Thursday, January 9, 2014
Chris Christie Begins His First Test in Political Leadership
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie held a press conference on Thursday to take responsibility as Governor and to apologize to his constituents for the bridge closing scandal he finds himself embroiled in. He said was "embarrassed and humiliated" by his staff, one day after emails and text messages revealed his staff closed highway lanes to exact political retribution from the Democrat mayor of Fort Lee who did not endorse Christie in last November's governorship election. Governor Christie said today that he never saw the bridge lane closures as anything but a traffic study, the explanation for the closures he was given by his staff, because he never knew that his staff was trying to get the Mayor's endorsement. Christie said he has fired Bridget Kelly, his deputy chief of staff, whose emails to David Wildstein, a top Christie appointee on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and childhood friend of the Governor, led to the shutdown of three on-ramp lanes of the heavily-traveled George Washington Bridge, which runs between New Jersey and New York City. Governor Christie also has told Bill Stepien, his appointee as political counsel to the Republican Governors Conference headed by Christie, to resign and also told Stepien to withdraw his name from consideration for the post of New Jersey GOP State Committee chairman. Kelly and Stepien are the first major casualties in a widening scandal that threatens to upend Christie's second term and likely run for President in 2016. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the Christie press conference is ongoing as I post this blog. What we know now is that Chris Christie appears to have been genuinely blindsided by some of his staff and to be shouldering his responsibility as Governor for their actions. He has fired the principals involved. He has apologized to the New Jersey legislature and citizens. He will visit Fort Lee to apologize in person to the mayor and citizens of that community. He has framed his reactions as "doing his job" and has said he is searching within himself to find what he may have done wrong. He has acknowledged that the citizens of New Jersey are disappointed but says his record as governor and his future work as governor should assuage their to-be-expected negative reaction. Will it be enough to save Chris Christie's place at tbe head of potential GOP presidential contenders? Will he continue to out-poll Hillary Clinton head-to-head? Stay tuned. Chris Christie has started his recovery as well as anyone could. In fact, I am not a great supporter of Governor Christie because I have not felt that he knows if he wants to be President. But today Christie made an excellent case for political leadership as it should be lived - in good times and bad.
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Gov. Christie has done just what he needed to do. His appointees serve at his pleasure and his pleasure is to not be embroiled in a scandal that "a bridge to no where" as it was once said about a bridge in Pittsburgh, PA.
ReplyDeleteI commend the governor for taking quick positive action. Obama and Clinton could learn a lesson here.
Kuddos to the Gov!
ReplyDeleteI just watched a live shot of the a governor in Ft. Lee with the crowds.
ReplyDeleteMr. Personality, hand shaking, cheek kissing, bending down to talk to children ... He is going to be difficult to beat.
His assists ... He's real, he's us.
As good as Gov. Christie's press conference was and his quick actions were appreciated and honorable. But he has set himself up to be looked at through a microscope with the National & New Jersey press.
ReplyDeleteHe tossed out that he would accept ZERO straying from the straight and narrow line that he has himself subscribed to his entire life. AS we speak there are reporters scouring through every word Chris Christie has ever said or any action he has ever taken or not taken.
Self proclaimed Mr. Squeaky Clean for his own salvation had better be squeaky clean. If not he won't recover from this episode.
If ALL the explanations that were forth coming from Gov. Christie yesterday press conference prove to be accurate ... then Chris Christie could well have taken a giant step forward in starting to secure the republican nomination in 2016 for the presidential run.
ReplyDeleteBut already there is talk and hints at a federal law suit against Christie and possibly others over this "Bridge Gate" stupidity.
Again if ALL is true and this whole story looses steam fast, gets off the front page, and is filed under "dead leads" Christie has risen the bar very high for other Republicans & Democrats to reach for.
But he has also put into play a high moral and responsive attitude for himself. Can Chris Christie live up to this level of honesty? And why not - being honest takes less effort than being dishonest. An idea that the politicians today don't seem to adhere to very often
While being interviewed or better grilled on CNN yesterday Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz seemed to be prepared to just simply "tar & feather" Gov. Christie for things that "she knows" are still out there about Bridge Gate.
ReplyDeleteReally! What Ms. Schultz knows about anything could fill a full paragraph in the Congressional Record. What she doesn't know would consumes a full NY Times Sunday edition - every line on every page. What she HOPES for is the same day in and day out, and that is that some scandal will come along about any republican that will get your heroes Obama & Clinton off the front page.
Seems that both major political parties have decided to remain equal in their neanderthal leadership position.
Too Good!!!
DeleteIt's too early to tell whether -- or how much -- the "Bridge gate Scandal” is going to damage Chris Christie's presidential ambitions.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the matter is eerily reminiscent of the IRS scandal involving systematic harassment of conservative individuals and groups in the run-up to the 2012 election.
But whether Governor Christie or President Obama were personally aware of the abuses perpetrated on their behalves is irrelevant. On some level, they set a tone in their administrations that signaled that such hardball would be tolerated, at least tacitly.
The IRS pursued the president's political interests completely unaware of—or indifferent to— the expense, stress and injustice it was visiting on regular Americans who were only doing what we are so frequently exhorted by our politicians to do: "Getting involved." Similarly, at least some members of the Christie Administration were willing to upset and inconvenience regular commuters who were simply trying to commute to work.
All these Americans were seen (to the degree they were taken into consideration at all) as something akin to "collateral damage" in the political warfare the elites were waging among themselves. That's a sign of a political or governing elite that no longer has respect for the citizens it's supposed to represent; one that has forgotten—or no longer believes—that the people are its masters, not its servants.
Such an attitude is the sign of a government that has grown too big and too powerful. It signals a threat to liberty. And it has no place in a healthy, free country.