In Jersey’s form of Oz, the bizarre tale of September traffic jams and a supposedly punished small-town mayor makes the cable news. A group looking out for Hillary Clinton creates a graphic out of Christie’s unsmiling face, a picture of a bridge and a sign that reads: “Lane closed. Expect Christie?”

And the Democratic National Committee issues a campaign-style attack ad asking if the facts add up to “Chris Christie’s political payback?”

“When you run for president, you will be questioned about absolutely everything, and you can’t bluff your way past something like this. It’s not personal life or his weight; it’s related directly to his conduct in office,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

No one has publicly accused Christie of ordering two of his top appointees at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to close lanes to the world’s busiest bridge to get back at a Democratic mayor who wouldn’t endorse his re-election bid.