An impressive resume

Published: Monday, November 17, 2008, 10:30 PM 10:46 PM Updated: Monday, November 17, 2008,

By Star-Ledger Editorial Board

The U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Christopher Christie, has resigned, as have other Republican-appointed federal prosecutors, to make way for the incoming president's choices. Christie, however, stands out as of one of the most active and successful of them all.

His resignation is also one of the most tantalizing because he goes out as he came in, trailing speculation that his federal service was a pit stop to gas up for a gubernatorial run. The 46-year-old Christie has yet to declare whether he intends to go after Gov. Jon Corzine's job next year. Even so, Christie's announcement yesterday, that he is resigning effective Dec. 2, seemed as much a prelude of things to come as a final departure from public office.

A former securities lawyer and Morris Country freeholder, Christie snagged the federal appointment with nothing more to recommend him than prodigious accomplishments as a Republican Party fundraiser. Several lawyers' groups and The Star-Ledger editorial page said he lacked the experience to be a good federal prosecutor. All of us were wrong.

Whether it was his political ambition, as his critics claim, or a drive to deliver justice as he was sworn to do, Christie amassed an amazing record of 130 convictions against zero acquittals for the public officials he indicted. In his letter of resignation, Christie said he went after political corruption "at every level of government , from the school board to the Statehouse," and "both political parties."

The biggest political fish, however, were major Democratic Party power brokers, including former state Senate president John Lynch, who is serving a 39-month sentence on a kickback conviction, and former Newark mayor Sharpe James, in prison for 27 months on fraud and conspiracy charges. The last of the blockbuster political corruption cases sent to trial on Christie's watch, that of former state senator Wayne Bryant (D-Camden), went to the jury last week.

The case of the Fort Dix terror suspects, accused of plotting attacks against the New Jersey military installation, is under way. The conviction of a black-market arms dealer is also on Christie's tally sheet, along with hundreds of convictions involving violent crime and illegal

firearms, child pornography, corporate officials, street gangs and organized crime. It was Christie who told the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey it could either submit to reform or face an institutional indictment on charges of Medicare fraud and other fiscal misdeeds.

Christie also deserves credit for reorganizing the U.S. attorney's staff into the well-oiled machine that accomplished so much in the six years he was at the helm. There are curious marks on his record, including a questionable investigation of business associates of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), which ran hotter than it probably should have, then cooled as quickly. And there was Christie's eyebrow-raising comment this spring that being in the country without proper documentation is not a crime.

The volume and variety of his record are amazing, however -- and all carefully detailed in his letter of resignation, which makes Christie's parting words read like an impressive application for his next job -- whatever that might be.

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