WASHINGTON -- GOP strategist Karl Rove weighed in on the bridge scandal engulfing New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie's administration by raising wholly unrelated questions about past problems with the Internal Revenue Service and the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya.
"The amount of attention paid to Chris Christie makes the coverage of Benghazi at the same time and the coverage of the IRS pale in comparison," Rove said during a panel discussion on "Fox News Sunday."
Rove, a former top adviser to President George W. Bush, argued that one of the most notable aspects of the New Jersey bridge debacle is that the Clintons aren't talking about it.
"You'll notice we haven't been hearing a lot from the Clinton camp about this," Rove said. "Contrast this with President Clinton and Secretary Clinton's handling of Benghazi. So I think it will be hard for Democrats to turn this into an issue."
Christie and Hillary Clinton are both being eyed as top candidates for a 2016 presidential run, so it's not surprising Rove would want to pivot to issues with implications for Democrats. But his unwillingness to discuss Christie's current situation bordered on comedy as he routinely brought up unrelated issues.
When another panelist on the show raised questions about what must have been going through the minds of Christie's staffers as they devised plans to force bridge lane closures as political retribution, Rove again found a way to draw a parallel to the earlier controversies.
"So did Benghazi, and so did the IRS," Rove interjected. "It came out of appointees of Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."
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