Monday, January 13, 2014

Bridgegate is Not as Important as You Think


When the history of the Christie reign is written, Bridgegate will be an interesting, but unmemorable chapter.

That's not to say that this scandal is unimportant today, but the long-term effect of the ersatz "traffic study" will pale in comparison to many of Christie's other blunders.

What will be the overall effect of Bridgegate?

Maybe a 91 year-old woman died because of the delay in emergency response services due to Christie's traffic jams, but that's uncertain. But how many anonymous people have died and will die due to Christie's callous disregard of the availability of health care to poor and middle-class New Jerseyans?

Thousands of kids were late for school because their busses couldn't navigate through the unnecessary traffic. But millions of school kids will suffer due to Christie's negligence of public education, his vilification of schoolteachers, and his promotion of education profiteers.

Air quality in Fort Lee and surrounding areas suffered because cars and trucks were sitting idly, spewing out carbon monoxide and other toxic gasses. But that pales in comparison to the destructive impact of Christie's unilateral pull out from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

Christie will not be impeached, nor will he resign over this matter - even if it is proven that he had prior knowledge (of which I have no doubt.) Maybe Bridgegate will scuttle his presidential ambitions, but his party wouldn't have nominated him anyway. He's just too sane and rational to rise to the top of the pile of cacophonous clowns that have hijacked the Party of Lincoln. The more important (and scary) fact is that New Jersey is stuck with his out-of-touch agenda for the next four years.

So let the investigation continue. It is important that the public know all of the facts. More of Christie's underlings will be punished, as they should be. But the man at the top will escape with, at worst, a slap on the wrist. Getting rid of Wildstein and Kelly needed to happen, but there are more than enough Christie cronies out there to fill those positions.

Hopefully when this is over, when Christie's luster is tarnished, the mainstream media will focus on the real harm that Christie's actions have done to our state, and on the problems he will exacerbate in the next four years.




Oh, and finally, a message to those Democratic mayors who supported Christie’s re-election. Good luck in collecting what was promised to you.

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