The Cruel Humiliation Of Chris Christie-- Next Stop, Secretary Of Transportation?

The unseemly spectacle of the Trumpish running mate selection-- culminating in Trump playing the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" a dozen times in a row for startled reporters before bringing out the hapless Mike Pence-- should serve as a prelude to what a Trump administration would be like. In all things and at all times, Trump's narcissism will hover over every decision. His understandable desire to pick his old crony Christie was thwarted because of a family dispute, Christie having sent Ivanka's crooked father-in-law, Charles Kushner, to prison on a series of campaign fraud felonies. Almost a full year ago, we saw that

Trump, who constantly brags about how rich he is and claims he's financing his own campaign, says he's turning down "millions of dollars." Crooked New Jersey real estate developer Charles Kushner is an old friend of Trump's, and Trump's daughter Ivanka is married to Kushner's wormy son Jared, publisher of the NY Observer. Kushner was convicted of making illegal campaign contributions and of tax evasion and witness tampering, and served a year of a two-year sentence in prison. [Last August] he had a "non-fundraiser" for Trump at his palatial $6.7 million beachfront mansion in Long Branch on the Jersey Shore. He gave Trump $100,000. The invitation for the non-fundraiser read: "Seryl and Charles Kushner invite you to their home to meet DONALD TRUMP," with Trump’s name in red letters beneath a pair of American flags, just above "Make America Great Again!" Trump insists it was a just garden party.

Kushner, who has primarily given to Democratic crooks like Chuck Schumer, Joe Lieberman, Jon Corzine and Robert Mendoza, blames Chris Christie-- who was the prosecutor who sent him to prison-- for his legal woes. Maybe the only string attached to the $100,000 he gave to Trump's super-PAC was the satisfaction of seeing Christie get buried. But I doubt it; after all, Kushner is well-known for having once retaliated against his own sister by hiring a prostitute for her husband, taping it and sending her the tape. Trump was happy to get the $100,000, but has never allowed himself to be photographed with his pal Kushner.

One GOP sad sack, Mike Murphy, a failed campaign operative who's lost dozens of races for every candidate he's ever worked for, most recent the Jebster, tweeted Saturday morning "I have a vision of Chris Christie hopping around on one foot trying to shake his other foot out of a now smoking, broken TV screen..." And while the Newtster was on Face The Nation yesterday, making a play for a cabinet position in the imaginary universe where Trump becomes president, Christie was dealing with massive Schadenfreude coming at him from every direction, not the least from Trump's rotten little slimy son-in-law. The NY Times was less catty than Jared... but still devastating: Chris Christie Lost Out on the Job He Wanted. And His Bad Year Got Worse. Zate Zernike started her gruesome story by pointing out that on Thursday morning, one of Christie's closest confidants "pleaded guilty to a felony charge of abusing power at the agency that Mr. Christie tapped him to lead. By that afternoon, federal prosecutors had charged a former cabinet official in connection with the same case, which spun out of the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal that has dogged Mr. Christie for nearly three years."

And Christie's day on got worse as a storm knocked down tree and a power line in front of his house, starting a fire, and cutting off his electricity. And then, of course Christie failed to "get the job he had been publicly pining for, and on which he had pinned his hopes of political resuscitation" despite an early and ill-advised endorsement of the much loathed Trump "that dragged Mr. Christie’s poll numbers to record lows at home and alienated him from moderate Republicans he once called friends."

“He was such a lap dog and tried for it so hard, he ended up not just losing badly in the presidential stakes-- I think he just looks much weaker than he was before by his rabid pursuit of Trump,” said Ed Rollins, a longtime Republican strategist who is now advising a “super PAC” supporting Mr. Trump. “It was not a glorious couple of years here, or for the citizens of the state.”

When Mr. Trump confirmed on Friday morning that he was picking Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana as his running mate, the initial reports were that they would make their first appearance together in Bedminster, N.J., where Mr. Trump has a golf course and plans to be buried. It would be “the site of Trump’s mausoleum and the burial ground of Christie’s political aspirations,” in the words of Julie Roginsky, a Democratic strategist close to two former Christie administration officials charged in the lane-closing case, Bill Baroni and David Wildstein.

The Trump campaign later said the appearance would be in Manhattan.

But even without an announcement in his backyard, Mr. Christie has suffered embarrassment at the hands of Mr. Trump.

He set off internet ridicule on Super Tuesday when he stood behind Mr. Trump, mute and obedient. As they appeared together, Mr. Trump mocked the governor for eating too many Oreos, and for all but moving out of New Jersey as he campaigned for president in New Hampshire.

Mr. Trump appeared to relish poking fun at his effusive booster: “I hated to do it but I had to make my point,” he said, after accusing Mr. Christie of abandoning his state.

Mr. Christie’s staff had to fight back against reports from within the Trump campaign, quoted in the New Yorker, that the governor had fetched food from McDonald’s for Mr. Trump. (On Friday, the New Yorker humor columnist Andy Borowitz further mocked him with a spoof headlined: “Furious Christie Refuses to Pick Up Trump’s Dry Cleaning.”)

In the end, Mr. Trump seemed to all but ignore any loyalty from Mr. Christie, picking Mr. Pence, who had endorsed a former rival to Mr. Trump, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.

“It’s death by humiliation,” Ms. Roginsky, who is also a Fox News contributor, said. “Slow, twisting and played out in public, like a reality show elimination.”

On Friday, Mr. Christie’s office declined to offer a statement on Mr. Pence. The governor appears to be left with the prospect of campaigning even harder for Mr. Trump in hopes of getting a post in the administration, should Mr. Trump win.

But that would have to happen against the wishes of Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is said to be no fan of Mr. Christie, who, as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, sent Mr. Kushner’s father to prison. And the governor would face a tough confirmation fight should he be nominated for a post such as attorney general.

Mr. Christie will have to endure more heartburn between now and Election Day.

The trial in the bridge case is scheduled to begin in September, and defense lawyers have promised to savage him and show that he knew about the lane closings, despite his protestations and “tell it like it is” slogans. The charges announced on Thursday-- that Mr. Christie’s associates negotiated bribes with United Airlines--— will continue to play out with the sentencing in the case of David Samson, former chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, in October.

“I was going to say he could be secretary of transportation, but that probably wouldn’t be a very good thing for him,” Mr. Rollins said of Mr. Christie. “Though he has some experience there, controlling bridges and planes and that sort of thing.”

His approval in New Jersey is a dismal 26% but Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute said that "if Trump wins, Trump will find something for him. He’ll take anything, as is kind of obvious." Let's make sure that never happens... never. A Democratic Senate is unlikely to confirm Christie for anything... except a long and well-deserved prison term.