By any objective measure, 2024 is off to a pretty good start for Nikki Haley. The former South Carolina governor and onetime Trump administration cabinet member has been steadily gaining ground in Republican primary polls, and is — for now — enjoying that ineffable narrative of political "momentum" which fuels a positive feedback loop for more quantifiable data such as polling numbers and fundraising stats; the better Haley seems to do, the better she will ostensibly do when voters head to their caucus sites and polling locations, starting next week. 

But as Haley's momentum — both narratively and on the ground — intensifies, so does the level of scrutiny applied to her and her campaign. With her potential viability against former President Donald Trump, the party's decisive primary frontrunner for the time being, coming into clearer focus, she has increasingly become a target for the rest of a GOP pack who are eager to fend her off from above, or overtake her from below. Now, in the shadow of the looming Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, Haley's rising star faces a political crucible unlike anything she's experienced in the race thus far. Does she have what it takes to survive the onslaught of opposition that comes with pulling ahead in the polls? And if so, can Nikki Haley really go all the way to the White House?    

What the commentators said

After teasing that he had something "very important to say" earlier this week, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul launched a blistering blindside into Haley's campaign on Friday, claiming on X that he didn't see how "any thoughtful or informed libertarian or conservative should vote for" Haley while directing followers to the alliterative NeverNikki.net. 

Paul's seemingly out-of-the-blue attack on Haley follows her rise in New Hampshire, and other early primary states — a dynamic that "helped motivate him to get involved" according to Politico, which called his forceful denunciation a "change of tactics for him to get involved at all."

Trump, too, has taken note of Haley's ascendency, making "a notable turn" from attacking his previously reliable adversary Ron DeSantis toward her in a sign that he's "clearly afraid that a real alternative is gaining on him," The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board wrote this week. In particular, Trump has attacked Haley over her stance on Social Security, even as he'd "previously used the issue to attack Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis," CNN reported. Now he's using the subject to "blunt Haley’s momentum in the final days before voting begins." He has also "reached back into his brand of nativism" by amplifying false allegations that Haley is eligible to run for president in an echo of his previously debunked "birther" conspiracy against former President Barack Obama, according to The New York Times. He had also leveled a similar bogus allegation against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) who was his "closest rival" during the 2016 presidential primaries. 

Some of Trump's most notably vocal allies have followed suit — and beyond. On Thursday, former Republican congressional candidate Laura Loomer accused Haley of conspiring to manipulate a cold weather front in the Midwest to damage Trump in the Iowa caucuses. 

Perhaps most brutal, however, was an apparent hot-mic moment from former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who opined that Haley was "going to get smoked" and "not up to this" just moments before he ended his own candidacy for the GOP nomination in a move widely seen as being particularly to Haley's advantage. 

What next?

Despite the uptick in attacks against her, and the proximity to Iowa and New Hampshire, Haley may have lost "her nerve" and "wasn’t really going to go after Trump" during this week's GOP debates, leaving her — and the state of the race — "pretty much the same," according to The New Yorker's Benjamin Wallace-Wells. At the same time, her rising polls contain signs of trouble ahead, analysis from ABC News concluded, pointing to her poor standing with evangelicals in particular as a potential pitfall, given they're "overrepresented among Iowa caucusgoers."

Ultimately, Politico reported, coming in third behind DeSantis in Iowa would "blunt her momentum both in New Hampshire" and her home state of South Carolina, where Trump "remains nearly 30 points ahead."

"The GOP is plunging into open warfare over President-elect Joe Biden's election victory" and President Trump's "increasing embrace of conspiracy theorists as the defeated president and his most ardent allies continue to plot efforts to subvert the outcome of the Nov. 3 election," The Washington Post reports. "Advisers and allies who have called Trump to check in or wish him a merry Christmas have been encouraged to go on TV and fight for him amid complaints that others are not doing so."

Two Trump allies, veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), did go on Fox News on Tuesday, but not to back Trump's election fraud conspiracies or the most prominent figures enabling him, fringy lawyer Sidney Powell and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Trump is "intrigued" by Powell's conspiracies, one person told the Post, but others around him are telling him "it's crazy and she has no idea what she's talking about."

