbs in both Christie's professional conduct and personal conduct.
Christie's still got to be reeling from info just uncovered that shows he treated himself and sometimes even his Executive Assistant AUSA Michele Brown to some swanky accomodations on the taxpayer's dime (more at Blue Jersey).
So what the hell was Christie thinking? Is it campaign fatigue? Nobody gets it, and everybody's talking about it. Here's some video from a couple local tv stations:
The man on the street interviews are brutal. News 12:
Over at Channel 11, they're saying:
Taxpayers may have to foot more bills for state officials to travel if the GOP wins the governor's race next month.
Boom.