Has The Media No Sense of Irony? Or Shame?

by: huntsu

Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 08:01:26 PM EST

I just couldn't take the sanctimonious, outwardly pious, do-Gooder Corruption Fighter Chris Christie taking the endorsement of Rudy Giuliani today.  I had to comment, though it does not signal a return to form.

If you followed our pieces on Christie over the past few years it makes perfect sense.  Giuliani was a US Attorney who used his office as a political stepping stone.  Christie was a US Attorney who is hoping to use his office as a political stepping stone.

Giuliani did a lot of good as a public servant, but also misused his office for personal and political gain.  Christie  did a lot of good as a public servant, but also misused his office for personal and political gain.  

But Christie's entire mythology is based on his anti-public corruption record, his stance that a cop taking an apple without paying was unacceptable.  This is a guy who demands that the public hold elected officials accountable for their actions, and preened for the cameras and the editors each time his office took down another crooked politician.

And now he is taking the endorsement of a crooked politician?  Don't believe me?

As New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons, according to previously undisclosed government records.

The documents, obtained by Politico under New York's Freedom of Information Law, show that the mayoral costs had nothing to do with the functions of the little-known city offices that defrayed his tabs, including agencies responsible for regulating loft apartments, aiding the disabled and providing lawyers for indigent defendants.

Giuliani took public money, tax dollars, intended to help the disabled and the poor and used it to cheat on his wife.  That's supposed to be the kind of politician Christie hates so much it makes his head spin.  That's supposed to be the guy Christie puts in jail.  

But the myth is simply untrue.  Christie used his office to do good things taking down corrupt politicians, but he also used it to promote his own political career and feather the nests of his supporters.  He is at best a tarnished knight, and at worst just another weak politician out for personal gain.

Which makes the Giuliani endorsement perfectly logical: birds of a feather.

But the question remains: how could the media ignore this patently obvious contradiction?