Flynn's suggestion to send the military to force a handful of states to redo their elections is "an idiotic idea," Rove told Fox's John Roberts. "There's no ability for any president to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1803, claiming that the issue has got to do with the hubbub around the election." Flynn is "at the bottom of the list" of people who should be advising Trump about politics, he added, and as for Powell, "what she has done to sort of throw mud on the president through her antics is unbelievable," Rove added. "The president has been so ill-served by this crowd, and she's chief among them."

Christie agreed about Flynn and told Fox News' Martha MacCallum that the push by Powell and her allies to try to overturn Biden's win "is a very, very dangerous thing." Peter Weber

Chris Christie isn't happy with President Trump's premature claim of victory in the 2020 election.

The former New Jersey governor on Wednesday criticized Trump after he prematurely claimed victory in the presidential race while baselessly alleging a "major fraud on our nation" as votes in key states continued to be counted and no candidate had collected 270 electoral votes.

"There's just no basis to make that argument tonight," Christie told ABC News. "There just isn't. All these votes have to be counted that are in now."

Christie went on to say that "I disagree with what" Trump did, adding that the president must "let the process play itself out" before claiming it to be "flawed" as he did in his speech.

"I think by prematurely doing this, if there is a flaw in it later, he has undercut his own credibility in calling attention to that flaw," Christie said. "So I think it's a bad strategic decision, it's a bad political decision, and it's not the kind of decision you would expect someone to make tonight who holds the position he holds."

Christie, who recently helped Trump with 2020 debate prep, was among the Republicans calling out Trump's premature victory speech. Former Republican Senator Rick Santorum said he was "distressed" by Trump's remarks, while former National Security Adviser John Bolton said the comments were a "disgrace" and "some of the most irresponsible comments that a president of the United States has ever made." Brendan Morrow

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) helped President Trump prepare for Tuesday night's debate against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, and while he was quick to pan Biden's performance, Christie didn't have a lot of praise for Trump either.

Trump spent much of the debate interrupting and talking over both Biden and moderator Chris Wallace, and when ABC News' George Stephanopoulos asked Christie if this was the debate they prepared for, Christie responded, "No." He called Biden "very shaky" and said he wasn't "reassuring," but Trump was "too hot. You come in and decide you want to be aggressive and I think it was the right thing to be aggressive, but that was too hot. I think that what happens is with all that heat, you lose the light."

On CNN, Rick Santorum, the former Republican senator from Pennsylvania, was asked by Anderson Cooper if he was "proud of the president tonight." Looking slightly terrified, Santorum said, "I thought the president was going to come out hot, and as I predicted, he came out hot." Santorum laughed a little after he said this, and Cooper responded, "It's not even funny. Are you actually proud of the president of the United States?" Santorum replied, "I think the president overplayed his hand tonight."

Meanwhile, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who is contractually obligated to praise Trump, tweeted that he "made a confident, commanding, and compelling case for his re-election," adding that the choice between Trump's "47 months of delivering real results versus Biden's 47 years as a failed, career politician has never been clearer."

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was Stephen Colbert's guest on Tuesday's Late Show, and at his request, they began the interview with tequila shots. "Where do you think the wheels came off during the shutdown?" Colbert asked. "The president blew it," Christie replied. "When?" Colbert asked, and Christie answered: "When he shut the government down with no plan on how to reopen it." Christie said he warned Trump beforehand that "if you're going to do this, you'd better have an exit plan." That obviously didn't happen, "and he got goose egg," Colbert said. "Yes, in politics, we call that getting rolled," Christie said.

Christie said it hurts him "personally" when Trump undermines democracy by attacking the Justice Department and the FBI. So after two years, "do you regret at all helping this man get elected?" Colbert asked. Christie grabbed the bottle of tequila. He said in 2016 he preferred Trump to Hillary Clinton, "and I still agree with what his policies are more than I agree with Hillary Clinton's," but it's true Trump "has turned the Republican Party into something different that it was when I started to run for president." "Yeah, the Kremlin," Colbert joked.

