It sounds as if — for now, at least — many top GOPers are sticking with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. But they’re offing him some advice which goes on the assumption that his account of him not ordering “Bridgegate” is correct: get a better team. N-o-w.
The reason: while the other shoe hasn’t yet dropped, some socks have:
On a conference call with Gov. Chris Christie’s most loyal donors a few nights ago, his brother, Todd, pressed for last-minute cash to pay for the governor’s inauguration, a daylong fete ending on Ellis Island.
Then the governor himself came on the line, trying to convince his listeners that he was moving beyond the George Washington Bridge scandal and getting back to work, according to two participants.
The next day, state investigators sent 20 subpoenas to his inner circle and the inquiry widened.
As Texas Gov. Rick Perry would say: “Oops.”
This was supposed to be a season of triumph and celebration for the governor of New Jersey — a chance to bask in his landslide re-election victory in a Democratic state, embark on a European tour to bolster his foreign policy credentials and emerge as the modern face of a Republican Party desperate to win back the White House.
Indeed, Christie seemed on the fast-track — if not to attain the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination then as a strong contender in national polls who could pitch himself to the party as a political option it couldn’t refuse.
That’s in the past (for now):
Now, the foreign trip is in limbo as Mr. Christie tries to rebuild his credibility. His biggest political assets, his personality and spontaneity, have been all but absent as he evades reporters’ questions and holds few public appearances. And Republicans around the country, including those who saw him as their party’s most compelling candidate for president in 2016, are calling in with advice, sobering in its candor.
The advice?
Party leaders are urging the governor to let go of a trademark Christie trait: his fierce loyalty to old friends and high school classmates who have risen with him in state government. It is time, they counsel, for him to recruit a more nationally savvy political team that can take him beyond Trenton to Washington. Fueling such concerns, new allegations arose on Saturday that top Christie aides had used Hurricane Sandy recovery money as a political weapon against the Democratic mayor of Hoboken, N.J.
Bringing in new people would do several things. It would bring advisers with experience beyond New Jersey and working with Christie. It could perceptibly change the Christie message and help him recover from some of the damages to his branding. And some stories would be about how he has moved to bring a new group of people in to help him run a tighter ship.
But all the assumes another shoe won’t drop to join the other shoe — and the socks.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.