Frank Lautenberg's U.S. Senate seat, it was evident that Doherty was at odds in many places with the Christie machine's political strategies. It had been months in the making.

"It's his way or the highway in many respects," Doherty said of the governor during a visit to The Express-Times in October. "If you don't do what he wants, he has a long memory."

Doherty said then that he wasn't even certain he'd support a Christie run for president -- a movement that looks a lot shakier these days then it did before Bridge-gate.

"I see myself more likely supporting someone like Rand Paul," Doherty said.

Two years earlier, he was singing the proverbial different tune.

Doherty, whose predominantly Republican district covers parts of

and

counties, had opposed Christie's decision to close

. At crunch time inwould correct imbalances in the state's funding formula, which sends 60 percent of state education dollars to just 20 percent of the schools.

Another interesting note to Doherty's appointment on the Senate Select Committee on Investigation has been his distaste for bridge authorities.

Doherty has led the fight for reforms on the

, which is laden with patronage and bureaucracy and wants to spend $450 million on a new toll bridge to replace one that's structurally sound. The DRJTBC is dwarfed in all those areas by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, which oversees the George Washington Bridge.

All this comes as the state Republican Party suddenly finds itself looking for a new course, with leader-in-waiting and Christie political strategist Bill Septien caught up in the swell of the