Rove testified before the House Judiciary Committee on July 7, 2009 and acknowldged that he and Christie had conversations about a potential Christie run for the governorship of NJ while still acting an U.S Attorney.
Watch the video, then read the latest about this potential scandel from the Huffington Post:
"New documents about Karl Rove's involvement in the U.S. Attorney firing scandal have the potential to create ripples in the 2009 gubernatorial race in New Jersey.
In an on-the-record interview with the House Judiciary Committee on July 7, 2009, the former Bush strategist acknowledged that he had held several conversations with current GOP candidate Chris Christie over the course of several years regarding the possibility of running for the governor's chair.
Christie, Rove said, was interested in mounting a bid and "asked me questions about who -- who were good people that knew about running for governor that he could talk to."
The admission ties the former New Jersey-based U.S. attorney even further to the Bush administration at a time when his election opponent, Gov. Jon Corzine, has attempted repeatedly to push that connection. It also raises questions as to how apolitical Christie was in his prior job.
Appointed by President Bush to the role of U.S. Attorney in January 2002, Christie earned a stellar reputation for busting white-collar criminals including crooked members of the political establishment. His success led to speculation that he would mount a bid for the governor's chair, first against then Gov. James McGreevey, then against Corzine during the '06 election. He dismissed the talk by positioning himself above the fray.
"I am just concentrating on this job and working on this job," he told The Star-Ledger in November 2003. "I have absolutely no idea what the future will bring, but I feel I was given a job by the president, and I owe it to him to spend full-time concentrating on that job. And that doesn't permit me to sit around and speculate about what I will do."
In that same article Christie said he was being "extra sensitive" to avoid politics, lest those critics who accused him of being a Bush patronage appointee be proved correct.
Four years later, when talk came up again, the line was much the same. "I think about that only because people bring it up to me all the time," Christie said about the election speculation in 2007. "But I don't focus on that. If I do my job the best I can... The future will take care of itself."
Around that time, it turns out, he was at least partially focused on a run at the governor's chair. And he was turning to one of the GOP's most prominent strategists for advice. As Rove told the House Judiciary Committee: "I talked to him twice in the last couple of years, perhaps one time while I was at the White House and once or twice since I left the White House, but -- not regarding his duties as U.S. Attorney, but regarding his interest in running for governor." ...
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