You can see the media scrum here over allegations that top Christie aids played a role in a highway incident which, in effect, punished the city of Fort Lee, presumably as its Democrat mayor didn’t endorse Chris Christie for re-election. There’s already talk of criminal charges coming from the NJ Democrat Senate Majority leader.
New Jersey State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D) said Wednesday she thinks criminal charges may come in the growing scandal over last September’s lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.
Yet, it was only yesterday Christie was heralding his state’s passage of the DREAM Act as a supreme act of bi-partisanship.
Today, not only can you say goodbye to that high-minded notion, given today’s events Christie looks incredibly foolish, if not like just another disingenuous panderer.
In fact, Christie has been beating the drum of inter-party cooperation and bi-partisanship not only in NJ, but also as what’s required in Washington, D.C. as the entire rationale for any potential national candidacy.I and others have been saying that he’s not only wrong, it’s incredibly naive to argue for more cooperation in Washington because that mindset only grows Washington at a time when it’s incredibly unpopular. It’s a terrible rationale for any potential 2016 GOP nominee.
Now, given this highway story front and center – and likely to be so for some time – not only does his own talk of bi-partisanship take a huge hit, he’s about the be the target of a Democrat party that sees him as a threat for the White House in 2016. And he and or his staff have handed them the perfect weapon to deconstruct the very national political argument upon which he’s been building the foundation for a potential run for the presidency.
Ironically enough, Fort Lee’s traffic problems brought about from some deliberate lane closings may prove to be a major roadblock for Christie on his presumed path to the presidency.