Christie, Cuomo, And Ebola

It's not often you see Democrats and Republicans work together on things, but when it comes to stabbing President Obama in the back, that's something that everyone can get behind.

The Obama administration has been pushing the governors of New York and New Jersey to reverse their decision ordering all medical workers returning from West Africa who had contact with Ebola patients to be quarantined, an administration official said. 

But on Sunday both governors, Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and Chris Christie of New Jersey, stood by their decision, saying that the federal guidelines did not go far enough.

At the same time, the first person to be forced into isolation under the new protocols, Kaci Hickox, a nurse returning from Sierra Leone, planned to mount a legal challenge to the quarantine order. Despite having no symptoms, she has been kept under quarantine at a hospital in New Jersey, where she has been confined to a tent equipped with a portable toilet and no shower. On Sunday, she spoke to CNN about the way she has been treated, describing it as “inhumane.”

The rapidly escalating events played out both privately, in intense negotiations and phone calls between federal and state officials, as well as publicly in the nurse’s pointed criticism of the New Jersey governor. 

Ever since Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, and Mr. Christie, a Republican, announced the plan at a hastily called news conference on Friday evening, top administration officials have been speaking with Mr. Cuomo daily and have also been in touch with Mr. Christie, trying to get them to rescind the order. 

But in that time, two more states – Illinois and Florida – announced that they were instituting similar policies.

Nobody wants to be the next Rick Perry with election day around the corner.  Certainly not Pat Quinn or Andrew Cuomo, bother up for re-election, or Rick Scott, also facing voters.  Christie at least has passed his re-election trial, but of course he has 2016 to worry about.

So everyone has a reason to score points on Obama, it seems, Democrat and Republican alike.

Will voters care or even remember?