Christie has good reason to dis Cruz, but why suck up to Trump?

Disasters should not be politicized.

So Gov. Christie keeps reminding us.

"Disasters should not be politicized," he said by phone Tuesday on Fox News, and then again Wednesday on the set of Morning Joe.

That MSNBC show was the second stop in a trio of early-AM talk appearances Wednesday by the governor, who also stopped by Fox and Friends and CNN's New Day. It was the sort of TV trifecta often seen during political campaigns, except that the discussions centered on the sort of disaster that ought not be politicized.

"There's nothing Republican or Democrat about that water," Christie noted accurately on Fox and Friends, taking a break from extolling his own leadership during Hurricane Sandy.

"There's not a liberal or conservative way to deal with people who are drowning and dying."

On Morning Joe, Christie told the hosts and their gabby gang that U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas)  had shown himself to be a "disgraceful" purveyor of "crap" by yet again mischaracterizing as mostly "pork" a congressional spending measure for Sandy relief in 2012.

This marked an epithetical ramp-up. An hour or so earlier, Christie had told Fox and Friends that Cruz's assertion was "absolutely ridiculous."

Cruz, like Christie, a failed 2016 GOP presidential primary candidate, made the spurious, self-serving allegation Monday at the end of a live, on-camera MSNBC interview from a disaster recovery center in Houston, which he made sure to describe as "my hometown."

The usually acerbic senator spent most of the conversation earnestly nodding from under the brim of a ball cap while showcasing what sounded like his action-packed if not starring role in "trying to marshal additional assets" and other essential storm-related endeavors.

Then, interviewer Katy Tur gotchaed Cruz by asking how he could be "asking for money now" for Texas storm victims after he had not been "willing to help" Sandy victims. Cruz famously voted against the purportedly pork-laden measure, earning him the enduring enmity of Christie (and pretty much everyone else in New Jersey, including me).

Cruz told Tur that he had, and always has, "enthusiastically … supported" federal assistance for victims of hurricanes, but had determined that "two-thirds" of the Sandy bill was stuffed with expenditures unrelated to the storm.

He didn't mention that he had voted against the bill. But he did assail the lamentable practice of disaster politicization to which other (unnamed) politicians were prone.

"It's not right for politicians to exploit a disaster [while] people are hurting," said the senator, who also noted that there would be plenty of time for "political sniping" after people were no longer hurting.

On Morning Joe, Christie pounced, saying Cruz was uttering falsehoods while "standing in a recovery center where people are suffering. It's just not right."

Cruz, the governor continued, is "dead wrong. … He should just get up and say, 'I was wrong.' "

The senator "just made … up" the fake factoid about the pork in the bill, Christie said, adding, "Ted's particularly good at that."

The governor also assailed Cruz while urging the avoidance of disaster politicization on his official website, which includes a live link for volunteers and donors.

While rightly knocking Cruz's ham-handed, truth-challenged, post-Sandy spin and declaring that "disasters should not be politicized," Christie also used his time on TV Wednesday to defend President Trump's widely panned official visit/personal appearance Tuesday in Texas.

Many of those who awaited some mention of lives lost — some scrap of sympathy for the victims — amid the meandering platitudes and self-promotion ("What a turnout!") offered by the touring president were disappointed. Even appalled.

But not Christie.

Trump, he insisted with a conviction that was positively Cruzesque,  is doing a "great" job responding to Harvey.

"He was himself," Christie told CNN host Chris Cuomo, adding that Tuesday's presidential visit was about expressing confidence and demonstrating competency.

Oh.

But when Trump returns to Texas later this week, Christie confidently predicted,  the president "won't want to avoid hugging and making those people feel better."

Trump, the governor said, will be all about compassion.

Because, as we've all been told, disasters should not be politicized.