Governor Chris “I am not a bully” Christie

It is all the rage today to talk about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and the scandal regarding reports that his aides punished a New Jersey city Democrat mayor for not endorsing Christie in the last election.  The punishment was a lane closure on a bridge which tied up commuters for a few hours and was no doubt merely intended to cause grief for the mayor with irate calls.  But playing in with traffic can have serious repercussions. *

We agree with many aspects of the following commentary from Gary Bauer at Campaign for Working Families. But we are unsure if we are totally on the same wavelength, so consider our follow -up comments.  From Bauer:

Is that really very different from Barack Obama punishing veterans and tourists during the government shutdown because congressional Republicans wouldn’t do what he wanted? There is little doubt that the open air memorials and national parks were closed in the hopes that outraged visitors would blame the Republicans.

And while Christie may not be my first choice for chief executive, at least he’s acting like one by firing the people responsible. Has Obama fired anyone at the IRS? Has Obama fired anyone at the State Department for Benghazi? Has Obama fired anyone at the Justice Department for Fast and Furious? The answer would be no, no and no.

Chris ” I am not a bully”  Christie is getting plaudits from some for handling the matter aggressively. Others are saying we have not heard the end of it. We will give it to Christie for managing the press for today.  But they are not done with the matter and as Rush opined today we have not seen a lot of Republicans jumping to his defense.

There is always a stench in New Jersey and it has nothing to do with the geography. Some may figure the whole matter  just reflects business as usual —  hard ball politics —  and Christie’s aides were just playing the game.

But Christie was trying to build a reputation of Mister Sincerity who was happy to work with Democrats and just wanted to get the job done.  His praise for Obama (some say bromance) after Hurricane Sandy was part of an image building political gambit useful to both in their reelection efforts. They deserve each other.  Christie was particularly pathetic however because it was over the top and reeked of all about him as did his refusal to help Ken Cuccinelli in the Virginia governor race.

We think any negative fallout from just the petty politics of the lame lane scandal are just deserts for Christie.  The aura of nastiness in New Jersey continued under his watch.  He has been in charge long enough to stop the nonsense under his control. How good of an example has he been if such petty activity seemed de rigueur by his underlings?  The alleged decisiveness is arguably the gumba politics of sending the message – don’t get caught.  Christie took care of the problem.

The Democrats and the MSM have now dropped the dime on Christie. He was a toy they played with to irritate the Republican base.  But it is now approaching presidential season and he may have presidential ambitions.   Time to take care of the problem.

*  This report via Drudge suggests that commuter irritation is the least of the possibilities.  The Democrats and MSM have plenty to chew on about this.

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