Bridge over troubled waters!
We must confess that we did not watch New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s apparent two hour press conference involving one of his top aides giving orders for a bridge closure on the George Washington bridge last year. The event has been known of since it happened but the recent surfacing of damning E-mails between his deputy chief of staff and one of the bridges overseers has cast the entire Christie administration in New Jersey in a most unfavorable light. The whole incident apparently occurred because the Fort Lee, New Jersey mayor refused to endorse Christie for governor in his reelection campaign for that office last year, thus angering both Christie and at least one of his staffers.
It is interesting to note how quickly and with what brevity the E-mail from Christie’s staffer set into motion the chain of events that led to at least one person possibly dying as a result of its happening. When the bridge staffer got the E-mail, his only reply was a two word “Got it!” There was no argument and the suspicion is that the bridge staffer thought that this order had come directly from Christie himself and had been passed through a staffer who was around the governor on a daily basis and was just following his orders. This writer lives out here in Illinois and this is reminiscent of commands that former Chicago mayor Richard Daily might have handed out for someone not to have their garbage picked up in response to the failure of someone to follow the strict Democratic party line. “You know what to do” might have been the notorious mayors only words. And they might very well have been Christie’s only words just as well for all we know, such was the in tune closeness of he and his top aides.
It is inconceivable to us to think that this aid with four children and a political career that might have included a stint at the White House would take it on herself to order this sort of thing. And, if she did, it would simply be wise to just pick up the telephone and verbally tell the bridge operative what to do. To leave an E-mail electronic trail is simply just a not very bright thing to do. It is emblematic, however, of the strict adherence to orders that a well oiled political machine manifests when it thinks that it has been crossed.
We all remember how well oiled the Christie machine was in the late fall of 2012 just before the presidential elections when the hurricane struck both New Jersey and New York among other states where Christie gained so much fame as the hard charging governor who would do just about anything to get aid for his troubled state. Christie appeared with president Obama in defiance of the Republican machines wishes and simply stated that his state came first and politics would be damned. The whole appearance was of a governor in charge and on the job nearly twenty four hours a day. It bolstered his presidential standing among crucial independent voters and those not seduced by the far rights hatred of Barack Obama. Christie even added the boyish charm of seeming in awe of riding in Marine One, the presidential helicopter, noting that he was just a kid from Jersey.
The more that we hear about this thing that has become known as “bridge gate”, the more that it reminds us of another gate: Watergate. For those who may not remember what happened over forty years ago now, burglars broke into the Republican headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. late one night and were caught in the act. They were called “plumbers” and what they did was rather stupid in view of the fact that Richard Nixon was reelected in one of the biggest landslide victories in American political history. But, what they did and the fall out from it finally brought down the Nixon presidency just forty years ago next august, even though Nixon constantly stated that he was not a crook and disavowed any knowledge of what had gone on.
A governors office is not anything like what the presidency is in the way of staff and accountability. Most governors offices are really fairly tight run affairs with just a few people responsible for what goes on, on a daily basis. Access is fairly casual in most of them and things are done verbally much of the time, sometimes with just a casual glance or an expression of pleasure or disgust. Although we are not completely familiar with this bridge gate operation, it is simply reflective of how business is done in many machine run political operations in many cities and states across the nation. What we do not understand is why Chris Christie had not paid much attention to this long before these damning e-mails came out. It smacks of a sort of cavalier attitude that says: Well, that’s done, punishment has been meted out, and it is time to carry on without any further consequences. As we previously stated, we are not that familiar with the whole thing but we do know that it took four days for it to end and what was Christie doing during that entire period of time. Are there any E-mails that we do not know about where Christie gets involved and puts an end to the whole mess? After all, it did last four whole days and affected a great number of ordinary peoples lives. And, we must remember that if Christie puts and end to the tie-ups on the bridge, it might look like that he had control of the situation from the start and that doesn’t look good either!
At the very least out of all of this we must come away with the impression that Chris Christie does not have very good control over his very close knit staff. Just looking at Christie and the family type of man that he is, we must assume that he would treat his staff as if they were family. And, looking at Christie as a potential president of the United States, we must be very disturbed at what kind of leader and administrator he might be in this very crucial job when he allows something like this to transpire among his closest aids.
If Barack Obama had done something like this there would be impeachment hearings going on as soon as it was discovered and the fallout would be immense. And, if Christie does run for president and is elected, bridge gate will not be all that far from anyone’s mind.
IOVHO,
Regards,
Joe
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