Christie Scandal Will Give America Its Next President Bush

As Bridgegate continues to haunt Christie, Jeb Bush gains in the GOP.

Following his “I’m innocent, baby!” interview with Diane Sawyer, Chris Christie went to Vegas over the weekend to start running for president again. How’d that work out? 

“I sense a boomlet about Jeb Bush is all about Chris Christie,” said Harvard University’s David Gergen Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “People thought they were going to ride the Chris Christie horse and…they now think that horse may be lame and they’re looking for somebody else.”

Republican Jewish Coalition meeting in Las Vegas this weekend provided a vivid demonstration of their diverging fortunes. The event could have been Christie’s opportunity to reclaim the mantle of the establishment. Instead, Christie’s appearance was marred by the governor’s description of the West Bank and Gaza as “occupied territories” — a term shunned by the pro-Israel donors and activists in the audience.

But as Christie stumbled, Bush soared. The former governor was feted at a private dinner on Thursday to kick off the weekend. The dinner was held at Adelson’s private airplane hangar.

“He’s the most desired candidate out there,” Brian Ballard, a prominent bundler for both John McCain and Mitt Romney, told the Post. “Everybody that I know is excited about it.”

So when we’re all faced with a Bush versus Clinton ballot in 2016, again, remember: You can thank Christie’s staff for deciding to make trouble for a small-town mayor who’d committed the crime of not endorsing their candidate. Sometimes, its best to let things go.