When candidates being considered for vetting as a Vice Presidential nominee on a ticket give their info to an interested Presidential nominee, it’s supposed to be confidential. Supposed to be: someone in the camp of unsuccessful 2012 Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney gifted a batch of opposition research on New Jersey Gov. Christ Christie to the to the authors of “Double Down,” the new reportage-rich account of the 2012 Presidential race.
That was a)a breach of protocol b)a sign that some in Camp Romney were still stung over the fact that Christie embraced President Barack Obama and worked with and said nice things to him as he coped with the damage inflicted on his state by Hurricane Sandy, c)whoever leaked it wanted to extract maximum damage so the info came out right before Christie’s re-election date. But just as Romney too the high road on Christie willingness to work with and not diss Obama during Hurricane Sandy, Romney is distancing himself from the release of the report that was supposed to be for his campaign’s eyes only:
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney called him immediately when news broke that someone had leaked details about last year’s vice presidential vetting process.
“Mitt called me right away, and I could tell he was really embarrassed and outraged about it,” Christie said Tuesday in an exclusive interview with CNN anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent Jake Tapper.
Christie, however, made it clear that the document’s release was not the way people are supposed to do political business:
“It’s very disappointing,” Christie said of the leaks. “I think it’s a complete violation of trust of me and the spirit within which I entered that process.”
Details in the new book about the 2012 presidential election “Double Down” make it clear that there were a number of Romney aides who came to resent Christie, both because of the way he worked with President Barack Obama after Superstorm Sandy, but also for other reasons.
Stunningly, one of them leaked to the authors personal and private vetting information they acquired while considering Christie for the number two slot, including concerns regarding Christie’s health and weight, and how Christie, when he was serving as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey, had been investigated by the Justice Department for exceeding government travel expense rates.
It all shows that political grudges die hard.
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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.