Christie Can No Longer Use Hurricane Sandy To Innoculate Himself From Criticism

When the going gets tough, Chris Christie wraps himself in Hurricane Sandy, surrounding himself with people who suffered from the storm last year and generating good publicity for himself in the news cycle.

But with today's bombshell that he allegedly had two cronies, including his Lieutenant Governor, Kim Guadagno, deliver extortion threats to Hoboken mayor Dawn Zimmer that she either conceded to his wishes on a real estate project or he would withhold a couple hundred million in Sandy relief funds from the City of Hoboken, Christie may have lost his Sandy innoculation opportunity for good:

Brigid Harrison, political science professor at Montclair University, said she was surprised Guadagno is alleged to be at the center of this controversy. People think of her as being outside the Christie circle of influence.

"Most people perceived her as enormously effective and underutilized," Harrison said. "It's very surprising she is alleged to have had an active participatory role."

The revelations are damning to Christie, Harrison said.

"They pull the rug out from under the governor in one area of policy in which he had made so many significant inroads with New Jerseyans and so many people in the country," she said.

"He can no longer use Sandy victims as his foil as he did this past week," Harrison said, referring to his visit to Ocean County to talk with storm victims. "The fact that funds for Sandy were part of this scenario is really not going to resonate well."

Christie is also under investigation by the feds for misusing Sandy funds to promote his re-election.

Both of these stories now mean that the next Christie Sandy photo op/presser will contain questions about his alleged misuse of Sandy relief funds and his having cronies try and extort a real estate project go-ahead in return for a couple of hundred million in Sandy relief money.

Want to bet Christie doesn't do a Sandy photo op for a little while?