It’s terrible for Christie, because it undermines the whole POINT of Christie, which is that he uses sharp elbows and words for the power of good. Now that his sharp elbows have been revealed as usable for evil, what’s the point of him?
The point of Romney was that he was a spectacularly successful businessman, the point of Obama was that he was an inspirational but non-threatening black guy, the point of George Bush was the he was a regular dude despite being to-the-manor-born, Bill Clinton was the super-smart young guy, etc.
It’s also terrible for Karl Rove and Reince Priebus who were using Christie as a stalking horse for Jeb Bush.