If you enjoy political train wrecks Chris Christie’s “Bridgegate” promises to provide months of finger pointing and who-done-it. The round mound of governance is the presumptive favorite to go mano-a-mano with Hillary, Liz, or Joe come 2016, but his poll numbers are in free fall.

At best Christie looks stupid and clumsy. At worst thuggish. His potential for plausible deniability looks to be zip, but this is politics. A year from now this could all be a slight hiccup. Those not familiar with Christie might want to read parts of a couple books that came out last year.

Mark Leibovich’s This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral–plus plenty of valet parking! in America’s Gilded Capital is a cover-to-cover snarkfest about the incestuous world of Washington politics and media.

If you wake up to Morning Joe or fall asleep to Hannity you will not be able to put it down. Chapter 13 is entitled “The Presidential Campaign: Belly Flops, Bourbon Chocolate Truffles, and Wonderful Ruins” and provides color on the New Jersey governor.

Before he gets into that, Leibovich mentions Gore Vidal’s death and two pieces of invaluable wisdom for DC denizens the man of letters told Dick Cavett. “Never turn down an opportunity for sex or being on TV” and “Success is not enough. One’s friends must fail.”

Christie was the “Big Man on Campus” in Tampa for the GOP convention. He was given the keynote speaking slot and his “rolling ego trip through Tampa resembled a dress rehearsal for 2016.” The big man would hit three or four delegation breakfasts per day.

After taking 16 minutes and 1800 words to finally get to the nominee’s name (called “Mittens” by Leibovich) the keynote was renamed the “Me Note Address” with Politico calling it “A prime time belly-flop.”

The author relates following Christie the day of the Me Note and asked what the governor would be eating for his pre-speech meal. “Something light. Maybe a salad, with chicken or something.”

When Christie climbed into the SUV to bolt away, “His bright white dress shirt rose a few feet in the air to where it almost touched the glove compartment, making it appear as if the airbag had deployed.”

If Christie isn’t loathsome enough for being a combative YouTube windbag, he’s carrying tons of baggage. Ted Newton, who, working for Beth Myers did the vet of Christie as a potential running mate with Mittens, told Mark Halperin and John Heilemann for Double Down: Game Change 2012, “If Christie had been in the nomination fight against us, we would have destroyed him–he wouldn’t be able to run for governor again.”

The Pufferfish (code name for Christie) was not forthcoming on a number of items that troubled the Romney campaign. A pay-to-play scandal, his brother’s securities fraud, Christie’s lobbying clients, not to mention his health and aggressive YouTube outbursts.

As a U.S. Attorney Christie had “most often exceeded the government [travel expense] rate without adequate justification” and stayed in swanky hotels while providing “insufficient, inaccurate, or no justification.”

Christie’s habitual tardiness bugged the punctual Romney, not to mention his massive girth. Romney cackled with his aids watching a video of Christie without a jacket on. “Guys! Look at that!”

Now, in addition to lane closures as political retribution, it looks like Christie may have held disaster funds in limbo. He reportedly sent Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno to tell Hoboken mayor Dawn Zimmer to approve a certain local development project if she wanted the money.

But Christie can raise money, especially on Wall Street where his wife works. His fund raising skills were noticeable enough for George W. Bush to nickname him Big Boy.

It all seems unseemly. But as Mencken wrote “Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.”