Christie, take two - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com

Christie, take two - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com

Chris Christie's initial, blustery response to the feds' denial of funding due to an apparent bureaucratic error seemed, at first, a triumph of his blunt style.

Now, not so much:

The error was first reported Tuesday evening by The Star-Ledger. On Wednesday, Christie blamed Washington bureaucrats for their inflexibility to fix what he described as a clerical error. Christie said [Education Commissioner Brett] Schundler had provided the correct information during a presentation of the state's application in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 11.

But on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Education released a video of that presentation that showed neither Schundler nor the other four people from New Jersey's delegation were able to come up with the information for the correct budget years.

Before the video was released, Christie had said he would not fire anyone over a paperwork mistake made by a "midlevel" staffer.

Christie just fired Schundler.

The Star-Ledger suggests that the problems between Christie and Schundler -- whose appointment was celebrated on the right -- were deeper, and that he had to go in any case.

You cannot imagine the sorta sick joy I take outta this story. Chris Christe NEEDS TO GO, so he can go onto Fox News and, mebbe, end up a perennial R veep chasepacker.