It's easy to tell when a popular Republican official who's been living under the shadow of a scandal gets good news: Comedians immediately go on the attack, even if it means dredging up tired, old clichés to do so.
That was the case on HBO's Friday night Real Time With Bill Maher program, when the host unleashed a barrage of “fat jokes” against GOP New Jersey governor Chris Christie, including stating that he and his wife celebrated his exoneration from the “Bridgegate” scandal with a “very romantic eating -- I mean evening.”
Maher began the segment by stating that “Chris Christie is in the news. He is. I don't know if you saw this, but the flags were flying at half mast today at MSNBC because the Justice Department put out their report, or are about to put to their report, found no evidence” that he ordered the closing of lanes “or even knew about it beforehand.”
As NewsBusters previously reported, anchors and commentators at the liberal MSNBC cable channel hammered Christie from the first day “Bridgegate” was revealed in January, and they blamed the governor, a staff member and political appointees of collaborating to create traffic jams in Fort Lee, New Jersey, by closing two lanes at the toll plaza to the George Washington Bridge.
The anchor of All in With Chris Hayes actually called for support in a petition drive to force Christie to resign from his office.
Even Joe Scarborough, co-host of the weekday morning program Morning Joe, ripped the liberal media for its “obsession over Bridgegate” – without mentioning MSNBC.
The Real Time host, who condemned MSNBC in late February of having a “Bridgegate fetish” for wall-to-wall coverage of the scandal even though “it's not Watergate,” combined his anger at the cable channel and Chris Christie's weight by declaring:
So eat it, haters! Eat it with your hands, like Chris Christie does with lasagna.
That's right! No one can prove that Chris Christie ordered the hit, and that is “New Jersey” for innocent.
“And this was such a relief,” Maher continued, that the governor celebrated, “so the story goes, with his wife last night, a very romantic eating -- evening, and after they made love, she said: 'I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of me.'”
While the people in the audience responded with moderate applause, the host admitted: “I guess that's kind of a bad joke.”
As you might expect, MSNBC staffers wasted no time in throwing cold water on the governor's celebration.
During her noon-time program on September 19, Andrea Mitchell acknowledged that “Christie has been cleared by the federal investigators of any allegations" in the bridge-closing scandal.
However, MSNBC political reporter Kasie Hunt quickly dismissed the development: "But, there's a lot of damage that's been done in the interim. And there's going to be a lot of questions still that Chris Christie's gonna have to answer.”
It also didn't take long for the hosts of All in With Chris Hayes and The Rachel Murdoch Show to remind viewers that other investigations are still underway, so Christie isn't in the clear just yet.
And on Friday, Hardball host Chris Matthews completely ignored the development. In January, he called the scandal “Nixonian. It's so Nixonian." During his program on January 10, the anchor stated: "I grew up during Watergate. I got to tell you, it follows a certain pattern."
Then on January 15, the cable anchor fixated: "Well, this is not yet a Watergate, but the more we learn about Chris Christie, the more he does look like Richard Nixon.”
Back on Friday, Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski demanded equal, “24-hour media coverage” if Christie is eventually, officially cleared of the numerous investigations against him.
“Turn on MSNBC and see who cries,” @verumserum posted on the Twitchy website. @TFCochran congratulated the reporters for covering this “great scoop; sorry no one else will report it. They're probably 'busy.'"
Also, @62jerseygirl tweeted that the exoneration “will not be enough for Christie haters,” while @MRKokoski proved her correct by posting: “That just proves that we need more investigation” and @SageCommander agreed, noting that the announcement “doesn't mean they won't keep looking.”
The past few weeks have been an especially busy time for Maher, who also asserted that “MSNBC just has too much cheering for your own team,” and claiming that Barack Obama's foes “hate him in a way they never hated before because he's black.”
I guess that's better than rolling out old “fat jokes.”
