Christie’s Waterloo
In the best possible light, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie built a top staff of lying thugs who threatened lives and safety to serve his political ends. If not, Christie is a lying thug himself. Emails and text messages among his close aides made public Wednesday documented that in September they gleefully engineered George Washington Bridge lane closures to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for failing to endorse their boss’ reelection.
Local officials say the gridlock they caused delayed ambulances in responding to four calls, including one involving an unconscious 91-yearold woman who later died.
Christie’s presidential ambitions are all but kaput, as he will be lambasted and lampooned as a man of low character and horrible judgment — again viewing him in the most favorable way.
The Port Authority’s sudden, unannounced closing of bridge entrance lanes produced hourslong backups for four days. They ended only after Executive Director Patrick Foye discovered the shutdowns, which were later traced to rogue orders issued by Christie PA appointee David Wildstein, a high school buddy, and to a cover-up by Bill Baroni, Christie’s top person at the bistate agency.
For months, responsibility remained clouded. During that time, Christie made light of the charges. He joked that the press was suggesting he had moved traffic cones personally. Last month, he described the affair as “not that big a deal.” He supported Baroni’s story that the lane closures were part of a traffic study.
His aides’ communications, made public Wednesday, put the lie to that.
“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” the governor’s deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly wrote to Wildstein on Aug. 13, starting the chain of irresponsible actions. “Got it,” Wildstein replied. He closed the lanes on Sept. 9, bringing traffic to a standstill. Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich then began pressing Baroni for help.
“Presently we have four very busy traffic lanes merging into only one toll booth,” he texted. The bigger problem is getting kids to school. Help please. It’s maddening.”
That provoked a cold-hearted exchange among Christie’s people.
“Is it wrong that I am smiling?” an unidentified aide texted Wildstein. “No,” he wrote back. And he added: “They are the children of Buono voters,” referring to Christie’s Democratic opponent, Barbara Buono.
When Foye began to undo the closures, Wildstein wrote Kelly, “The New York side gave Fort Lee back all three lanes this morning. We are appropriately going nuts. Samson helping us to retaliate.” Wildstein was referring to PA Chairman David Samson, Christie’s appointee.
Also looped in to lie about what had happened were Christie’s press secretary, Michael Drewniak, and campaign manager Bill Stepien. Late Wednesday, Christie said:
“I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge.
“This type of behavior is unacceptable and I will not tolerate it, because the people of New Jersey deserve better. This behavior is not representative of me or my administration in any way, and people will be held responsible for their actions.”
Give full credit to his statement, and Christie stands as a hardball-playing governor who horribly misjudged or distorted the character of those around him and compounded the felony by trying to skate by their wrongdoing without full investigation. Take his denials of knowledge with skepticism, and the man is a monster.