New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, the media proclaimed frontrunner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, finds himself at a potential political dead end as a result of a scandal involving a deliberately ordered traffic jam. His current predicament flows from mysterious lane closures to the George Washington Bridge which connects upper Manhattan to Fort Lee, NJ. The George Washington is the most heavily trafficked bridge in the world. The lane closures created monumental traffic, effectively shutting down Fort Lee and spilling into several neighboring communities.
Chris Christie apologized for the retributive acts of his office, but claimed ignorance and placed the blame squarely on senior aides
Many Christie observers immediately suspected the lane closures constituted some form of payback, while others cited the incredibly petty nature of the act as a reason to doubt Christie’s involvement. It was theorized that the lane closures and resulting traffic jam were meant to send a message to Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich who had rebuffed Christie’s invitation to cross party lines and support his bid for re-election.
Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich was referred to as an “idiot” by Christie senior staffers
Still, there were reasons to doubt the assertions of deliberate intervention. Christie was leading in the polls by as much as 70% and was in no threat of being denied a second term as governor. The idea that he would purposefully subject part of his constituency to unprecedented traffic delays simply because a democratic mayor refused his invitation for support seemed implausible to many.
Christie had initially vehemently denied charges that he or anyone in his administration had acted to punish Fort Lee. He even mocked the idea at a press conference. When asked if he had anything to do with the lane closures, in true Christie style he sarcastically and misleadingly replied, “I was in overalls and a hat. I moved the cones, actually unbeknownst to everybody."
On January 8, the bridge story moved into high gear as heavily redacted emails were released pursuant to a subpoena that revealed purposeful political payback on the part of high ranking Christie senior staffers. Christie's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, sent an e-mail to top Port Authority official and childhood Christie friend David Wildstein that said, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."
Wildstein’s response to Kelly's e-mail was "Got it."
Was Christie senior staffer Bridget Anne Kelly a rogue employee, or part of a deliberate retributive effort?
Subsequent emails between Christie acolytes expressed a perverse sense of demented glee upon learning that children in Fort Lee were unable to attend their opening day of school on time.
Sokolich pleaded for help in ending the traffic. "The bigger problem is getting kids to school. Help please. It's maddening." A texter whose identity was redacted added his own commentary in a subsequent message to Wildstein, "Is it wrong that I am smiling?"
"No," Wildstein replied. "I feel badly about the kids, I guess," the texter wrote, referring to the fact that the traffic jams came on the first day of classes, causing transportation to schools to grind to a virtual halt.
Wildstein's response was "They are the children of Buono voters." Barbara Buono was the Democratic gubernatorial candidate who ran against Christie last year.
Christie childhood friend David Wildstein has subsequently asserted his Fifth Amendment privilege when questioned about the bridge’s lane closures
The Christie administration initially said the lane closures were part of a Port Authority study to see whether bridge traffic flowed better with the access lanes closed. It has said the study was conducted solely by the Port Authority. Christie himself had said the situation is "not that big a deal." The emails left no doubt that despite Christie’s mocking denials, his administration had deliberately acted to punish the town of Fort lee.
The fact that the Christie administration acted in a punitive fashion should really have come as no surprise. Christie’s claim to fame when initially seeking the governorship was his tenure as the U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey. Christie made a career out of trampling the rights of citizens and parlaying abuse into self-serving advancement. While serving as U.S. attorney, Christie was known for grandstanding, exaggeration and mendacious deception. No offense charged against a deserving target was too small to be ignored. Victims of his prosecutors were often chosen for retributive reasons as well as the relative media value of their case. The mission statement of federal prosecutors, citing the pursuit of justice and public protection, was ignored by Christie’s office as a matter of course. In short, punishment was what Christie did best.
Nevertheless, the extraordinary manipulation of a loyal press core allowed Christie to parlay his spurious record as a crime fighter into a successful run as New Jersey governor. Christie was the prototypical headline-grabbing federal prosecutor. His career in the U.S. attorney’s office was carefully orchestrated to position him for elected office. Heading his publicity effort was Michael Drewniak who served as the public affairs officer for the Newark office. Drewniak’s job was to see that a steady stream of favorable press releases flowed into the hands of their media myrmidons. These self-serving, pseudo-news items were spoon fed to a compliant media who often regurgitated them verbatim in lieu of actual reporting. Drewniak’s efforts were noticeably appreciated by Christie as he was tapped to head the governor’s propaganda arm in Trenton.
