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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark Mandel who wrote (242023)	1/13/2014 1:22:01 PM
From: Alex MG	Respond to of 541786

The fall of the house of Christie deathandtaxesmag.com By now, everyone has seen segments of the 108 minute press conference that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie powered through last week, or the infamous email sent from his Deputy Chief of Staff, Bridget Ann Kelly, to his high school friend and Port Authority appointee, David Wildstein, with the intention of snarling traffic in Fort Lee. Everyone knows that Christie has fired Kelly, claiming that she lied to him, and that his men at the Port Authority (Wildstein and Bill Baroni) have resigned. It’s still uncertain if Christie had any prior knowledge of the traffic scheme and what its real motivation was but the law was broken and criminal investigations are imminent. The George Washington Bridge scandal that has simmered since last fall has finally blown wide open, creating a deadly fissure of public distrust that threatens to swallow not just Christie’s presidential aspirations, but his entire career. The latest details that are still coming to light are not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning. If anything that Christie said in his press conference turns out to be untrue, he’s done. While Christie denied knowledge of the rogue operation being conducted by his most inner circle, the whole scandal has taken on an air of “All The Governor’s Men,” with redacted emails sent from personal accounts, resignations, stonewalling and bureaucratic coverups, and circumstantial evidence too strong to ignore. It was appropriate that Christie’s presser concerning the vindictive emails fell on… wait for it… Nixon’s birthday! It was all too perfect. Though there’s still no evidence(yet) that Christie played a direct role in the intentional disruption, it does speak volumes that there is such a casual attitude within his administration toward causing such wanton chaos. Because of the two closed lanes to the GW Bridge, the traffic in Fort Lee was so choked for four days that residents sat in hours-long backups and emergency services couldn’t respond to calls. An old woman died (she was really old though), and a child was missing at the time. School buses were held up in the traffic and then the situation was joked about by Christie loyalists. It was really sick. The singular perversion of closing the lanes to the the world’s busiest bridge, named for the country’s first president, on the first day of school, on the week of the anniversary of the September 11th attacks was totally beyond the pale. This insane callousness cries out for righteous political judgement. There’s no way to know how often and on what greater scale things like this happen. But they do. Every day. Rewarding one’s friends and punishing one’s enemies is kind of the best part of the game. But this was pretty damn nasty. This was not Sanford or Ensign being undone by a sex scandal. Christie is a top contender, whose polls were beginning to look unstoppable. Sex scandals don’t really matter anymore. Voters are willing to look the other way in terms of a politician’s personal life. But a breach of the public trust is something else. Intentionally inflicted annoyance on your own citizens doesn’t sit well with voters. This kind of war-waging on one’s fellow citizens by using political office as a tool of retribution is unforgivable. National voters won’t send you to stomp into the swamp of DC with the raunchy stink of some cheap scandal on you. The reason for all this is still unknown. Though many think it’s because Fort Lee’s mayor didn’t endorse Christie, there are rumblings that it could have been something else. Though Christie claimed ignorance, there was a hint last week that Wildstein could be persuaded to spill the beans. Bridget Ann Kelly has not yet made a statement or been forced to speak to investigators. But she will. And this will all take place as Christie takes charge of the Republican Governors’ Association. How could Christie’s deputy chief email one sentence and the Port Authority boss would know exactly what she was saying without further instructions? It either means there was another prior conversation, or their familiarity with nefarious flexing of power is so second nature to them that conversation isn’t needed. This all speaks to the personality of a man unfit to hold the office of the presidency. He either took part in the plot and then lied about it for two hours on live TV, or he was ignorant of the fact that his most trusted advisers were intentionally hurting his own citizens. And really, does this seem like the man you want to oversee things like the military and the NSA? There is talk of impeachment even before his second planned inaugural on Ellis Island. On Friday I asked Mayor Domenick Stampone, of the borough of Haledon, New Jersey what his thoughts are on the scandal and of Christie’s involvement. “How could Baroni and others risk their careers on such a reckless act if they weren’t secure in the knowledge that the Governor approved? Wildstein and Kelly are operatives. They didn’t get their jobs by being outstanding public servants. They exist in their roles because they are partisan loyalists. Petty, vindictive tactics are precisely why the Governor would have them around. And agencies like the Port Authority (Not accountable to the public as they are appointed not elected) are the perfect place to hide your patronage appointments and lackeys.” When the conversation turned to the question of “Why?” he had this to say: “Why is the biggest question. The ‘why’ in this case will ultimately come to light. Won’t be as obvious as suspected. More importantly, it’s a reflection of what works for Christie: ‘Go ahead, try and stop me.’ There’s no substance, just bluster and showmanship. He intimidates and it’s effective. The judiciary is a classic example. As a lawyer, I can tell you that no governor has done more to damage the independence of the courts. He’s done this by failing to re-appoint judges. In New Jersey, a judge is appointed to an initial 7 year term and must then be reappointed. This was a formality before Christie. Now, some judges openly discuss their fear of crossing Christie and losing their jobs. That’s dangerous.” If his political prospects survive this scandal–and there’s no guarantee that they will–I guess there’s nothing left to do for Christie but to hire a new staff and start over. But in 2016, the bridge scandal, combined with actual details of the skeletons alluded to in “ Double Down,” are enough to derail his future campaigns. The structure of charisma and hubris that Christie has spent the last five years building is beginning to collapse around him. His proximity to President Obama has left him a soldier without an army. All that’s left is Christie himself, left alone with his ego in the crumbling shell of what was his public life and what could have been his future… Or… he’ll end up as the most powerful person in the world.