When it rains, it pours: Gov. Chris Christie, who is under fire for the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal, is now facing an investigation by federal officials whether he improperly used Superstorm Sandy relief funds to produce tourism ads that starred he and his family.

You will recall that last week, Gov. Christie threw his deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly and David Wildstein under a bus for emails calling for the lane closures. This reportedly politically motivated to punish the Fort Lee mayor, who is a Democrat, because he did not endorse his reelection bid.

Here’s more on the Sandy investigation:

In the new probe, federal auditors will examine New Jersey’s use of $25 million in Sandy relief funds for a marketing campaign to promote tourism at the Jersey Shore after Sandy decimated the state’s coastline in late 2012, New Jersey Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone told CNN.

In an August letter, Pallone asked the Department of Housing and Urban Development inspector general to look into how Christie chose to spend the marketing money approved by the department.

[…]

Pallone wrote that he was concerned about the bidding process for the firm awarded the marketing plan; the winning firm is charging the state about $2 million more than the next lowest bidder. The winning $4.7 million bid featured Christie and his family in the advertisements while the losing $2.5 million proposal did not feature the Christies.

The right wing hypocrisy on the Christie scandal is glaring. President Obama was unaware of that a mid-level IRS executive targeted the Tea Party and he was called all manner of names but Gov. Chris Christie is said to have earned ‘Tea Party cred’ after someone in his office deliberately sabotaged residents in his state. Um, really?

This was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.