How Did Chris Christie Get Off The List?

by: huntsu

Fri May 18, 2007 at 12:37:42 PM EDT

The irony here is thick. We know now that Christie was almost fired by his fellow Republicans at the same time Democrats were criticizing him as a partisan hack -- during the 2006 election season.

Democrats were angry then because Christie had issued a subpoena seeking information on a real estate deal of Sen. Robert Menendez. His Republican opponent, state Sen. Tom Kean Jr., made that subpoena the centerpiece of his campaign. ...

The near-firing helps inoculate Christie against charges that he is a political servant of the White House. But his critics could just as easily argue that his friends in the White House protected him in the end.

If the fact was that Christie was placed on the list on November 1, 2006, then there might be two ways to look at it.  In fact, on a cursory look it might even be more likely that this would blunt suggestions that Christie acts in partisan ways while in a non-partisan office.

But today we find out that long before Christie dropped the subpoena on the North Hudson Community Corporation he was on the list to be fired.

Sources yesterday identified four other current or former U.S. attorneys included on a Jan. 1 list that grouped a dozen prosecutors into three tiers. They include current U.S. Attorneys Matthew Mead of Wyoming and Eric Melgren of Kansas and former prosecutors James K. Vines of Nashville and Michael G. Heavican of Nebraska. ...

The same Jan. 1 list includes U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie of New Jersey, who also appears on a Nov. 1 list, sources said.