New Jersey's largest paper 'blew' its endorsement of Gov. Chris Christie's re ...

Mel Evans/AP

The Newark Star-Ledger, New Jersey's largest newspaper, 'blew' its endorsement of Gov. Chris Christie's 2013 re-election campaign, according to a member of paper's editorial board.

'An endorsement is not a love embrace. It is a choice between two flawed human beings. And the winner is often the less bad option. But yes, we blew this one,' Tom Moran, who helped pen the October endorsement, wrote Sunday in a heated column blasting the embattled governor.

'Yes, we knew Christie was a bully. But we didn't know his crew was crazy enough to put people's lives at risk in Fort Lee as a means to pressure the mayor,' Moran wrote. 'We didn't know he would use Hurricane Sandy aid as a political slush fund.'

'Even before this scandal train got rolling, this endorsement was a close call and a split vote among the editorial board,' Moran continued. 'We regard Christie as the most overrated politician in the country, at least until now, a man who is better at talking than governing. We criticized him for trashing the working poor, for his tea party approach to the environment, for his opposition to gay marriage and a livable minimum wage. And so on.'

The unofficial rescindment comes as Christie's office faces a mounting investigation into how closely the once-popular governor was involved in the September 'Bridgegate' scandal, during which several traffic lanes on the George Washington Bridge were shut down.

Christie has repeatedly denied knowing anything about the Sept. 9-12 snafu that snarled traffic in Fort Lee, N.J., until after it had already happened. But officials have alleged that the jam was created as payback aimed at Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for his refusal to endorse Christie in his 2013 re-election bid.

In response to growing outrage, Christie has so far sacked top aide Bridget Kelly, who allegedly helped order the jam. In addition, David Wildstein, Christie's former pointman at the Port Authority who allegedly oversaw the lane closures, resigned from the agency amid the growing probe.

But chatter has persisted that Christie was more closely involved than he's let on, which has caused his approval ratings, and quite possibly his shot at the White House in 2016, to fade - a result Moran didn't exactly shy away from celebrating.

'Now, the governor is in a free fall in the polls, and liberals everywhere are rejoicing,' he wrote Sunday. 'And yes, it is delicious to see a bully like him lose the swagger.'