The Descent of Chris Christie

Chis Christie, the tough and competent Republican who gets on well with Democrats, transformed himself into the chief of a bullying gang who blocked bridges to take revenge on non-supporters. This is bad news for the Republican Party.

Christie, the governor of New Jersey, is the Republican hope for re-taking the White House in 2016. In a poll given by CNN/ORC International two weeks ago, he was the only Republican who managed to match Hillary Clinton, a possible candidate for the presidential election of 2016: she with 46 percent and he with 48 percent — within a margin of error of two percentage points.

The other possible Republican candidates: Paul Ryan, who was the vice presidential choice of Mitt Romney in the 2012 race; Ted Cruz, the strident tea party representative; Rand Paul, the libertarian who makes gaffes; Marco Rubio, the Hispanic “Obama”; and Jeb Bush, also known as the “best of the brothers” – are all leagues away from Hillary.

The carefully cultivated image of Christie and his accessories was of a Clint Eastwood who was overweight, outspoken and a real “man of action.”

Christie scolded voters and was not shy about speaking the truth, even to his Republican colleagues. Moreover, he supported President Obama during the rescue efforts of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, at the same time pleasing Republicans with his fiscal orthodoxy and his distaste for teachers unions.

That being said, he was not as radical as his tea party colleagues — to the point of totally alienating independent voters, whose votes are necessary to win an election.

In the case of what is being called “Bridgegate,” aides to Christie were determined to close one of the busiest bridges in the country as revenge against the mayor of Fort Lee, N.J., who did not support Christie in his bid for re-election. By doing so they totally undermined his image. It is not exactly bipartisan to punish thousands of inhabitants of a city to retaliate against an opposing politician, right?

Several weeks ago, Christie started making jokes over his possible involvement in the imbroglio: “I actually was the guy working the cones out there — you really are not serious with that question.” But what started to surface was a long history of bullying. Reports in The New York Times showed that he retaliated against various people who dared to cross his path: an ex-governor lost the right to have security accompany him, a Rutgers University professor had fiscal cuts to his programs, a state senator was “uninvited” to an event in his own district by the governor.

Christie swears that he did not know anything about “Bridgegate” and fired two aides who were involved. If this were the truth, it casts doubts over his abilities to manage (and one is reminded of Lula’s defense in the case of the monthly allowance).

The Opposition Crowed

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chair of the National Democratic Committee, said that Christie is “completely untrustworthy” and “gave up his right” to any leadership position in the future.*

“Without entering into the question about how much he really knew, it was clear that Christie created a culture among his senior aides that this type of behavior is acceptable.”*

But, to paraphrase a Christie aide, who ordered the blockage of lanes entering the bridge to worsen traffic in Fort Lee: “It is time for a lovely rehabilitation of the image of Chis Christie.”*

* Editor’s note: These quotations, accurately translated, could not be verified.