Chris Christie's Political Ambitions: Dead In The Water-- And Getting Deader

On Meet The Press yesterday, Chris Matthews ended the segment on the rapidly expanding Chris Christie scandal by pointing out that Christie's greatest hit in the eyes of the general public was how much of an activist, on-the-ground leader he was when Hurricane Sandy devastated wide swathes of New Jersey. Matthews pointed out the incongruity of Christie's supposed nowhere-to-be-found posture when his aides shut down the George Washington Bridge for 4 days. Until now, people have seen Christie not as the corrupt overbearing and thuggish bully he's always been, but as a no-nonsense get-the-job-done kind of politician. Although his political allies and ideological kinsmen inside the Eastern conservative establishment insist, kind of desperately, he can recover, most observers realize his bid for the Republican presidential nomination for 2016 is dead in the water. New Jersey legislators are talking about impeaching him now.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie claims no involvement in "Bridgegate" despite spending hours with his deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, on the day Kelly was receiving messages related to the shutdown of George Washington Bridge lanes.

The head of the New Jersey Assembly panel investigating the politically motivated lane closures said that's a reason Christie's claim to have been unaware of the plot is "not credible."

Kelly, fired by Christie last week, was the one who gave the code red shutdown order to a Christie appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, saying it was "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

With the traffic jams in place, Kelly spent time on her personal e-mail account receiving messages from authority officials on what to tell reporters on Sept. 12, the day she later accompanied Christie in response to the Seaside Heights, N.J., boardwalk fire.

"She spent the rest of the day with the governor at the fire scene at the Seaside boardwalk," Assemblyman John Wisniewski said Sunday in an appearance on Face The Nation on CBS. "This senior aide, who was with him that day, who sent the order, never once communicated with him? It's unbelievable."

Wisniewski, a Middlesex County Democrat who is chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, also said impeachment of Christie is possible if it can be proved the Republican governor had direct involvement or participation in the lane closures.

That would make Christie's chances of winning the Republican nomination just slightly better than Rod Blagojevich's-- and Blagojevich, who was impeached by the Illinois legislature in 2009 and is now in prison, is a Democrat. And now other New Jersey mayors are coming forward with their own stories about how Christie punished them for refusing to endorse him. Jersey City mayor Steve Fulop, was one of them.

Fulop decided against endorsing the governor. Within an hour of relaying his decision, the mayor said, meetings with several state commissioners were canceled. Since then, he said, "nearly every single meeting we have requested with state commissioners with regard to proactive Jersey City issues has been unfortunately rejected over the last six months, along with countless requests we made to the Port Authority" of New York and New Jersey, a bistate agency Mr. Christie jointly controls with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

…Other Democratic mayors who declined to support Christie told the Journal that they faced no retribution for their decisions. But Sokolich and Fulop may have company in Hoboken, N.J. Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who told the Journal that she was invited to the state capital in Trenton last year to discuss federal relief dollars for Superstorm Sandy, but the talk eventually turned to gubernatorial endorsements.

Although she said it "was not that easy to tell him no," Zimmer ultimately decided to stay neutral in the race.

She told WNYC that after making her decision, she received considerably less money. She originally requested $100 million in grants to help protect Hoboken from flooding-- the city was largely underwater after Sandy-- but only received $300,000 in return.

“With 20/20 hindsight, in the context we're in right now, we can always look back and say, 'Okay, was it retribution?'” Zimmer said. “I think probably all mayors are reflecting right now and thinking about it, but I really hope that that's not the case.”

A federal investigation, separate from the New Jersey legislature's investigation, into Christie's bridge shutdown, is gathering information. But today it came out that there's a second, unrelated, federal investigation into another manifestation Christie's authoritarian-- and criminal-- mindset: his misuse of the Hurricane Sandy relief funds that were at the center of his political turnaround and made him into a popular governor. (Before Sandy, he looked like someone who was far from inevitable for reelection.)

CNN has learned that federal officials are investigating whether Christie improperly used those relief funds to produce tourism ads that starred him and his family.

…If the Sandy inquiry finds any wrongdoing, it could prove even more damaging to Christie's national ambitions. His performance during and after the superstorm has been widely praised and is a fundamental part of his straight-shooting political brand.

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.

On Sunday, Pallone told CNN that the inspector general conducted a preliminary review of the spending and concluded that there was enough evidence to launch a full-scale investigation into the state's use of federal funds. The audit will take several months, and the findings will be issued in an official report, he said.

Pallone, a 27-year veteran of the House and vocal Christie critic, said this is not about politics.

"This was money that could have directly been used for Sandy recovery. And, as you know, many of my constituents still haven't gotten the money that is owed them to rebuild their homes or raise their homes or to help," he told CNN.

Last week state Senator Barbara Buono, who many in New Jersey now regret they didn't vote for when she ran against Christie, predicted he won't finish his gubernatorial term. Slamming both the Republican and Democratic corrupt party bosses, Buono feels certain that Christie will either resign or be forced from office by impeachment proceedings or criminal charges. "Right now," she said in a statement over the weekend, "we have no idea how far this scandal goes. The Governor has created a culture where cavalierly endangering citizens' lives to exact political retribution is an acceptable form of governance. It's beneath the dignity of his office and a breach of New Jerseyans' trust. Everyone who had knowledge of the closing should be terminated immediately and the Department of Justice should conduct a thorough investigation to determine whether other towns in New Jersey suffered because the Governor wanted to get revenge."