The McBride nomination was the surprise they all knew about

by: Jason Springer

Mon Dec 21, 2009 at 10:15:00 AM EST

So, let's go back. On November 12, Christie and Corzine met face to face for the first time since the election. They were joined by the ArchBishop of Newark, because the meeting took place after the blue mass. There, they discussed transition and according to Corzine some appointments the Governor was hoping to make in the coming weeks before leaving office.

Was there an actual agreement? hard to say. But if there was at least a gentlemen's agreement, at some point it deteriorated. Perhaps it was the sheer number of nominations and appointments Corzine asked for: 180.  The Christie people feel that this is an attempt to jam through unpopular appointments at the 11th hour. Or perhaps it was the nomination of Chief of Staff Ed McBride to a judgeship. Here is where this gets tricky. The Corzine camp says it was made clear as early that Newark meeting that McBride was one of the appointments he'd like to make. They think for Christie's people to object now is disingenuous.

The same situation happened with Senator Phil Haines, who for months was speculated to get a nomination for judgeship.  Then he gets the nomination he's been seeking and rumored to have and he turns it down. He didn't turn it down because he doesn't want it, in fact he really does. He just will wait until Christie nominates him again. In fact, Haines pending nomination became an issue in the local Medford Council race last cycle, where his rumored successor Chris Myers was called on to withdraw from the race and answer questions on the matter.

Along with those situations, you have Tom Kean Jr. crying about a nomination to the BPU when he himself stood in the way of the potential nomination of Linda Stender long before it came to this.

Whether or not the Governor should have made appointments before lame duck is a separate issue from whether the Republicans are just trying to score political points and run out the clock before he can make the appointments and nominations. And even though two wrongs don't make a right, the 257 lame duck nominations the GOP approved when Don DiFrancesco left office in 2001 shows that they know how the game has been played and only have born again opposition to it because of how Corzine is now leading the way. To act like they didn't know is beyond disingenuous.  This is the surprise they all knew about in advance. Doesn't that mean it's not really a surprise at all?