The king of Jordan paid a $30,000 hotel bill that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and his family racked up in 2012 during a junket to Israel, according to a New York Times report on the governor’s extravagant travel habits published Tuesday.
Christie’s wife, three of his children, mother-in-law, father and stepmother were on the trip along with four members of his staff, a former law partner and a New Jersey trooper, the Times reported.
From the Times:
King Abdullah of Jordan picked up the tab for a Christie family weekend at the end of the trip. The governor and two staff members who accompanied him came back to New Jersey bubbling that they had celebrated with Bono, the lead singer of U2, at three parties, two at the king’s residence, the other a Champagne reception in the desert. But a small knot of aides fretted: The rooms in luxurious Kempinski hotels had cost about $30,000; what would happen if that became public?
The newspaper also noted that Christie’s domestic travels have prompted an ethics inquiry from the state of New Jersey.
The owner of the Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones, flew Christie to several football games on his private jet after the governor recommended Jones’ company for a contract with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, according to the Times.
I saw this story this a.m. at NYT and couldn’t wait until it landed here. Full of gems like this below.
The governor, a Republican now preparing a run for president, shot to national prominence as a cheese-steak-on-the-boardwalk Everyman who bluntly preached transparency and austerity as the antidote to bloated state budgets. But throughout his career in public service, Mr. Christie has indulged a taste that runs more toward Champagne at the Four Seasons.
He has also quietly let others pay the bills.
That tendency — the governor himself says he wants to “squeeze all the juice out of the orange” —
Relax, costs could have risen to $120K if the Governor had ordered that take-out pizza delivered to his rooms from King of Pizza in Cherry Hill, NJ.
This has to be a full blown ethics violation in any state in the union.
Clearly, the Governor is a man of such outstanding and self-evident probity that there is never a question of favoritism or quid pro quo. And since he is obviously above reproach, there is nothing wrong with him accepting the occasional “thank you” from a grateful world. NEXT!
Chris Christie for Freeloader-in-Chief! He’ll balance the federal budget by getting other countries to pay our bills.