Posted on 11/12/2010 9:35:04 AM PST by WebFocus
The Justice Department under President Obama may be unwilling to investigate the New Black Panthers, but it’s apparently intent on scrutinizing that other menace to society – New Jersey’s upstart Republican governor Chris Christie.
This month, the Justice Department’s inspector general released a report purporting to show that Christie, who has built up a reputation as a spending-slashing fiscal conservative by taking on New Jersey’s bloated public sector, routinely overcharged the government for hotel stays while in his former job as a U.S. Attorney. Christie exceeded the government’s set rate for travel expenses on 14 of 15 trips, according to the report; on nine of those trips, his “lodging costs exceeded the government rate by more than $100 per night.” These costs, which went over the government rate by between $19 and $242 a night, ultimately totaled $2,176.
The charges are not new. They initially surfaced during Christie’s election fight last fall against Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine, who seized on news reports about Christie’s hotel expenses suggest that he was out of touch with average Americans and lived by his own rules. (Never mind that with a net worth estimated at as $300 million, Corzine himself was hardly the obvious model for an everyman.) At the time, Christie parried the charges by pointing out, reasonably enough, that with just a few rooms offered at the government rate at every hotel, staying within the set government rate was not always possibility. Nevertheless, he explained that he tried to stay at a cheaper hotel whenever that was an option. Whatever view one takes of that particular controversy – and New Jersey’s voters registered their opinion clearly when they voted Christie into office – there is nothing revelatory in the Justice Department’s audit.
Why then is the Justice Department suddenly so concerned with the dated travel expenses of New Jersey’s governor? It can hardly reflect a broader instinct for austerity on the part of the Obama administration. This after all is a president who has presided over a massive spending spree in his first two years in office, spiking the national debt by more than $3 trillion. What’s $2,000 in travel costs, assuming they really are unjustified, next to the government’s two-year spending binge?
But to ask the question is to miss the point. On President Obama’s watch, the priorities of the Justice Department seem to be dictated more by politics than merit. Thus, in 2009 the department famously dropped a clear-cut case of voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party. Yet the department is bent on pursuing a long-settled, and far more trivial matter, against a popular Republican governor.
And not just a Republican, but a fiscal conservative. In his inaugural year in office, Christie has become a paladin for New Jersey’s overtaxed voters. He has vetoed tax increases, cut spending, taken on the powerful public sector unions, and made it clear that the country’s third most indebted state no longer can afford the combination of massive borrowing and spending that has brought it to its current mess. Just last month, Christie scrapped a long-stalled rail tunnel project that would have saddled state residents with billions in cost overruns — a project, it should be noted, that the Obama administration had championed. In so doing, he has not only remained popular in the state but he has become a national figure, sought out Republicans and the media. Despite his repeated denials of interest, his name is now routinely mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2012.
Of course, Christie has retained his critics, both in the state legislature and now, it appears, in the Obama Justice Department. After all, what better way to embarrass a rising star in the Republican ranks and to undercut his credentials as a cost-cutting friend of the taxpayer than by releasing a report that portrays him as a spendthrift on the taxpayer’s dime?
It’s hard to imagine that the Justice Department really could be that petty and politicized. But as Quinn Hillier documents in The American Spectator this month, the audit attack on Christie is symptomatic of the wider political corruption of a department that repeatedly has abused its authority to target anyone who stands in the way of President Obama’s political agenda.
Considering the staleness of the evidence in its latest report, there is certainly a basis for the suspicion that Christ Christie is just the newest name on the department’s enemies list. If that is indeed the case, it’s unlikely to be New Jersey’s combative governor who emerges looking the worse from this fight.
Jacob Laksin is managing editor of Frontpage Magazine. He is co-author, with David Horowitz, of One-Party Classroom: How Radical Professors at America's Top Colleges Indoctrinate Students and Undermine Our Democracy. His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Weekly Standard, City Journal, Policy Review, as well as other publications.
In case anyone was wondering who Obama doesn’t want on the GOP ticket in 2012, this should help clear up any doubts. Give me a Pawlenty/Christie ticket - that’s 2 blue states we’ll carry and Obama doesn’t have a prayer.
Given Obama’s opulent travel habits, this takes alot of nerve.
Christie is the Anti-OweBama.
The Regime has their boot on the neck of another American who dares to not bow to friends of the Regime. Meanwhile, Jihadis are off limits...
Well Obama should have gotten a clue from the results of last week’s mid-terms what will happen to him in 2012.
Pawlenty is a great guy, but has only 1/10 of the star power of Palin. So lets all stop with the non-starters?
PALIN/BACHMAN 2012 UN-BEATABLE TICKET!!!!!
And Darrell Issa is coming for Holder and Obama!
Be careful what you wish for in Chris Christie as either POTUS or VP...
The man might be great for a blue state like NJ, but as POTUS ? I highly doubt his conservative credentials when it comes to issues like illegal immigration and Gun control.
I love Sarah but I’m ready for the slam dunk. Last thing I want to do is be pacing around the tv on election night. Pawlenty will give you everything you want and will be tougher for the media to slime.
It’s the Chicago way. Keep in mind that Holder (Obama) really doesn’t acre about the lousy $2200. He probably doesn’t care all that much about Christie in particular. The main point is that he’s sending a message to any and all who mind dare to oppose The Chosen One: we’ll dig up whatever dirt we can find on you, no matter how trivial, and throw it right back in your face.
A governor is a different matter as they are ultimately p*ssing in their own water supply.
Even the People's Republic of Massachusetts or Rhode Island will occasionally elect a Republican governor if the concentration of urine is bad enough, but neither have voted for a Republican presidential candidate since the Reagan landslide of 1984.
There are a lot of things you can fix. But you can't fix stupid when stupid doesn't want to be fixed.
I agree he is all you said, but Pawlenty has no chance of winning
PALIN/ BACHMAN 2012 - UNBEATABLE ticket
(no pacing all night)
Nary a peep out of him when the dems stole the election.
That was disgraceful
I think the LAST thing obama and his b!tches want is to take on Christie...
I see your point, but understand this: Harry Reid is despised and pulled it out because a) he’s a slimeball and b) we nominated the person who gave him the best shot at winning. Obama definitely fits the former and is hoping for the latter. Losing a senate seat is one thing, losing the presidency is quite another.
Wherever Christie sits on gun control, he can’t be any worse than Obama. He won’t be signing any gun legislation, and any judicial appointments he’s involved in will be better than Kagan or Sotomayor.
I agree Immigration might be a real problem, which is kind of why I want him as the veep. If we can get a fence put up, that’s 75% of the problem right there.
We’d all love to have Jim DeMint in the oval office, but it’s a lot harder to get him in there. Christie is a budget hawk in the extreme that will appeal to many people and make this election all but a foregone conclusion. I guess it depends on how risk-averse you are. Sue Lowden in NV doesn’t seem so bad right about now.
No way are the voters ready to vote for a ticket with two women on it.
Palin/Male-100%-Tea-Party-Conservative is the winning ticket
But how ridiculous - Christie ran up rooms charge over $2,000 in how many years?
Obama takes mama on a date to NYC etc - and uses Airforce One - and how many secret service and eats Kobe beef and lobster - out of our pocket. Not to mention pulling this squawk about $2,000 when he's just coming off a $200 million a day trip. These people are so transparent it defies logic. Just another example of them thinking we, the public, are too stupid to see through them... BTW, how's that Rangle thingy coming? Or the Waters case, or or or
Political hacks take on Governor Christie at their own peril. Give it your best shot, Holder...expect return fire...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.