Colbert asked what Christie gets out of his 17-year friendship with the infamously transactional Trump. "He demands loyalty, he doesn't seem that loyal himself," Colbert said. "He'll toss anybody under the bus." "You think I don't know?" Christie asked, laughing. "I'm the guy who got fired from the transition." That stung, but "we have one president at a time, and if I can do anything to make him better, if I can do anything that helps the country, that's my job to do," he said. "Believe me, my wife ain't happy about it either."

"Would you have been a better president than Trump?" Colbert asked. "Yes," Christie said, no hesitation. They ended with a spirited discussion of who exactly likes Christie anymore. Watch below. Peter Weber

Donald Trump has announced his first two female cabinet appointments: South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who will be US ambassador to the United Nations, and billionaire philanthropist Betsy DeVos, who will be education secretary.

Both women are former critics of Trump - Haley once said she was "not a fan" and DeVos referred to him as an "interloper".

The choice of Haley as UN ambassador has been met with a sense of relief in some circles, according to BBC UN correspondent Nick Bryant.

Senior diplomats had "expected president-elect Trump to downgrade the job of UN ambassador so that it was no longer a cabinet-level position", he says. The choice of a "political heavyweight" for the role is seen as an "early indication than the incoming administration will take the UN more seriously".

However, Trump's decision to appoint DeVos as education secretary is "already drawing fire from both sides of the political spectrum", says CNN.

The National Education Association, the largest teachers' union in the US, "slammed DeVos within an hour of the announcement for her advocacy of charter schools", which operate with freedom from a number of regulations imposed upon district schools. Conservatives pointed out that she was a supporter of a package of education standards known as Common Core, which Trump opposed.

Trump still has several key cabinet positions to fill and is expected to announce tomorrow former presidential hopeful Ben Carson as secretary of housing and urban development and General James N Mattis as defence secretary.

According to the New York Times, the president-elect's transition team remains divided on who to pick for secretary of state. Rudi Giuliani and Mitt Romney are believed to be the two candidates.

Trump makes first White House appointments - who's next?

14 November

US president-elect Donald Trump has named two key lieutenants as he prepares to take office, installing Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee chairman, as his chief of staff and Stephen Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News, as his chief strategist.

Trump described the two men as "highly qualified leaders who worked well together on our campaign and led us to a historic victory".

The announcement suggests the businessman is hedging his bets, trying to mend his relationship with the Republican Party leadership while retaining the loyalty of the voters who elected him.

Priebus is "a reassuring presence to establishment Republicans", says CNN, and his appointment signals that "Trump may look to build bridges in Washington and keep continuity with longtime Republican agendas, as opposed to make waves from the beginning".

However, Bannon's appointment has "drawn a sharp rebuke from political strategists", says the Washington Post. They see him as "a controversial figure too closely associated with the 'alt-right' movement, which white nationalists have embraced".

Having establishment operative Priebus and anti-establishment Bannon working together will create some "interesting tension", says BBC Washington correspondent Anthony Zurcher. "If correctly harnessed, the energy could provide drive to the nascent Trump administration. If things go wrong, it could tear the place apart," he says.

So who else in the running for the top jobs in the Trump administration?

Newt Gingrich

A long-time advocate of Trump, Newt Gingrich is reportedly in line to be the next secretary of state. The 73-year-old political consultant has a long history in the Republican Party, including masterminding the surprise 1994 election victory that wrested control of the House of Representatives from the Democrats.

But he has also been at the centre of a number of controversies, including becoming the first House speaker to be reprimanded for ethical wrongdoing in the 1990s.

"More than anyone else in the modern history of Congress, it's Gingrich who observers credit for bringing the hyperpartisan, obstructionist approach to Washington that we associate with the capital to this day," says Politico.

One former Gingrich staffer told the website: "Donald Trump is making Newt look like a fairly conventional politician. Nobody would have said that back in the day."

