Christie's stray cat strut

Shorter Chris Christie: "Ethics" is for the little people:

TRENTON — At first it was only about a bunch of stray cats.

A complaint filed with the State Ethics Commission alleged that a member of Gov. Chris Christie's staff used her state email account to influence her county health department to handle some feral felines on her property in Bordentown. A minor matter, it seemed.

By the time it was over, the executive director of the ethics commission was out of a job at the request of the governor's office, replaced by one of Christie's own lawyers, who was later given a judgeship by the governor.

Now, three former commission officials, breaking four years of silence, are accusing the governor's office of unprecedented interference with an agency set up to be free of political influence.

The thing is, in an era when politicians aren't very good at getting things done. Christie's bullying might be defendable if he used it even occasionally for actmeaningful programs (thinking here about LBJ and Voting Rights Act, Medicare, etc.). Instead, he uses his power for petty stuff like this. The man is an embarrassment.