Chris ChristieChris Christie could have been a contender. A bone-fide contender for the Republican nomination for the White House, that is. The Jersey Governor instead wallows among the third-tier roster of politicos, each thanking former New York State Governor George Pataki for anchoring the bottom of the barrel position.

Jersey's long drawn-out legal squabble with Exxon Mobil over polluted sites in the Bayonne area that contaminated wetlands and waterways offered a golden opportunity for Christie to prove himself as a fighter for the people of the Garden State.

The state waged an all-out 11-year battle with Exxon, originally seeking nearly $9B to remedy the destruction from the oil company and its corporate predecessors.

Republican Christie negotiated a laughable $225M "settlement" with Exxon and then had the nerve to bill that paltry sum as "the largest environmental-damage recovery in state history."

While the statement is technically correct, the payout is a slap to the current and future people of Jersey and a gift to a company that earned $32.5B in profit last year on revenues of $412B. The oil giant wouldn't have lost a wink of sleep over the initial $9B figure; the $225M number hardly registers.

A Jersey Superior Court judge yesterday approved Christie's payout to Exxon, somehow calling it "fair, resonable, in the public interest." Judge Michael Hogan must have been talking about the public interest of Exxon, not the people in Jersey and environmental community.

Had Christie kept the pressure on Exxon, he would have stood head and shoulders over fellow Republicans vying for their party's nomination.

Of course, Big Oil fuels the coffers of the GOP but Christie could have carved out a niche as a difference-maker. Sadly, the Governor caved to Exxon and pandered to the Koch Bros. funding crew, ensuring his irrelevance in the bid to topple Donald Trump.

The Governor's reward may come from a Big Oil board member seat some day or a flow of lucrative contracts to his lobbying firm once his days in Trenton are over.