You’ll Never Guess What Gov Christie’s Trip to Israel Really Cost

Okay, $39,871 to be exact. Sounds bad, right? Nope. Tempest in a teapot. When you see the real breakdown. The 14 delegates who accompanied Gov. Christie paid for their own airfare. They paid for their own hotel rooms. The Republican Jewish Coalition paid for the 8 members of the Christie family.

Choose New Jersey paid the costs associated with senior members of Christie's staff. Christie's weekend in Jordan was a personal, family visit by invitation of the king, and the two staffers who went along took vacation time. The $39,871 making headlines comes from the cost of the governor's security detail, which you're going to have like it or not for pretty much any trip the governor takes of this kind. He is a potential vice-presidential candidate. You're not going to send him overseas without security. There's really no "gotcha" here.

Now I agree this trip was entirely political. A photo-op. A false set of credentials in case Romney taps him to be the running mate. You go to Israel, ba-da-bing, you have foreign policy experience. Ridiculous, I agree. But in the real world there's nothing here to indignantly sink your teeth into. You want to really complain about something, try the fact that the governor's helicopter use doubled in the time AFTER he used it to get to his son's game. 33 times before that June event. Versus 64 times from June til February. Even then, you look at the use of the helicopter by former governors, like Jim McGreevey's 277 times in his first year in office alone or James Florio's staggering 2,319 times in his four year term, and you realize, once again, you got nothin'.

If you're trying to make Christie look like a waste-monger, keep trying.