Decision time nears

While Rep. Frank Pallone was surely playing politics the other day about U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, his point was not a bad one: Is it a conflict for Christie to be both U.S. Attorney and a de facto Republican candidate for governor?

Pallone, a Middlesex County Democrat, wants the U.S. attorney general to look into what he says is Christie's dual role of law enforcement official and political candidate. Whether Michael Munkasey, the attorney general, will do that is debatable. But we gather that Pallone really doesn't care. We think he's raising the issue to make a point here in New Jersey. That point is that as long as Republicans are talking about a gubernatorial candidacy for Christie, his law enforcement role is being compromised.

Christie, a former Morris County freeholder and a Mendham Township resident, has said he likely will make a gubernatorial candidacy decision after the November election. On that, he's been consistent.

Pallone is right, however, in suggesting that many Republicans are acting as if a Christie candidacy is a sure thing. For instance, the Morris County Republican establishment has just about ignored the gubernatorial candidacy of Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Mendham Twp., because its favorite is Christie. Various polls show Christie running in a statistical dead heat with Gov. Jon Corzine.

The problem is that being the state's chief enforcer of federal law and a gubernatorial candidate are incompatible. While it's true that the average voter is thinking about the presidential election, not the gubernatorial election, the noise coming from political insiders may make it imperative for Christie to make a decision about 2009 sooner rather than later. That will render criticisms like Pallone's moot.

[Thanks: http://www.dailyrecord.com]