Gov. Chris Christie was sworn in for a second term last Tuesday, but not without the looming shadow of his wrongdoings in the not so distant past.
The George Washington Bridge scandal consisted of Christie’s top aide and some allies orchestrating lane closures at the mouth of the bridge connecting New Jersey and New York City, which turned out to be for political retaliation purposes. Baby games.
The Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, had declined to endorse Christie for re-election, so naturally the only mature, logical option would be to wreck havoc on the commuters of New Jersey, as if they don’t have enough driving problems already.
Another theory was that the closures were targeted at state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, but it really only comes down to stupidity, rash decisions and carelessness.
The lane closures caused severe traffic jams in Fort Lee, also delaying EMS responders from attending to medical emergencies in a timely fashion. Drivers were stuck in the jam, barely moving, for about four hours. Most of us can barely tolerate 30 or 45 minutes of traffic, let alone four hours.
Despite Port Authority’s claims that the lane closures were a traffic study, the incident led officials to sniff around into more details once this explanation failed. The investigation ultimately revealed that Christie’s administration was behind it.
Christie, the victim, was not only “stunned,” “heartbroken” and “horrified” about the incident, but completely in the dark about the whole situation, too.
Fascinating, that someone with such power could have not an ounce of an idea as to what his own administration was up to. It is highly doubtful that Christie’s admin were the masterminds behind this attack.
I am not familiar with the extent to which Christie “bullies” people, as many say he does. His “I am not a bully” claims are frequent and persistent these days. But if this is the case, how easy it would be to coax the aides into initiating three harmless little lane closures….
It was a silly plan from the get-go and may have even started out as a mild joke. No one purposely destroys their entire careers. The only people that the incident directly affected were those who inched their cars toward the bridge for four hours.
The funny thing about it is that there was no backup plan and no cover-up. The extent of planning ended with an email from Christie’s aide saying, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” and an OK from Port Authority.
In the days and weeks following the bridge scandal reveal, many opinions were voiced. Popular attitudes suggest that the scandal will damage his chance as a republican candidate in the 2016 presidential elections.
Christie’s latest “bullying” stunt has Americans talking, for now.
It is likely that within the next few months, opinions on the New Jersey governor’s scandal will dissipate, granted he cleans up his act. People have short-term memories for this kind of knowledge, especially by the time 2016 rolls around.
Good news for Christie; he’s still a hot candidate and his approval ratings remain up. His job approval ratings might have fallen, but he definitely still has a chance as long as he focuses on the health of New Jersey and its people, many of whom are still recovering from Superstorm Sandy.
