By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Anyone who things the Christie-Kean rift is scabbed over and healing up didn’t catch today’s Washington Post, Save Jerseyans.
It’s old news that the nationally-influential former Governor Tom Kean, Sr. disowned his former mentee after Chris Christie blessed a failed coup d’état aimed at removing Tom Kean Jr. from his Senate GOP leader post in late 2013.
Since that time, however, a once close-lipped Kean Sr. has stepped up his critical rhetoric and made the first moves in what appears to be a likely endorsement of Christie arch-2016 rival Jeb Bush.
His comments in today’s Post are nevertheless particularly brutal and certain to raise eyebrows in Trenton and other centers of political power around the Garden State:
Could New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie begin his bid this summer on a Jersey Shore boardwalk rebuilt after Hurricane Sandy? “He probably wouldn’t want to do it in Atlantic City, since it’s falling apart,” said former New Jersey governor Thomas H. Kean. He said the colorful, pugnacious Christie should consider a late-night comedy show.
Ouch, on two levels. The comedy show line is intensely personal and doesn’t require additional analysis; to add insult to injury, as Governor Kean hints without saying it, the never-ending atmosphere of crisis in Atlantic City and a recent Iowa visit punctuated by furious Sandy victims-turned-hecklers are only the latest examples of former Christie strengths – his Sandy response and general state stewardship/record – turning into potentially grave liabilities.
Kind of like his once-close relationship with New Jersey’s most popular former governor.
