Jon Corzine Plays His Last Card...

...and it's the last act of a desperate man, a man sitting at the poker table before a dwindling pile of chips, who has seen every hand trumped and every bluff called. He's got his back to the wall and he is all-in, and he is hoping against hope...that no one can beat his low pair.

It's laid out by Democratic Party power broker Ray Lesniak, who makes a preposterous remark then proceeds to back it up by inadvertently blurting out Corzine's hand:

"He's on the mat," added Lesniak of Christie, undetered by a Quinnipiac University poll this morning that shows the GOP gubernatorial nominee leading incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine by ten points and a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll that puts Christie up by five points

[S]aid Lesniak..."This is a Democratic state. We vote Democratic. There would have to be a tremor in the earth for New Jerseyans to elect a Republican. The way it breaks down is like this: Christie has his negatives - plus he's a Republican. Corzine has his negatives, but he's a Democrat."

Not clear enough for you? PolitickerNJ puts in more bluntly:

Christie is not out of the woods by any means. Indeed, his increased negative ratings put the Governor in a position to be perceived as the lesser of two evils, if the Governor's campaign plays its cards correctly, which apparently is the only strategy left to him.

How bad are things for Dirty Jon when, after outspending Christie 10:1 - almost entirely on negative ads - he can barely budge the meter in Deep Blue Jersey?

What's he going to do, outspend Christie 20:1 in order to convince Jersey voters there are no good alternatives? Oh, wait:

Sen. Ray Lesniak to the Star-Ledger about negative Corzine ads: “If they think this is an onslaught, they haven’t seen anything yet. Of course negative campaigning works. It’s been proven over and over again it works …”

So Jon plays his last card, and it is the face of the Joker, smudged with mud and reeking of decomposing garbage.

Can he win with this low hand? Is Lesniak right, and that in the end, Corzine can spend enough money and create just enough doubt to secure re-election in a blue state?

Sorry for New Jersey, if he's right.

But then again - remember that New Jersey turned further left as transplanted New Yorkers came to the state (fleeing their liberal nightmare and creating a new one here, to be sure). And remember - these are the same people who once threw up their hands in despair and turned their city over to an ambitious prosecuter named Rudy Guliani...

Sorry, Dirty Jon. Looks like your last best hope - your pathetic low hand - is a bluff than is about to be called...