Glass houses and New Jersey traffic

It’s a deliciously ironic moment when the part-time governor of New Jersey – who always appeared to be just one step ahead of the law – lobs prosecutorial rocks at the Democratic nominee for president at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.

Glass houses indeed.

“The facts, just the facts, lead you to the same verdict,” bellowed Chris Christie as he attempted to blame Hillary Clinton for the failings of the Arab Spring, a domino effect consequence of George W. Bush's misguided attack on Iraq.

Hillary Clinton certainly has made some misguided decisions – her vote in favor of the Iraq war is probably the most consequential, followed by her hawkish folly in Libya and the subsequent tragedy in Benghazi.

But let's discuss some facts about the governor of New Jersey. He has fallen out of favor with his constituents, with a recent poll finding that 62 percent of Garden State residents disapprove of his job performance. Maybe it's because they never see him; since the beginning of 2013, Christie has spent all or part of 520 days out of state.

And here is another fact that should make Christie wipe that smug look off his face: three of his inner circle have been indicted or found guilty of moving violations – and we're not talking speeding tickets here.

Just last week, Christie's close associate David Samson pleaded guilty to an abuse of power by using his public power to muscle an airline into scheduling a private plane route to his vacation retreat in South Carolina.

Two other Christie insiders are taking the fall for “Bridgegate,” one of the stupidest cases of political retribution in the annals of dirty politics. Many Jersey law enforcement people want to know what the governor knew and when he knew it.

In fact, they subpoenaed Christie's cell phone for texts that might be incriminating, and wouldn't you know it, the phone went missing – until it was found last week in his lawyer's office.

But, in a case of judicial stonewalling, a Jersey judge denied a motion to search the phone, saying it was overreach and an invasion of the governor's privacy.

Really?

Perhaps we should stop picking on the Jersey Guv – he is coming off of a terrible, horrible, no good week when he found that fetching Donald Trump's lunch orders was not enough to nab him the coveted vice president spot on the ticket. Could it have been his prosecutorial overreach a decade ago against Trump's now in-law, Charles Kushner, which sunk his VP aspirations? Let's just say that we'd love to be a fly on the wall when Christie and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are left alone in The Donald’s war room.

Christie should now get back to work in New Jersey and clean up some of the messes in his backyard.

And there is more legal work to do, too. He may have made the prosecutor's case against Clinton on the second night of the GOP convention, but now it's probably time for him to start focusing on his defense.

The traffic up ahead may be the beginning of a real Jersey pileup.

Tom Allon is the president of City & State.