Q: Will the resignation of first assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Brown put to rest the unreported loan Chris Christie made to her, or does her resignation raise more questions?
BYRNE: I think it raises more questions. The Brown situation has been trivialized by Christie. Now this lady resigns you can't trivialize it anymore.
KEAN: It's sad. This is a public servant whose work has been praised by everybody from people serving now in the Corzine administration to people outside government. The fact that she felt she had to resign is sad. I think the governor - or maybe his campaign people - should be ashamed. The only people who are happy today are the crooks she helped put in jail. This was a case of taking politics one step too far.
BYRNE: Tom, you're good at this. You take an issue that Christie created and make it the Democrats' fault. That's a successful formula, and you're good at it.
KEAN: This is not a successful formula for anything. We need a good governor and good people in the prosecutor's office. That Michele Brown was hounded out of office by unscrupulous campaign operatives because she sought a loan to save her home when her husband was out of a job is outrageous. Nobody has criticized her or her work except those convicted of major crimes.
BYRNE: There you go again, Tom, taking something Christie did and blaming the Democrats.
KEAN: Having compassion for a friend and co-worker and helping them save their home is something he should have done - and we would have done it also.
BYRNE: Yes, and reported it.
KEAN: I don't think everyone knows you're supposed to report interest on a loan to a friend. When he found that out he corrected it.
BYRNE: Are you just the honorary chairman of his campaign? You're doing a good job.
Byrne is exactly right. Christie created this issue by not reporting the loan and filing it in the first place. The issue wasn't uncovered by the Democrats, it was first reported by NJN. Then the NY Times followed up with news that it wasn't filed on ethics reports and the Star Ledger reported the lack of filing for tax purposes. And for those who want to say the media is biased, the facts laid out in these stories haven't been disputed. Instead, Christie and his supporters are trying to deflect attention from this latest self inflicted wound. For Christie, the buck always stops with someone else because it's one set of rules for him, another set for the rest of us.
