Was The Christie-Obama Bromance Retaliation Too?

In case you somehow missed it: Chris Christie (his top aides at least) allegedly had a bridge closed in retaliation for the endorsement of his rival by the mayor of the city on the other side of the bridge (Fort Lee). Mother Jones explains it all here. While he denied:

1. That it had anything to do with politics,
2. That it was serious business --and--
3. That it was retaliatory

Leaked emails show all that to be untrue (it delayed Emergency Response, kept kids out of school, and so on). The emails are pointed: it was retaliatory. Totally.

Chris Christie has now denied:

     4.  That he knew anything about it.

Salient Points

A few things you should know:

• As someone smart on Twitter noted (can't find tweet): If this was mayor Rahm Emanuel conservatives everywhere would be screaming about the corruption of the 'Chicago Machine' rather than giving him the benefit of the doubt (which some are not: Hunt The Wounded RINO is popular too).
• The 'he-created-the-political-climate'  argument that was enough to link Obama to capital police who relocated people praying outside the Supreme Court for war on religion purposes doesn't seem to have caught fire when we have actual second-in-commands with smoking gun emails.
• Hypocrisy should surprise no one.
• The Mainstream Media is certainly thrilled that the one guy who challenges / beats Hillary on paper is going down on fire. Also suspected: Is that a spring in Ted Cruz's step?
• The problem isn't exactly with the scandal per se (although I guess we'll see) but that Christie is, really, a bully. He has a guy on his own team to follow him around to capture video of him bullying people to rally his supporters. This will play badly into his brand.
• Will something come out--or will someone flip--and expose him? That's the big question. Emails linking Obama to the IRS scandal have yet to emerge. Emails linking him to Benghazi, similarly, were unpersuasive. But what if something comes out here?
• Favorite headline: Bridgeghazi! Runner up: Chris Christie's Bridge Collapse.
• Favorite observation: Bridges have a lot of metaphorical power in politics. A literal Bridge, producing a scandal that has already been called bridge-gate, is bad juju.

What The Omnivore Wants To Know

All that up there is well and good--but here's what The Omnivore wants to know: According to the insider-account of the 2016 election  Double Down Chris Christie was on the short-list for VP candidates (his codename was ... Puffer Fish). He was, allegedly, rejected as having too much 'drama.'

When Super Storm Sandy rolled around Christie was certainly glad to get all the help he could get from Obama--who gave him plenty, having a chance to 'look presidential' days before his crucial election. However Christie took it further producing an actual bromance.

So here's my question: now that we have some evidence that Christie practices retaliatory politics ... did he intentionally retaliate against Romney for passing him over as VP?