During a lengthy question and answer session following his prepared remarks, Christie denied speaking with, meeting or even more than casually knowing several of the players in the scandal. Christie's performance, filled with prosecutorial doublespeak, was alternatively apologetic, combative and puzzling.
While it may be difficult to prove Christie's direct involvement, there is no doubt that the punishment meted out to Fort Lee resulted from the prosecutorial culture of his administration. Christie's staffers appear to have believed that they were working for a governor who would applaud their punitive acts. His track record as a prosecutor suggests that the staffers were likely correct in this assumption and whose most serious mistake was being sloppy by leaving a readily discoverable paper trail of emails and texts.
The real lesson from all of this may be that prosecutors in general make poor politicians. As is the case with Christie, their first instinct is to punish, typically in an entirely disproportionate manner that completely fails to weigh the equities. Their mindset dictates that the harsher the punishment, the better. Christie is typical in his inability to shed this prosecutorial mindset. A governor whose first impulse is to punish is not fit to serve. In the words of Thomas Paine, "An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty.
Christie's unsuitability for office has been a rather poorly kept secret. While being considered for the vice-presidential slot by candidate Mitt Romney, Christie was thoroughly vetted. Published reports claim that Romney staffers were "stunned by the garish controversies lurking in the shadows of his record." One Romney staffer went as far as to say that "If Christie had been in the nomination fight against us, we would have destroyed him--he wouldn't be able to run for governor again. When you look below the surface, it's not pretty."
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney declined to put Christie on his ticket because of a past that is "full of skeletons"
Americans have interesting priorities. Recent revelations of Stasi-like massive domestic spying have been met with barely a whimper, the continued erosion of Fourth Amendment rights elicit a collective yawn, but subject people to lengthy traffic delays and action will be demanded. For all of Christie's previous outrageous acts, it seems incredible that his undoing would come about as the result of a traffic jam. Yet it took a traffic jam to finally focus the media's attention on Chris Christie and his outrageous antics. The real irony of the matter is that a federal probe has been launched which may subject Christie to federal prosecution, a weapon with which he has demonstrated a proclivity for freely employing against a variety of enemies, both real and imagined.
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