Rudy Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, appears to be the frontrunner for the post of the US's top prosecutor, attorney general.

During 9/11, Giuliani became the face of the city's resilience and gained numerous plaudits from across the political spectrum. He was not always well received, though, and was criticised for introducing the controversial "stop and frisk" policy, which opponents claimed was a form of racial profiling.

However, his tenure in New York has been repeatedly praised by Trump on the campaign trail, with the former mayor "making a series of ill-advised remarks but impressing the incoming president with his loyalty", says the Daily Telegraph.

As for what he would do in the role, it appears Trump's election rival Hillary Clinton may not be "locked up", as the president-elect previously claimed.

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin is perhaps the most surprising name on the list, but the 2008 Republican vice-president nominee is believed to be in the running for interior secretary.

She has made a number of gaffes in her time, but "when it comes to women to include in his cabinet Trump is coming up relatively empty", says Bustle.

The role of interior secretary is mainly to oversee the Bureau of Land Management, which fits in with the former Alaska governor's political passions. Last year, Palin told CNN she would be "delighted" to serve in a Trump administration and that "her thing" was "those things that God has dumped on this part of the Earth for mankind's use instead of us relying on unkind foreign nations for us to import their resources".

Trump for his part seems keen. He has said there would "certainly" be a role in his cabinet for Palin.

Jeb Bush has announced he is "actively exploring the possibility of running for president of the United States" in 2016, a dramatic entry into the field of Republican hopefuls from a man whose father and brother were both president.

Bush has been dubbed 'the smart brother' and is said to be more level-headed than his sibling George W. He was governor of Florida in 2000 when his brother defeated Al Gore in an election that hinged on recounted votes in that state.

While the wording of the 61-year-old's Facebook and Twitter announcement might seem non-committal to outsiders, the US media reaction suggests there is a strong chance Bush will be his party's next candidate for the White House.

His entry to the race changes everything, says the Washington Post. It "scrambles the large Republican field, thrusting him to the front of the pack and locking up a huge swath of longtime party fundraisers being wooed by other candidates".

Those candidates whose financial backers are now set to desert them for Bush, according to the Post, include New Jersey governor Chris Christie, Texas governor Rick Perry and Florida senator Marco Rubio.

Bush's candidacy also makes it less likely that 2012 nominee Mitt Romney will stand again, says the Post. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll yesterday, Bush took a narrow lead over the rest of the field, if Romney was not included.

The news raises the interesting possibility of a clash between political dynasties in the 2016 race: Hillary Clinton is widely expected to stand for the Democrat nomination. Her husband, Bill Clinton, unseated Jeb's father 22 years ago.

MSNBC says the two families have become close over the decades. George W considers Bill Clinton to be his "brother from another mother", says the broadcaster, while Bill Clinton looks on the elder George Bush as a father figure.

But there are "plenty of people in both parties unhappy with another Clinton-Bush face-off", says MSNBC. It adds: "Liberals and conservatives alike might view the matchup as lacking real contest."

Bush may have one big advantage for his party as a candidate: it is thought he can attract the Latino vote. This section of the electorate is seen as crucial for the Republican party, which can no longer rely on the old, white, male vote to see it over the finish line.

Despite speaking perfect Spanish and having a Mexican wife, Bush has been oversold as a draw for the Latino vote, says Gustavo Arellano, editor of OC Weekly. Writing for The Guardian, Arellano says Latinos are not as conservative as they used to be.

Latinos are "as tired of political dynasties as they are of gringos", says Arellano. A better idea might be for Jeb to "sit this one out" and encourage his half-Mexican son, George P Bush, to run in 2024, he suggests.

Also for The Guardian, Suzanne Goldenberg says Jeb Bush may be smarter than George W, but he is an "out-and-out flat-earther" on the subject of climate change - a lot more radical than his brother. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has said she will defend the progress Barack Obama has made on the issue.

THERE is increasing speculation in Washington DC that the 2016 presidential election to find Barack Obama's successor could be run between two of America's greatest/most infamous (take your pick) modern political families – the Clintons and the Bushes.