The Newark U.S. attorney’s office has been a hotbed of brazen political opportunism for decades
The Newark U.S. attorney’s office has long served as a springboard to higher office. Christie’s predecessors Michael Chertoff and Sam Alito both parlayed stints as U.S attorney into big moves up the judicial-corporate ladder. Chertoff became George Bush’s second secretary of homeland security while Alito was installed on the United States Supreme Court. Their respective tenures in the Newark office were similarly noted for an affinity for self-serving publicity.
Michael Chertoff and Sam Alito both used the Newark U.S. attorney’s office as a springboard to higher political office while compiling records of flagrant abuse
Christie’s parade of good press spread beyond the borders of New Jersey. He has widely been considered to be a frontrunner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. The sudden emergence of the bridge scandal has, however, cast serious doubts about Christie’s viability. He is now widely seen as damaged goods.
As a former federal prosecutor, Christie knows that the truth is often malleable. During a hastily conceived press conference on January 9, he professed ignorance and alleged that he was “lied to” and “betrayed” by a senior staffer who has been dismissed. Christie also claimed to have been “shocked” by the recently released emails between his staffers. Christie went on to vehemently deny any knowledge of the actions of his staffers and claimed to have been “blindsided.”
The level of ignorance claimed by Christie flies in the face of his reputation as a “hands on manager.” Many who have followed his career find it simply impossible to believe that the wrongdoing causing a scandal of this magnitude could have risen to the level it did without his knowledge or tacit approval. Even if his direct involvement in the lane closures is absent, it strains credibility to suggest that there was not at least some level of willful blindness on the part of Christie.
Despite Christie’s assertion during the press conference that the actions of his staffers were his responsibility, he continued to prevaricate by claiming that there may in fact have been a traffic study which was responsible for the bridge closure. This despite the fact that in early December, three Port Authority officials testified that “there was no traffic study being conducted while access lanes from Fort Lee on the George Washington Bridge were closed in September.”
The George Washington Bridge connects Fort Lee with New York City and is the busiest bridge in the world
During a lengthy question and answer session following his prepared remarks, Christie denied speaking with, meeting or even more than casually knowing several of the players in the scandal. Christie’s performance, filled with prosecutorial doublespeak, was alternatively apologetic, combative and puzzling.
While it may be difficult to prove Christie’s direct involvement, there is no doubt that the punishment meted out to Fort Lee resulted from the prosecutorial culture of his administration. Christie’s staffers appear to have believed that they were working for a governor who would applaud their punitive acts. His track record as a prosecutor suggests that the staffers were likely correct in this assumption and whose most serious mistake was being sloppy by leaving a readily discoverable paper trail of emails and texts.
The real lesson from all of this may be that prosecutors in general make poor politicians. As is the case with Christie, their first instinct is to punish, typically in an entirely disproportionate manner that completely fails to weigh the equities. Their mindset dictates that the harsher the punishment, the better. Christie is typical in his inability to shed this prosecutorial mindset. A governor whose first impulse is to punish is not fit to serve. In the words of Thomas Paine, “An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty.
Christie’s unsuitability for office has been a rather poorly kept secret. While being considered for the vice-presidential slot by candidate Mitt Romney, Christie was thoroughly vetted. Published reports claim that Romney staffers were “stunned by the garish controversies lurking in the shadows of his record.” One Romney staffer went as far as to say that “If Christie had been in the nomination fight against us, we would have destroyed him—he wouldn’t be able to run for governor again. When you look below the surface, it’s not pretty.”
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney declined to put Christie on his ticket because of a past that is “full of skeletons”
Americans have interesting priorities. Recent revelations of Stasi-like massive domestic spying have been met with barely a whimper, the continued erosion of Fourth Amendment rights elicit a collective yawn, but subject people to lengthy traffic delays and action will be demanded. For all of Christie’s previous outrageous acts, it seems incredible that his undoing would come about as the result of a traffic jam. Yet it took a traffic jam to finally focus the media’s attention on Chris Christie and his outrageous antics. The real irony of the matter is that a federal probe has been launched which may subject Christie to federal prosecution, a weapon with which he has demonstrated a proclivity for freely employing against a variety of enemies, both real and imagined.
(Originally published at Online Publishing company, www.onlinepublishingcompany.info)