While the Republicans and Fox News boast about attacking spending in Washington, it’s amazing how fast they sing a different tune when it’s a Democrat trying to save taxpayer dollars. No sooner did the Inspector General at the Department of Justice release a report criticizing conservative darling Chris Christie’s extravagant travel expenses than Fox News pundits took to the airwaves to defend and spin them and to baselessly accuse the Obama Justice Department of going after Christie for political reasons. NJ.Com reported, the DOJ found Christie to be “the U.S. attorney who most often exceeded the government (travel-expense) rate without adequate justification” and that he offered “insufficient, inaccurate or no justification” for most of the excessive costs in 2007 and 2008. NJ.Com also noted,

Inspectors singled out a stay at the Four Seasons in Washington that cost more than double the approved rate of $233 per night, and took issue with Christie’s decision to pay $236 round trip for a car service in Boston instead of taking a taxi for four miles.

Christie declined to be interviewed as part of the examination, but his secretary at the time was questioned. Inspectors said memos submitted by Christie and his secretary contained misleading statements, saying "that the government lodging rate was not available in the particular city on the particular dates ... According to the U.S. attorney’s secretary, the language of the memoranda did not literally mean that there were ‘no hotels available at the government rate in the particular city’ but that the government rate was not available at the hotel or hotels that fit her criteria — a ‘decent’ hotel at or near the meeting site."

As NewsHounds pointed out, Fox's Megyn Kelly was carrying water for Christie earlier in the day and then we were treated to this from Bill-O and KKKarl.

Later, Bill O’Reilly struck the same theme, made the same omissions in Christie’s record and put forth the same unfounded counter-attack, this time in the O’Reilly Factor Talking Points he called Desperation on the Far Left. [...]

“Far more serious is what the Justice Department is now doing to Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey,” O’Reilly continued. “…So now Attorney General Eric Holder is putting out that Christie did not properly follow hotel guidelines while he was a federal prosecutor for six years. The amount in question: about $2,000. Now you don’t have to be Dana Milbank to know this is bogus. The Justice Department isn’t accusing Governor Christie, it’s just pointing out his accounting was a bit lax.

Not quite. The Justice Department is pointing out that Christie was being extravagant and couldn’t justify the charges.

“But why?” O’Reilly asked. “Doesn’t Holder have anything more important to do?” Of course, the same question could be asked about Fox News – unless they’re planning on banking all their GOP marbles on Christie - who insists he’s not running – in 2012.

Nevertheless O’Reilly continued gravely, “This is a desperate attempt to denigrate Governor Christie, is it not? What other explanation is there for this? The governor should just write Holder a check for two grand and send it to him. Preposterous.”

Go read the rest and as they noted, Rove complaining about the politicization of the DOJ is laughable, given he's the expert in that regard. Rove even went so far as to attack the DOJ for the Siegelman case, saying they mishandled it. I'd have to agree with him there, but for the opposite reasons Rove thinks it was mishandled. The only tragedy there is that Don Siegelman ever spent a single day in jail when Karl Rove has not.