Hillary Clinton, wife of Bill, has been the likely Democrat contender for ages, although she still has to confirm whether she'll run. Now the Washington Post is reporting that, with their leading centre-right candidate Chris Christie going down in flames because of various scandals unearthed in New Jersey, "influential Republicans" are working to persuade Jeb Bush to stand.

"[Jeb] Bush has travelled the country delivering policy speeches, campaigning for Republicans ahead of the fall midterm elections, honing messages on income inequality and foreign policy, and cultivating ties with wealthy benefactors — all signals that he is considering a run," says the Post.

His father, George H W Bush, was the 41st president, and his younger brother George W Bush the 43rd. Might this be Jeb's turn?

The idea may appeal to some wealthy Republicans, but it is not going down well with political commentators on either side of the Atlantic.

The Spectator's Alex Massie says a Bush-Clinton race would be perfect for cable news - a soap opera "to make you puke" but one Americans would have to watch.

But if this is the best the Republicans can do, says Massie, it's hard not to conclude that the Republican party is exhausted. "Since (from a conservative perspective) Jeb’s father and brother each disappointed – albeit in rather different ways – there’s something quaintly optimistic about suggesting third time lucky with the Bushes."

In America, Myra Adams for the Daily Beast has compiled five good reasons for the Republicans to think again – two of which are his name and his politics.

His name, in short, is poison: and that's not just the political pundits talking, but the great American public. A recent Washington Post poll found 50 per cent of registered voters said they would definitely NOT vote for Jeb Bush, proving that the negative legacy of brother George remains potent.

As for Jeb's politics, in short he's not right-wing enough to win over enough of the party's supporters. He's "soft" on immigration – he supports an amnesty and he even has a Mexican-born wife, Columba – and he's a "moderate" when it comes to issues like public education.

All of which is rather unfair on Jeb who, if his brother hadn't made such a hash of it, and if the Republicans hadn't turned so far right since the Bush era, might actually be considered a perfectly reasonable choice for the Republican nomination having been Governor of Florida from 1999 – 2007.

There are, however, skeletons ready to tumble out of the closet: in his first year as Governor, his wife Columba was caught by customs agents at Atlanta airport trying to bring in $19,000 worth of clothes and jewellery from Paris. And their daughter, Noelle, has had her run-ins with the authorities over drugs. But at least he hasn't started any wars.

What does brother George say? When asked on CNN a year ago about Jeb running, Dubya responded: "Well, big Jeb, you know, he's got a decision to make. And if I could make it for him, it'd be, 'run,' but I can't."

He added: "I don't know what he's going to do… He'd be a great candidate and a great president."

Would the famous Bush family matriarch, Barbara, back another son to run for the White House?

"Jeb's the best qualified man, but no," she said. “I think it's a great country. There are a lot of great families, and it's not just four families or whatever. There are other people out there that are very qualified and we've had enough Bushes,” she said.

Who could put it better?

HAS the other shoe just dropped on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s naked ambition for the White House?

The second Christie scandal inside a week broke early yesterday with a timing which suggests that the rotund but curiously charismatic Governor is not the only politician in New Jersey ready and willing to play hardball.

News that Washington officials are investigating the diversion of federal relief funds for Superstorm Sandy to promote Jersey Shore tourism with advertisements featuring Christie himself could hardly have come at a more awkward time.

Christie would have gone to bed on Sunday feeling much better. 'Bridgegate', the saga of how an act of petty political revenge caused days of traffic jams on the Fort Lee ramps to the George Washington Bridge over to Manhattan, was beginning to look survivable.

The scandal, and Christie’s aspirations for the Republican nomination for the presidential elections of 2016, had been the number one topic on the Sunday television talk shows which have become America’s political forum.

Phalanxes of “senior Republicans” had been rallied to the microphones to answer the question: can Christie survive. The majority view was “yes”.

Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate who failed against President Obama in 2008, declared that Christie had done “an excellent job” in holding a press conference that lasted 111 minutes and instantly firing two top aides implicated in ordering the disruption to bridge traffic.

“I think he can now move on,” said McCain.

But then he added a note of caution: “As long as another shoe doesn’t drop. We’ll have to wait and see.”

We did not have to wait very long. The question now is whether Christie can survive this second shoe.

Christie had been considered the nearest thing to a frontrunner since he catapulted himself onto the national stage by escorting President Obama through the ruins of the New Jersey coastal communities after Sandy struck just before the 2012 elections.

Comforting old ladies with hugs, putting aside partisan politics to join forces with Obama for the sake of his people, Christie immediately became the face of the Republican Party they wished they had had when the mean-spirited Mitt Romney and his Tea Party allies led them to electoral rout.

Superstorm Sandy became Christie’s brand, and to have an investigation into whether he improperly spent funds intended for the storm’s victims on self-promotion could hardly be more tarnishing.

Congressman Frank Pallone, whose name, like Christie’s, ends Italian-style in a vowel, is a New Jersey Democrat in Washington who has long locked horns with Christie. It was he who trumpeted the news that the inspector general of the Housing and Urban Development Office (HUD) was investigating the use of the $25 million Sandy funds.

Pallone had spotted his chance last summer when he wrote a formal letter to HUD demanding the investigation into how the governor had distributed the funds. He wrote that he and his colleagues were “concerned” that some of the money had been used to finance a “marketing campaign”, and he went on, they wondered why a bid of $2.5m for the campaign, which would not feature Christie or his family, had been rejected in favour of a $4.7m bid for one which would.

Pallone was in triumphant mood yesterday after giving the cable news station its exclusive story.

“I commend the HUD Office of the Inspector General for investigating whether the state properly utilized taxpayer funds for this marketing campaign,” he said.

“Working with my New Jersey colleagues, we had to fight hard to get the Sandy aid package passed by assuring others in Congress the funding was desperately needed and would be spent responsibly. I also raised concerns that Governor Christie and his family appeared in taxpayer-funded advertisements during an election year.”

Voters in Pallone’s congressional district must surely be bracing themselves for traffic chaos.

Christie’s best chance of reviving his White House hopes still lies in the chaos of the current Republican presidential field.

“Republicans appear headed for the most wide-open and unpredictable nomination campaign in decades,” writes Dan Balz in a column for the Washington Post. “Their prospective field of candidates is mostly untested on the national stage, and a number of them spent the past year generating questions about their readiness rather than burnishing their credentials. Christie is just the latest.

“But that’s not the only reason the coming GOP campaign is likely to be neither tidy nor predictable. A power struggle is underway between the party’s establishment and insurgent wings — the business elite and the populist Tea Party factions. No one is certain what the balance of power in the party will be when the primaries and caucuses begin.”

Christie as the tough guy with the straight talk and the heart of gold had been looking like the outsider candidate who could appeal to both sides of the Republican party and, just possibly, to both sides of America.

Now he just looks like the guy who blew it.

NEW JERSEY governor Chris Christie is being investigated over claims he used Superstorm Sandy relief funds to make tourism ads starring him and his family.

News of the investigation couldn't come at a worse time for the "scandal-plagued Republican", says CNN. Late last week he was forced to sack two aides who allegedly ordered the closure of lanes on the George Washington Bridge as part of a vendetta against a political opponent.

Christie's office has been "paralysed" by the bridge scandal which is about to trigger a "flurry of subpoenas", according to reports.

CNN says the federal probe examining New Jersey's use of $25m in relief funds for a marketing campaign to boost tourism in the state, could be even more damaging to Christie's political ambitions than the bridge scandal. That's because the governor's performance during and after the storm has been "widely praised and is a fundamental part of his straight-shooting political brand".

The New York Post understands that Christie's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, and his campaign manager, Bill Stepien, are likely to be issued with subpoenas as early as today in relation to the bridge scandal. Kelly allegedly orchestrated the lane closures in an effort to undermine a New Jersey mayor who refused to support Christie's re-election campaign; Stepien was "kept in the loop" about the plan.

