Life’s not fair, the David Wildstein edition
We may not have signed up for this life, but here we are, and we play it the best we can. We know there will be times when what’s right is wrong, what’s wrong is right. We know we will be tripped up by all manner of philosophical mumbo jumbo, but we carry on and play the hand that’s dealt. In short: Life isn’t always fair. And in the annals of “life isn’t always fair,” the sentencing Wednesday of David Wildstein will surely be remembered.
This is the man who is the selfproclaimed architect of Bridgegate. He admitted it in open court, stating, “I thought it would be a potential leverage point against [Fort Lee] Mayor Sokolich sometime down the road.”
This is the man with the plan. He also is the man who sung like a canary. He’s the man who testified on behalf of the government. He’s the man who, if I were betting, is probably going to walk out of the federal courthouse in Newark a free (enough) man.
Truth be told, he’s facing up to 27 months in prison. But what are the odds he gets that? He made a deal. What’s the most he’s going to get? Six months? Even that, I doubt. I’d bet on heavy probation, house arrest, something like that.
Meanwhile, Bill Baroni got two years and Bridget Anne Kelly got 18 months. They are both appealing their sentences, but let’s take a look at this for a quick moment.
Baroni was the deputy executive director of the Port Authority, and was not the author of the Bridgegate plan. Bridget Anne Kelly was an aide to Gov. Chris Christie and was not the author of the Bridgegate plan.
Assuming Wildstein walks with less than 18 months — and if you could bet on that, I’d take the under, heavy — than that will mean the man who came up with, instituted, and followed through on the Bridgegate plan will have gotten less punishment than the people who were brought into it after the fact — or not, depending on who you believe.
And really, who do you believe? Wildstein, who sold his story to the government? Man, if I was in trouble and turned stoolie, I’d tell them anything they’d want to hear. It would be in my own self-interest.
Baroni and Kelly? They got caught up in Wildstein’s plan. They, much like Woody Woodpecker, should’ve gone right to the police. But they didn’t, probably because they realized they’d be punting their careers away.
In the end, the two people connected to Bridgegate are almost certainly going to do more time than the person who came up with the idea in the first place.
If you could explain to me how that’s fair, I’m all ears.
POSTSCRIPT: I hit “publish” on column Tuesday morning at 6:30 a.m. Hours later, the Associated Press ran a story saying prosecutors asked the judge to give Wildstein probation instead of jail time. Only in New Jersey, right? You are the cause of so much trouble, you bring others into your web of misery, and in the end, you walk away clean. What a joke.