The Ruins of Trenton

Republican operatives made numerous statements over the past two days trying to clear up what originally looked like a minor insult to party heavyweight and possible gubernatorial candidate, U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.

After calling for the creation of some sort of grassroots fundraising organization to possibly lure former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, Dan Gallic said to PolitickerNJ.com that the point was to get better candidates, different from the last few that have failed to regain Drumthwacket.

But today, according to PolickerNJ.com, Mr. Gallic backtracked to include Mr. Christie and John Crowley, a techno-millionaire.

It is all very nice for Mr. Gallic to have gone back and clarified his statements today to include Mr. Christie - who probably does represent a pretty good pick for governor, for my money.

But unfortunately for all those GOPers, the ability of New Jersey voters to keep supporting a corrupt Democratic Party that continually fails to address this state's worst problems probably means that Mr. Christie's exploits in prosecuting corrupt officials won't carry quite as much weight as some would think.

The electorate in the Garden State has continued to poll Democratic, despite the endless line of corruption scandals, and the corresponding growth in the list of convictions that Mr. Christie has secured during his prosecutions of public officials.

Mr. Christie ought to consider being prepared with an actual plan to fix state government and its multitude of problems, address property taxes, and strengthen the ethics of public officials, rather than simply running on his work as U.S. Attorney.

Those are some of the things that Gov. Jon S. Corzine and the dems have continually failed at, despite having what I believe to be a better platform and a better overall view on how things should work in this crazy existence we all live.

If he can effectively communicate a plan to do all those good things, Mr. Christie might just get enough New Jersey voters fed up with having the hands of corrupt public officials in their pockets and in the piggy bank to actually win the damn thing.