The pair are among the targets of the state Assembly committee investigating the lane closures. Asked how many people would be ordered to appear before the committee, Assembly deputy speaker John Wisniewski said: "The list is fairly large".

Christie continues to insist he had no knowledge of the plan. But fallout from the scandal has caused a "ripple effect that's frozen several top moves and appointments," the Post says.

Sources told the paper that Democrats in the state senate have delayed the confirmation hearing for Kevin O'Dowd, Christie's nominee for attorney general. The senators "want time to gather more information so they can grill O'Dowd on what he knew about the closure of lanes on the country's busiest bridge as part of a political vendetta," the Post says.

The scandal has also stopped O'Dowd's "named replacement", Regina Egea, moving into his old job overseeing state agencies.

Fox News's Howard Kurtz says the US press has increasingly painted Christie as a "bully" and even if he can't be linked to the bridge scandal, serious damage has been done to his reputation.

"The sheer callousness of Christie's top aides in celebrating the traffic chaos they unleashed upon the town of Fort Lee and its Democratic mayor has the media saying, 'even if he didn't know about it, is this the tone he set for the office'?" writes Kurtz.

He adds: "The bridge scandal could quickly fade and become a mere footnote by the time 2016 [the year of the presidential election] rolls around. But in this new environment, any Christie outburst or act of retaliation could reignite the damaging debate."

NEW JERSEY governor Chris Christie has fired the aide who sent emails ordering the closure of lanes on the George Washington Bridge last year to damage a political opponent.

Christie told journalists he had “terminated” deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, who asked for the closures in a bid to damage the credibility of a New Jersey mayor who had not supported the governor’s re-election campaign. Christie insisted he had no knowledge of the plot, apologised profusely and said he felt “heartbroken and betrayed” that a staffer had lied to him.

The governor added that he had not spoken to Kelly since the emails were published in the press and says he does not know why she would have lied to him, the New York Post reports.

But who is Kelly, the woman who wrote “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” in an email sent on 13 August last year, three weeks before several access lanes to the bridge were closed? What kind of person would deliberately cause chaos that delayed ambulances and left school children trapped in buses?

The Post describes 41-year-old Kelly as a “typical suburban mom” who sends her four children to Catholic schools.

A woman whose children attend the same school as Kelly’s offspring told the paper: “I am just shocked that she [Kelly] could be so petty and reckless.”

The Post also revealed that Kelly’s brother, Eamon Daul, is an emergency worker who trains new ambulance officers. The paper points out that his sister’s “bridge stunt” delayed responses to 911 calls, including one to a 91-year-old woman who died before an ambulance could reach her, officials and family members have said.

The New York Times says Christie apologised for the bridge saga “the Christie way: excessively, vaingloriously, in large, vivid and personal terms”.

“He seemed to want to talk the scandal away,” the NYT says, “droning on for so long at the State House that reporters started repeating their inquiries, even asking for his response to a news story that had popped up as he was talking.”

CHRIS CHRISTIE has always encouraged voters to see him as anything but a politician. His lips seem to curl with contempt whenever he mentions New Jersey’s state capital, Trenton. He has long portrayed himself as an everyday citizen who shared the electorate’s disgust with shady politicians.

Actually, before Christie became governor of New Jersey, he did more than simply sneer at politicians: he brought them into courtrooms in handcuffs. He was the federal government’s chief prosecutor for the state, and in that role he indicted dozens of political figures on corruption charges. Perhaps he gained his low opinion of politicians while preparing briefs against various mayors and low-level officials.

Christie’s carefully crafted image as an anti-politician explains why a scandal involving traffic cones at the George Washington Bridge has become a potentially crippling handicap. His closest staff members and longtime friends have been revealed to be petty thugs who punished ordinary citizens to settle a political score. And while Christie has denied knowledge of the scheme to cause traffic havoc in the city of Fort Lee, questions are being raised about his administration’s aggressive methods of dealing with critics.

