Maybe anything is better than “Bridgegate” scrutiny for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. But a close second might be sharing a spotlight, let alone a bus ride and Panhandle barbecue lunch, with Rick Scott.
Political necessity is rarely pretty.
Christie, the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, was in Florida over the weekend to lend Scott some campaign heft and inject some hustings personality. Florida, of course, weighs heavily on the Republicans’ 2016 presidential strategy, and the GOP wants the country’s uber battleground state to stay in Republican clutches.
And, Christie, of course, still has designs on a presidential bid, so Florida is important personally. Sorties to the Sunshine State are political two-fers for him. In fact, he might have been trial-running some approaches as a moderate governor from a blue state in Florida’s conservative Panhandle.
If so, he didn’t help himself with moderates.
While it seems typical partisan politics to blame Charlie Crist for all that went wrong economically in Florida as a result of America’s Great Recession, Christie ginned it up even more.
“He left the cleanup job to a real man,” snarked Christie.
That was no moderate applause line, to be sure. That was a below-the-belt cheap shot more appropriate to a sleazy whispering campaign.
While the Scott strategists won’t touch a wink-nod, Crist “manhood” slam–because it counterproductively reflects poorly on the slammers–it could abide an outsider doing it. Shame on Christie for complying with the code.
Florida is a battleground state for good reason. Most of it doesn’t play like a Bay County Sonny’s BBQ.