If there's one thing that stands out about Bridgegate, it's that those who are unreservedly defending Chris Christie have been few and far between. Even those who use the opportunity to whine and wail about Benghazi aren't even trying to defend Christie. Not so with Haley Barbour. In an interview with the Newark Star-Ledger, Barbour let it be known that he is outraged at the outrage over the scandal, and suggests it's all part of a Democratic plot to smear his buddy.
Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour defended Gov. Chris Christie in a lengthy interview for “taking the bull by the horns” after a week of explosive revelations that top Christie aides knew about plans to cause a massive traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge last year.
Barbour also went on the attack, scolding Christie’s Democratic critics and the “liberal media elite” for sensationalizing the traffic jam to imperil the New Jersey governor’s political future.
The Mississippi Republican — one of Christie’s political mentors — said President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have gotten a free pass after their own political scandals in the last five years. Christie, on the other hand, is being walloped in the press unfairly because he is a Republican, he said.
Um, Haley? There's a reason Christie has gotten kicked up, down and sideways--and deservedly so. While the attacks against Obama are mostly based on unsupported smears and rumors, Bridgegate has a document trail supporting it which stretches from Trenton all the way to your home in Mississippi. Moreover, Barbour is the last person who should complain about the media attacking a governor. For those who don't remember, in his waning hours as governor of Mississippi, Barbour pardoned over 200 inmates, including several sex offenders, child rapists, and five convicted murderers. These pardons violated every standard of decency that is known; Barbour didn't even try to notify the victims' families. And as least some of them were illegal; many of them were issued without the 30-day public notice required by the state constitution. Had it not been so late in Barbour's term, he probably would have been staring down the barrel of impeachment.
Barbour also claimed that two separate federal investigations--by U. S. Attorney Paul Fishman and the FBI--are politically motivated.
“The Justice Department, while they don't investigate the IRS for trampling on the rights of conservative groups, is going to be after this like a dog with a bone because it's all about politics,” Barbour said.
“That won't hurt Chris Christie with Republicans if you have the Holder Justice Department chasing him around” — Eric Holder is the U.S. attorney general — “because that's what Republicans have come to expect with this administration. They always say it's somebody else's fault. They never investigate their own, but they always investigate the opposition.”
Ten to one Barbour didn't make a peep during the mass firings and forced resignations of U. S. Attorneys. Oh, that's right--IOKIYAR.
Incredibly, Barbour claims that Christie so far has been "smart enough not to lie." Never mind that at the very least, Christie tacitly admitted that he had no control over his own people. Gee, I thought the GOP was the party of personal responsibility.
Barbour has the right to be wrong. But does he have to be wrong now?