A Bridge too Far?

Column for week of January 20, 2014                                 

     New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's bridge scandal may
seem insignificant compared to the IRS targeting opponents of
Obama.  It certainly doesn't stack up against the NSA spying on
everyone.  In some respects the bridge scandal points to a more
alarming problem than all of the other scandals.

     Newsmax reported as follows regarding statements by
former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani about the bridge
scandal; "'Politically stupid things, political pranks that turn bad,
happen in every administration,' Giuliani said Thursday on
CNN's 'Anderson Cooper 360.'  'Don't tell me this doesn't
happen in the Obama administration, in the Clinton
administration, the Bush administration.'"

     Giuliani seems to imply that snarling traffic for days,
risking lives, and inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of
drivers is just boys being boys.  Is it comforting that those who
call themselves public servants laughingly pull off such a stunt
merely to get revenge against a rival politician?  It isn't even
clear how the stunt harmed the rival.  It is quite clear how it
harmed hundreds of thousands of the people the political hacks
pretend to serve.

     I don't doubt that such stunts are common place.  They
are part of the lifestyle of power hungry, arrogant, egomaniacs. 
Neither do I doubt that murders are common place in large
cities.  That murder is common doesn't excuse or justify murder. 
Neither does commonness justify destructive political pranks. 
Something that is common is a far greater threat than something
that is rare.

     The Watergate burglary that brought down Nixon is a
better example of a prank gone wrong than is the lane closings. 
Watergate was just one political party spying on another like
they have been doing forever.  Even a president lying about it
was nothing new or unusual.  Also, Watergate didn't inflict
collateral damage on hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

     I find it interesting that Nixon was cashiered for spying
on the opposition, while the Obama administration spies on
everyone and Obama still stands tall.  Perhaps, though, not as
tall as he used to stand.

     The people who orchestrated the lane closings are petty,
vindictive, and immature.  They are unfit to serve in government
in any capacity other than as prison inmates.

     Governor Christie denies any prior knowledge of the
"prank."  His denial certainly made him sound presidential.  I
could hear echoes of past presidents in the background.  There
was Bill Clinton proclaiming "I didn't have sex with that
woman."  Richard Nixon asserting "I am not a crook."  More
recently Barrack Obama denying any knowledge of the
shenanigans at the IRS.

     I'm not a fan of zero tolerance.  Here though we may be
close to something that warrants zero tolerance.  We should at
least have minimum tolerance for politicians and their minions
who flippantly inflict harm on innocent people for reasons as
trivial as petty revenge on another politician.  There does seem
to be some dispute about which politician was the target, and
why.  Does it really matter?

     I don't know how much Christie knew in advance.  I
don't know if he tried to orchestrate a cover up.  I do find it
suspicious that it took him nearly four months to acknowledge
what happened.

     Some things are clear.  A number of his underling
appointees were up to their ears in the "prank."  Appointing that
many arrogant, vindictive and immature minions is by itself
enough to destroy any claim that Governor Christie is fit to be
president.  He isn't even fit to be governor, or dog catcher. 
Governor Christie has gone a bridge too far to ever be president.

     If Christie is the best the Republican Party can offer as a
presidential candidate, it is long past time for the Republican
Party to join the Whigs in that great, smoke filled caucus room
in the sky.  And, I'm not so sure that smoke filled caucus room
won't lie in the opposite direction.

aldmccallum@gmail.com
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 Copyright 2014
Albert D. McCallum