Another Sign of GOP End Times?

This Chris Christie debacle is fascinating:

Christie said he was "blindsided" by the release of the e-mails and text messages that bolstered claims by Democrats that the traffic jams between September 9-13 were meant to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who did not endorse Christie's reelection campaign.

Christie and his staff originally blamed the closures and the traffic delays on a mishandled traffic study, something he reiterated at his news conference.  He said he didn't know if it was "a traffic study that morphed into a political vendetta or a political vendetta that morphed into a traffic study."  The incident inconvenienced motorists, but also affected public safety, Fort Lee officials said.

I've long thought that, unless another strong "moderate" arises within the Republican ranks, Chris Christie represented the GOP's last hope to escape the grip of the party's radicalized elements. Christie's strength is that he won't take shit from anyone, and I had hoped that this strength would cause him to take the offensive against the radical right wing of his party that continues its process of purging "moderates" from the GOP ranks. I would love to see a fight like that.

[And the term "moderate" is, of course, relative -- Christie and a small number of others in the GOP with similar politics are only moderate because the rest of the party has gone so far to the right that even Ronald Reagan would look like a liberal these days].

But if this current scandal sinks Christie's presidential chances (and it just might), then who will replace him as the "sane" candidate from the GOP? There isn't anyone else out there with the guts to do it (at least no one who has emerged at this point), which means that the wackoes like Cruz and Rubio are going to be able to operate freely within the party without any aggressive pushback from the center right of the GOP.

Insofar as the Big Picture is concerned, that is good news for folks like me who believe that the GOP has caused enough damage and really needs to go away as a national party.  Part of me hates to see Christie go down like this, but there are definitely fun times ahead politically.