Watching the presidential hopes of anointed Republican savior Chris Christie go up in flames like the Hindenburg, another gas giant that met an untimely demise in New Jersey is a well needed bit of comic relief along the daily path to the great collapse. The New Jersey Governor, long a favorite of the corrupt GOP establishment of the Karl Rove wing of the party has been brought low by the very trait that so endeared him to so many, his arrogant, sarcastic, bullying way of doing business. He enraged the so-called tea party wing with his appearances with Barack Obama last fall prior to the presidential election when Barry visited the area ravaged by Superstorm Sandy and gobbled up media coverage touring the ruins. This must have enraged the Romney campaign to no end but as it was the typical mess of a corporate run operation filled with micromanagement, egomaniacs and yes incompetence it was well on the way to blowing up without the help of the rotund one's sucking up to the hated Obama.
The issue that has brought Christie down, very imaginatively dubbed “Bridgegate” by the state-corporate media that really must have tapped their creative reservoirs to come up with that one is all about the wanton abuse of power that has permeated every institution in this once great country. The good Governor, a big fat blowhard of a bully if there ever was one has been caught in the middle of a nasty political reprisal scheme that involved aides within his office ordering lane closures on the George Washington Bridge under the pretense of a bogus traffic study. Two access lanes to what is said to be the world's busiest bridge were closed off for days creating a nightmare of gridlock. It appeared to specifically affect the town of Fort Lee where the mayor allegedly failed to support Christie in his recent reelection campaign. The resulting traffic fiasco likely cost businesses millions of dollars, screwed hundreds of thousands of innocent taxpayers caught up in this political vendetta and impeded the ability of emergency services, including ambulances from getting the sick and injured to medical care. This included a 91 year old woman who perished after paramedics were delayed from reaching her in a typically timely fashion. The lawsuits are going to be coming very soon and what is to this point known is only the edge of the scab that is about to be peeled away.
Christie, being the stand-up guy that he loves to boast about immediately began throwing staff members under the bus, claiming ignorance and conducting a press conference that was at times a monumental exercise in self pity as well as a shameless forum for the dispersing of more of the same self serving horseshit that the fat man is used to serving up. First off the claim that it was a few rogue staff members like longtime buddy David Wildstein who according to El Gordo was a person within that buffer zone of accountability that is the “circle of trust” brought shame upon the Republican establishment front-runner by “betraying” that very trust. Wildstein may be perfectly willing to fall on his sword for his former boss, constantly invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a state legislative committee inquiry but Christie’s story stinks. First of all he is a control freak along the lines of Tony Soprano and those who ran afoul of the HBO series mob boss either ended up sleeping with the fishes or received a visit from a baseball bat wielding thug like Paulie Walnuts. Think Nixon and the “cancer on the presidency” that led to the paranoid former president throwing his trusted aides to the wolves until there was nobody left but him to devour and we all know how that ended up.
It is also a nice bit of schadenfreude being enjoyed by many as they watch this sordid spectacle unfold and the very media that embraced the fat man from Jersey now descend upon him like a pack of rabid dogs. There are no more puff-pieces about the lap band surgery this week as all but the crooked party establishment types like Rove are now fighting a two-front war against the drooling Democrats as well as the so-called tea party. Christie’s joining his cohorts like Peter King in kicking Senator Rand Paul around are now likely envisioning roasting the fat pig on a spit. Judson Phillips, the leader of Tea Party Nation (one of the group that hijacked the original libertarian movement and helped to turn it into servile GOP shock troops) could barely conceal his glee when interviewed by CNN:
"This incident is proof that once again the most dangerous place on the earth is the spot between Chris Christie and his presidential ambitions," Phillips told CNN.
"I strongly suspect there will be litigation as a result of this and the beauty of litigation is the truth will come out. I strongly suspect there is much more to this than what Chris Christie let on in his news conference."
Phillips is correct that there will be litigation and one would expect that those sacrificed by Christie are already in the process of cutting deals with prosecutors for copping to lesser charges by rolling over on the loudmouthed narcissist.
Justin Raimondo of the libertarian website Antiwar.com nailed it in his most recent column “Lessons of Bridge Gate”:
In Chris Christie’s world, there are no constraints: stop traffic to get back at a political rival? Spy on Americans? Violate the Constitution? Violate the trust of the people who elected you? You just go right ahead – because you’re Chris Christie, for Pete’s sake! Rules are for the Little People! When you’re a high-ranking member of the political class – when the "donor class" comes begging to you to run for the highest office in the land – the rules don’t apply. You’re exempt – just ask James Clapper.
Christie exemplifies everything that’s wrong with America, not only politically but psychologically: putting aside his "big government conservatism," the man’s a bully. The problem, however, is that America loves a bully. Videos of Christie going ballistic and telling off various of his constituents for daring to question his ultimate wisdom are part of what made him famous – and attractive to the "donor class" as a putative presidential candidate. And while he’s kept his (horrible) foreign policy views relatively close to his vest, so far, if he’ll cause a major traffic jam in his own state to spite a political rival what would he do to spite a rival nation – and what kind of consequences would it augur for the rest of us? I shudder to think about it.
Governor Christie is exactly the type of man that is attracted to positions of power in this land of lost honor and broken dreams and were he to manage to stomp his way into the White House he would make Obama’s pettiness and penchant for politics look like a third grader running a lemonade stand. Christie would being with him his entire rotten entourage of cronies and gangsters who would resemble more the Sopranos than the founding fathers. Christ, he could even appoint a stone fascist like Rudy Giuliani as Attorney General. Just imagine this guy with the control of the war machine, the bully pulpit and the unrestrained surveillance powers of the NSA Stasi at his command.
Fortunately thanks to “Bridgegate” that more than likely is not going to happen; he has been hoisted upon his own petard although it required a heavy duty forklift for the task.
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