In September 2013, the citizens of Fort Lee, N.J. experienced a traffic snarl like no other. Three incoming lanes on the George Washington Bridge were closed due to what was then being called a traffic study. However, it was later revealed that it was actually the actions of an aide inside the Governor’s administration. The traffic was held up for four days, causing the death of one woman as paramedics were delayed in getting her to the hospital while she suffered from a heart attack, and police officers were delayed in their search for a missing child.
The truth was revealed two weeks ago during Governor Chris Christie’s two-hour press conference. During this press conference, Christie denied trying to curry favor with the mayor of Fort Lee, stating that he didn’t even remember meeting with him (despite photographs of their meeting being revealed later in the week). The Governor denied allegations of him being a bully, revealed that the aide in question had been fired and stated that the actions of the former aide were not those of his administration.
Really, Governor? Many people disagree, including journalist Rachel Maddow at MSNBC, who had a theory that sounds a little more sinister than just a mayor not throwing his lot in with the incumbent Governor.
In 2010, the lone African- American New Jersey Supreme Court Justice John Harris came up for reappointment. For those who don’t know, in New Jersey, the state Supreme Court is rather odd in that the justices need to be reappointed before their position becomes permanent. Never in the history of New Jersey has the Governor not reappointed anyone to their position. Christie refused to reappoint the justice for reasons unknown, inciting the Democrats in the State Senate in which they had the majority.
Flash forward two years later when the wife of one of Christie’s associates is up for reappointment. The head of the Senate told Christie that if the justice was reappointed, then she’d have the hardest cross examination ever in the history of New Jersey. Christie, for a historical second time, refuses to reappoint the justice leaving two empty seats on the State Supreme Court. At a press conference later, Christie said that he didn’t want to throw her [the justice] to “those animals.” The next day, the Port Authority gets an email reading “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” Guess where the head of the State Senate happened to be from?
That’s not all Christie has done to make people question his position as innocent victim in this debacle. Christie has been photographed yelling at protesters, quoted as saying, “Something’s going down but it’s not jobs, sweetie,” to a striking teacher and has insulted his detractors on numerous occasions. However, Christie has come under fire for something that has many looking away from the bridge for a while; yet not to Christie’s benefit.
A federal investigator is looking into allegations of Christie misusing government allotted funds to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy and instead using said funds to run his reelection campaign. So far there have been no more reports on this scandal, however more mayors of New Jersey are starting to come out of the woodwork and state that Christie, in their words, ‘shook them down’ for the rebuilding funds.
Honestly, if I wasn’t watching it unfold, I’d say this was something out of a cheesy teen drama. You know, where the plucky hero goes against the big, bad, obvious villain; saves the day and wins the girl? The only problem with that comparison is that this is real life, and that’s a little scary.
