Will ‘Bridgegate’ close down Christie hopes?

As recently as a week ago, if we had posed the question – “Who do you think will be facing off in the 2016 presidential election?” – many Americans would have answered, “Hillary Clinton and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.” But politics, like the weather, can change almost instantly, and for the past few days, the Republican side of that supposed ticket has been in question due to what is already being called “Bridgegate.”

We are talking, of course, about the controversy currently swirling around the unannounced Sept. 9-13 lane closures on the George Washington Bridge which connects New York City to Fort Lee, N.J. The resulting delays caused massive gridlock on the world’s busiest bridge, and thousands of commuters found themselves stuck in traffic for hours. The delays also affected school buses trying to get children to school on the first day of classes, and response time for four medical emergencies, including one involving an unconscious 91-year-old woman who later died at a hospital in Fort Lee.

The lane closures were labeled a “traffic study,” but critics charged that the lanes were closed by the Christie administration in retaliation against Fort Lee’s Democratic mayor Mark Sokolich, who did not support Christie’s re-election bid last year.

The controversy was largely one of mainly regional interest — until Wednesday, that is — when the now growing scandal burst onto the national stage following the release of emails that appeared to show Christie’s staff plotting the lane closures in advance.

“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Bridget Anne Kelly, a deputy chief of staff to Christie, emailed David Wildstein, a high school friend of the governor who worked at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the bridge. To which he replied, “Got it.”

Later text messages mocked concerns that school buses filled with students were stuck in the ensuing traffic gridlock: “They are the children of Buono voters,” Wildstein wrote, referring to Christie’s opponent Barbara Buono.

There is little doubt that these members of Christie’s inner circle were responsible for the lane closures on the bridge. Wildstein later admitted to ordering the action, and Christie fired Kelly for her role in this act of political punishment.

But the big question remains, did the governor know about it?

He says he didn’t, of course, and on Thursday, he held a lengthy news conference during which he repeatedly apologized for his staff’s actions but also denied any knowledge of the move.

“I’m sad. I’m sad,” Christie lamented. “That’s the predominant emotion I feel right now is sadness, sadness that I was betrayed by a member of my staff, sadness that I had people who I entrusted with important jobs who acted completely in appropriately, sad that that’s led the people of New Jersey to have less confidence in the people that I’ve elected.”

As would be expected, there are those who believe the governor, and those who don’t. On Friday, Christie traveled to Fort Lee to apologize to Mayor Sokolich in person, and afterwards, Sokolich told reporters that he was convinced that the governor knew nothing about the closure order and had accepted his apology.

Those who disbelieve the governor’s claims of innocence point to Christie’s image as a brash, tough-talking leader who doesn’t pull any punches — and image which may be working against him in this case.

On Thursday, perhaps in an effort to soften that image, Christie said, “I am not a bully.” Really, governor? What about when you called a former Navy Seal an “idiot” during a 2013 town hall meeting when he criticized a proposed higher education merger and became embroiled in a shouting match with you? “Let me tell you something,” you said to the former soldier and law student, “after you graduate from law school, you conduct yourself like that in a courtroom, your rear end’s going to be thrown in jail, idiot.”

Or how about the time you suggested that the media “take the bat out” on a then-76-year-old Democratic state senator who accused you of hypocrisy, or when you referred to another Democratic legislator as a “jerk” after she criticized you for taking a state police helicopter to your son’s baseball game? The list goes on and on.

It sounds to us, governor, that your behavior in these instances raises the possibility of your having prior knowledge of these punitive lane closures ... such actions would not be out of character for you.

That being said, however, we have to admit that your apologies have sounded sincere, and we believe that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

On Friday, more documents regarding the lane closures were due to be released, and we hope, for his sake, that those documents confirm Christie’s innocence. But if, at any time, and in any document, a credible source uses those three little words — “the governor knew” — and can prove it, you may have burned your bridge to the GOP presidential nomination before you ever cross it.