Every so often, one of us here gets an email or two with a correction or clarification that winds up being an excuse to grind an axe. And, per policy, we either rip him a new one or we expose him for being some goofball. But one thing is for certain: we always check into the facts.

But once in a while, we get an email from a loyal reader who really does our work for us, and opens our eyes. The Czar got an email the other day from JE, who could be Chris Christie’s worst nightmare.

JE wrote a very nice letter that (naturally) thanked us for the radiant brilliance and depth of intelligence that represents us, and he also thanked us for ‘Puter. JE did, however, add that he is a bit concerned about our ongoing reverence for NJ legend Chris Christie…and if you shut off all the national ♥♥♥luv♥♥♥ the guy gets among conservatives, especially on YouTube, you start hearing different things.

Okay, fair enough—Christie might have a skeleton or two in his closet, but don’t forget Ronald Reagan had a pretty dismal record coming into the national scene as well: his pro-choice beliefes was a very public confession that Reagan admitted and confessed to, but he turned it all around. So what if Christie has a couple of bad points?

Yeah, well…except JE very carefully produced a litany of sources that shows that Christie has got some real issues that would make any thinking conservative stop and say there is a definite problem here.

Let us start with some wishy-washy answers he has been giving the press. One of the chief questions we have been tackling here is whether he will run for President. On this, Gov. Christie has made up his mind with a definite maybe. Odd, we grant you. But this is where it begins.

The Governor has also made considerable national claims on taking control of the New Jersey spending situation. Other than verbally taking on the education unions, the evidence suggests he has done nothing else to control spending. Indeed, he appears to have renewed his support of an unpopular program to provide day care to kids. Err…wouldn’t that, at least for the moment, require more union teachers to be hired? Says JE, “The NJ State constitution requires a thorough and efficient system of education for those students in the K-12 grades. Pre-K was foisted upon the suburbs to pay for the inner cities pre-k programs.” The suburbs claim this is screwing their property taxes. The media response has been silent.

And The Star Ledger has the story on Christie’s support for illegal immigration amnesty. Okay, this could be one of those Reagan-like moments where he comes to his senses later and says he has re-thought the issue. Except, nobody ever asked him about it, and it seems the whole thing just disappeared.

Also, my dread and awful Czar, me thinks you should have a look into why Herr Governor killed the natural gas pipeline and why the Great Garden State is part of the cap and trade system known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The biggest outrage however is that Chris Christie is not a conservative. Far from it. He has failed to tackle the Garden State’s largest problem and that is insanely high property tax rates. He has failed to take on Abbott School Districts and the disproportionate funding they receive. Also, why has Christie not instructed liberal democrat Attorney General Paula Dow (he appointed her) to join in the lawsuit against Obamacare. He claims it was because of the cost. However I have seen the cost to join the lawsuit is around $500.

JE sent a few other things as supporting documentation from a variety of sources. You might think he’s got it in for Christie personally, but JE explains (we shall not go into private details) how Christie has severely damaged the confidence of suburban voters. JE seems to be one of them.

Okay, but what does any of it mean? On the one hand, someone could easily explain every single one of these observations, using perhaps a combination of politics as usual, offering some skin to Democrats, or even trying to win over urban voters. Perhaps. To JE’s credit, he even offered some plausible explanations himself for Christie’s bizarre hypocrisy.

But here is the thing. Each one of these is a nail in the coffin to a national candidate. And as we know, it only takes one nail to seal up a candidate. Maybe Christie is a centrist like McCain: if so, his recent anti-union messages will haunt him come 2012. Maybe Christie is a tea partier: if so, his actions before and during his governorship will damn him. The Left will, understandably and by necessity, pull out every one of these stories and more at debate time.

And even someone of Christie’s rhetorical skills will stammer over some of these questions.

So, really, what JE is saying—and he has the Czar largely convinced—is that a GOP presidential candidate for 2012 has got to have an A-game to take on Obama. And Christie is far from perfect. Looking at some of these questions, Gov. Christie might have a hard enough time being an incumbent candidate in New jersey in 2014.

Legions take heed: the Czar appreciates JE’s nicely written letters and thanks him for the due diligence and homework. Really, they were excellent. But the Czar also knows what happens when there is blood in the water: other readers may be tempted to follow JE’s detective skills and forward to us no end of gossip and condemnation on Gov. Christie hoping to widen the wound. If the Czar or the rest of us receive “dogpile” emails or forwards of other blog posts, we will almost certainly ignore them. The Czar thinks JE proved the point quite well. Instead, we ask that others please alert us to something else.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.