New Jersey has long been a place where politics is practised with brass knuckles. It is still home to a number of old-fashioned political bosses – even after Christie put several behind bars. The most prominent boss still at large is a man named George Norcross, a Democrat who has worked co-operatively with Christie, a Republican, on several projects and who did little to oppose Christie’s re-election last year.

As governor, Christie has shown a weakness for the sort of autocratic boss-style politics that he seemed to despise during his career as a prosecutor. Even other Republicans have felt his wrath whenever they seemed insufficiently enthusiastic about his programme or governing style. In the end, though, important reforms were passed into law during his first term after years of languishing in legislative committees. Sometimes it takes a boss to get the wheels of government working properly.

As the dominant political figure in New Jersey, Christie has no equal and no real rival. But voters have not objected to his my-way-or-the-highway approach to governance: he was re-elected in November with 60 per cent of the vote. Still, it is one thing to force-feed legislation on recalcitrant politicians, and quite another to engage in political thuggery. Christie’s aides crossed that line, and now the governor’s presidential prospects are critically damaged.

Christie says he did not know of the plan to target Fort Lee’s mayor, and apologised for it in a press conference. But the plan itself reeks of prosecutorial zeal, a red-hot desire to punish a perceived wrong-doer. Christie’s aides have made a habit of posting videos of the governor assailing critics as if they were in the dock rather than simply questioning his policies. The bridge scandal may not bear the governor’s fingerprints, but critics have noted that he has been nothing if not aggressive with those who disagree with him.

New Jersey’s old-time political bosses were equally autocratic, but the best of them realised there was a time and a place in politics for compromise and negotiation. Prosecutors, however, live in a very different world. They deal with accused criminals. It is their job to prove that their adversary is guilty as charged. There is no room for debating the charge.

If Chris Christie is to recover, he must show that he does not regard critics as criminals, and that he understands that reasonable people can disagree in a reasonable fashion. That will require a radical change in style.

Terry Golway is Director of the Centre for History, Politics and Policy at Kean University.This article was originally published at The Conversation.

CHRIS CHRISTIE, the Republican governor of New Jersey, is often cited as a future president because of his ability to build bridges between both sides of politics.

Unfortunately for Christie, it is a bridge - a real one rather than a metaphor - that is threatening to stop his glittering political career dead in its tracks.

Emails obtained by the US press show that one of the governor's senior staffers "conspired to cause traffic chaos near a town controlled by a political opponent", The Guardian reports. The chaos was unleashed by closing lanes on the George Washington Bridge, a double-decked suspension bridge that forms the main conduit between New York and New Jersey.

The lane closures on the world's busiest bridge had the desired effect, reports NorthJersey.com, as traffic piled up. However, the jams also delayed ambulance teams from reaching four patients, including a 91-year-old woman who later died in hospital.

The alleged target of the lane closures was the mayor of Fort Lee, a New Jersey town, who had refused to endorse Christie's successful re-election bid. But it is the governor who is feeling the heat, says the BBC, as Americans ponder the "obvious alleged abuse of power" that could "prove very damaging if it can be directly tied to Mr Christie".

The man himself insists it can't. He says he is "outraged" by the actions disclosed in the emails and has vowed to punish those responsible for ordering the lane closures.

But political commentators say the man widely tipped as a potential frontrunner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, has certainly been wounded by the scandal. Writing in the Washington Post, Jonathan Capehart notes that Christie cancelled his sole public engagement yesterday as anger over the lane closures intensified.

Writes Capehart: "Like all bullies, he's running away from a real fight. And it shows that he realises that his political standing at home and nationally is in danger."

The US political website TalkingPointsMemo says Christie's political future has been seriously damaged.

TPM's Joshua Marshall writes: "It's not bribery or killing someone or a high crime. But it's vindictive and quite possibly illegal. It's almost the definition of an abuse of power. It won't sink Christie. At least not the evidence so far. But it will hang around his neck forever as that bad thing Christie's operation did that supposedly (depending on whether you're a friend or enemy) tells you what the real Chris Christie is about."