Conservatives are angry at losing the 2012 presidential election to Barack Obama, a man they thought was dead meat. The economy was his albatross and they knew – simply knew – he could be had. They nominated a successful businessman in Mitt Romney. The White House was theirs for the taking.

Then came this storm called Sandy. It pounded New Jersey and New York mercilessly a week before Election Day. The New Jersey governor, a fiery Republican named Chris Christie, stood under a cold, gray sky and heaped praise on a Democratic president for doing his job as the nation’s elected leader. President Obama went to the Jersey Shore, examined the damage, hugged grief-stricken residents, offered them comfort and consolation and said his administration would do all it could to make the region whole after Sandy brought its wrath.

Christie recognized that and said so publicly … time and again.

But now the right-wingers – his fellow Republicans – are angry at Christie for speaking so effusively in praise of the president they loathe. Some chatter is emerging from the Republican wreckage that Christie might be the tea party’s next target when he stands for re-election. They want that turncoat out of there. Why? Apparently for giving the president too much credit for the swift response he exhibited in the face of the killer storm. It reminds me a bit of the fate that fell on former Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist who had the audacity to hug the president. The embrace enraged tea party Rs so much he lost the 2010 GOP primary for the U.S. Senate to Marco Rubio. Crist left the party and ran for the Senate as an independent; he lost eventually to Rubio.

Crist eventually endorsed Obama for re-election.

I see a pattern developing here. Chris Christie might become a metaphor for what ails the Republican Party as it seeks to reclaim the White House. A party that won’t tolerate an elected official praising another elected official – irrespective of party – may be in more trouble than it is willing to recognize.

This is what some of us would call blind rage.