“Bridgegate” and Christie’s Aspirations to National Office

In June of 2013, in the midst of his battle with Barbara Buono to capture a second term as New Jersey governor, one poll had Chris Christie leading by 30 points (61 to 31).  It looked like nothing could slow him down, let alone that anything negative could be pinned on him – surely not a scandal. 
 

Christie at a Town Meeting, Raritan Valley Community College, April 2013

Yet, for a long time, his foes – including some within the press – had been looking for ways to knock him off his game:  Their opportunity would come when, in the fall of 2013, the so-called “Bridgegate” affair would provide Christie’s opponents with the impetus to begin pummeling him for months on end.

ONSET OF THE INVESTIGATIONS:
 
Paul Fishman, U.S. Attorney for the State of New Jersey, headed up one of the key investigative agencies that entered the fray.  Yet, as of this writing, his office has yet to produce any evidentiary reports that Governor Christie acted in an unlawful manner, or even knew anything about the oblique “Bridgegate” incident.

Fishman, an Obama appointee, has been dragging his feet, and it is time for him to conclude his investigation.  As one of the news articles in a link above states, it’s time for him to “get off the pot.”
 
Before the start of Fishman’s work, New Jersey Assembly Speaker John Wisniewski had already initiated his own independent investigation.  However, intense public and political pressure forced him to join forces with N.J. Senate President Loretta Weinberg who also had established her own team to look into this brouhaha.

The result: a joint legislative effort dubbed the New Jersey Legislative Select Committee on Investigation.  

That committee would become embroiled in an independent, yet parallel and duplicative investigation similar to the one being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Interviews granted to the press that emanated from the N.J. Select Committee were so unbecoming that Paul Fishman requested that group to not risk interfering with his ongoing federal investigation.

Unable to make the pasta stick to the wall, the work of the joint Wisniewski/Weinberg task force eventually cooled down last summer, and its progress seems to have disappeared over the horizon like a ship sailing into a fog.

Despite the millions of taxpayer dollars spent and still being tallied up for these investigations, not one iota of evidence has yet to be posited and presented to the public by any investigative agency at the local, state or federal level that implicates Christie in any way.

SHIFT INTO ANOTHER DIMENSION: 
 
In the midst of all this, Governor Chris Christie has done a remarkable job of keeping his eye on the ball and of compartmentalizing the issues.  He has gone on to raise over $100,000,000 for the GOP in his role as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association, while burnishing his own national profile.

Most other states would be highly supportive and proud of a native son with the potential for national office, knowing that he might be a top contender in the 2016 race for nomination as presidential candidate from their state, regardless of party affiliation.

But not New Jersey – we like to punish the successful and reward the losers, as, for example certain members of the New Jersey Assembly and Senate who had been licking their wounds long before “Bridgegate,” in the hope of finding an opening to take down the big guy.  They finally found one but still have not delivered on it.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?
  
No matter what ensues as a result of the Bridge-to-New-York-City-Incident, Christie is owed big time.

You don’t fly around this country stumping for your peers as Christie did, end up with more GOP governors in office across the land than there were before the 2014 mid-term elections, simply to have power brokers forget about that singular accomplishment and not to be indebted to him – it is not the way the game is played.

So it goes in business as well as in other U.S. institutions.
 
Political indebtedness is not a four-letter word and is not the issue here.  The existential problem occurs when the process surrounding indebtedness permanently degenerates into the dregs of political corruption.

As to “Bridgegate:” Where is the evidence that Christopher Christie ever descended even close to that level?

Thanks for reading.  Stay warm and take care of yourselves.