Friday, January 10, 2014

Whither Chris Christy?

Chris Christy, governor of New Jersey, front running Republican candidate for 2016, has a nasty scandal simmering on his front burner.  Back in September, someone ordered three lanes on the George Washington bridge closed, creating horrendous traffic jams. Christy stands accused of doing it as political retaliation on the mayor of Fort Lee. 
  Yesterday Christy held a marathon news conference, at which he announced the firing of two people, pretty high up in his adminstration, said he was sorry, and took all reporters questions for nearly two hours.  Christy blamed the whole thing on underlings.  He is a convincing speaker.
  So what next?  If you believe Christy, it wasn't his fault, and he has taken action against the perps.  If you like Christy, and a lot of people do, you are inclined to believe him.  As long as no evidence surfaces to pin the blame on the governor,  this will probably blow over, in time.  Right now, the state legislature (all democrats), and the federal government (mostly democrats) are going to investigate, i.e. go on fishing expeditions looking for something to hang Christy with.  So long as they don't find anything incriminating, Christy ought to be OK.  I figure they can keep this ball in the air for another 6 months or so. 
   I can believe that in New Jersey, plenty of pols at all levels are into eye-for-an-eye.  I can believe that underlings could have pulled this off without Christy's knowledge.  After all, that's what happened to Nixon.  Gordon Liddy planned and executed Watergate without Nixon's knowledge. 
  We'll see.  I kinda like Christy, and I hope he survives.

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