A funeral for New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg hasn’t been scheduled yet and the political pundits are already in full fury, speculating wildly about how Gov. Chris Christie will handle the Senate vacancy, which he will fill temporarily by appointment.
Christie, whose standing with conservative Republicans is shaky, will be pressured by some in New Jersey to appoint a Democrat to fill a seat that’s been held by a Democrat for a long time. But the centrist governor, who’s already widely mentioned as a possible 2016 presidential contender, must appoint a Republican, preferably a conservative, if he doesn’t want to damage his prospects in the presidential primaries.
At least that’s the conventional thinking. The appointee will run for election in November, when New Jersey holds statewide elections, so everything will happen quickly.
With some of the highest approval ratings in the nation, Christie is cruising toward such a comfortable re-election win in the fall that anything less than a landslide would be disappointing. An unpopular Senate appointee on the same ballot could drag down his numbers.
The governor could appoint a “caretaker” senator – former governor Tom Keane would be ideal – but he has made it clear that that is not his plan.
So, amid this political chess game commentators are already rambling on about all the implications and strategy and ins and outs.
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” this a.m., co-host Joe Scarborough, a former GOP congressman, said some in the Republican Party are criticizing Christie because he has garnered a lot of Democratic support and has collected a lot of campaign donations from Democrats.
Scarborough advised that Christie is accomplishing what the entire Republican Party should be striving for:
“Isn’t that the whole idea? You steal votes from the enemy, you grab money from the enemy.”
One guest on the show, former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, a rather moderate Democrat and normally a level-headed guy, said this about the political calculations: “You also have to appoint someone who is qualified. That’s almost as important. Almost.”
And there, in one encapsulated moment, you see what’s wrong with American politics.
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