CHRISTIE'S BRIDGE - WATERGATE FAST FORWARDED

Events are moving so fast in the Bridgegate scandal that it reminds Jay H. Ell of Watergate fast forwarded. The latter took place in a world that did not have 24/7 television channels and a world connected to the internet, recording in live time, a blow by blow commentary of the scandal. Watergate took literally years to unravel. Bridgegate has only being going for months. For the uninitiated the hullabaloo relates to closing two of three lanes of the George Washington Bridge, the busiest traffic bridge in the USA, between the States of New Jersey and New York causing traffic delays of four hours as well as untold medical and personal havoc.

The supposed motive for this bridge closure was political retribution of the Democratic Mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich who failed to endorse Chris Christie for Governor of New Jersey. The issue that has ensued has enveloped the charismatic Governor of New Jersey, Republican Presidential front runner, Chris Christie, who was described by Time as the savior of the Republican Party. It also involves the whole issue of governmental corruption where a public facility was used for political purposes. Jay H. Ell believes the enormity of the scandal hasn’t sunk in. It took years before Nixon’s inner circle resigned it has taken a few months to see the back of four of Christie’s inner circle with question marks hanging over him and the others.

For Chris Christie it is crunch time as his whole persona and credibility and therefore his political career is on the line. Looming in the future, as was with Nixon, is also possible legal implications. If it was John Dean that ultimately lead to Nixon’s downfall it could be a David Wildstein,  former Head of New Jersey’s Port Authority and therefore the bridge manager. He has provided the New Jersey State Legislature with a ton of documents that have made it quite clear that the Bridge closing was, at best, a conspiracy launched by the closest of Christie insiders.  Christie’s defense at this time is “plausible deniability”.  

 Another of the many issues the Governor still has to address is his non action for months while accusations were flying against his administration, even laughing the accusations off. In addition Christie’s whole narrative is at stake. The no - nonsense straight as a die, non bully administrator who supposedly had a positive working relationship with the Democrats image, is being seriously challenged. 

THE TIMELINE. 

“ Your personnel is your policy” - Rick Santorum, former Republican Presidential hopeful, on commenting on the scandal.

This is the timeline narrative, that is derived directly from the e - mails presented by former Head of the New Jersey Port Authority when responding to a subpoena to produce all the documents relating to the Port Washington Bridge closure and statements made by Governor Christie at his January 9, 2014 press conference.

On August 5, 2013 Governor Chris Christie met with his appointee, the Chairman of the Bridge Agency in New Jersey, Dave Simpson. The agenda was not included, thus far, in the subpoenaed documents.

On August 13, Bridget Anne Kelly Christie's deputy Chief of Staff, who up to two days prior to being fired, was at Christie’s side at a gubernatorial event, sent an e mail to David Wildstein, the Head of the New Jersey Port Authority. It had one sentence, “It is time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee”.  Within one minute Wildstein, a Christie appointee and inner circle player since way back, having gone to school with Christie, replied " got it”. Implicit in these two cryptic E- Mails is at least Kelly and Wildstein are in on a conspiracy to create havoc in Fort Lee. 

Wildstein could not have “got it” in one minute unless there had been previous communication at least between the two that the time had come to put a plan into effect. If only these two are involved then Ms. Kelly must be one powerful lady to set into motion an action that was illegal and could jeopardize her powerful  boss’s career. She would have to exude power to just give Wildstein an order which without a moment’s hesitation he would carry out. There are further e mails between these two key conspirators and on September 7, Wildstein states that he will let her know how “Fort Lee” goes.

The question then arises is there any evidence whatsoever that Kelly has this type of power in the Christie administration to order such a “dirty trick”. And then that this would be such common knowledge in Christie’s stable that Wildstein would be aware of it. On the contrary everyone has described Kelly as a loyal bureaucratic functionary. So there has to be an irresistible inference that at least some other members of the Christie inner circle are behind this.

On September 9 Wildstein and the Deputy Director of the New Jersey Port Authority Bill Baroni, another Christie appointee and school colleague initiate the closure of two lanes of the busiest bridge in the USA. (There is now at least one other conspirator, Baroni).

Within a day there are official complaints that the bridge closures could cause serious health and other problems, including a report by a Tina Lado, a Port Authority Official, that police had difficulty responding to a cardiac arrest and a missing child. 

On September 12 the Democratic Mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, writes to Bill Baroni that the closures are “punitive”. (Sokolich did not endorse Christie for the up coming November gubernatorial election).

On September 13 Patrick Foye, Head of the New York Port Authority that has jurisdiction over the New York section of the Bridge writes that that the lane closures were “abusive” and had had potentially dire consequences. This correspondence went to Governor Christie’s Office. Besides others that may have seen it Regina Egea received it. She has been nominated as Christie’s next Chief of Staff as his present one, Kevin O’Dowd, has been nominated by Christie to be the Chief Law Officer of New Jersey- attorney general.

On September 16 the New Jersey Port Authorities issued a statement saying the lines were closed for a “traffic study”.

On or about September 18 there are a series of E-Mails between Wildstein and a Bill Stepien. The latter was Christie’s campaign manager in both his successful campaigns and had been nominated by Christie to be both the Chairman of the Republican Party in New Jersey and the consultant to the Republican Governor’s Committee, which he was the newly appointed Chairman of. The e- mails contained jocular comments about the lane closures and derogatory statements about the Democratic Mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich. This brings the number of conspirators to this action to at least four of Christie’s closest insiders. 

Between mid - September and mid - November there are repeated enquiries about the lane closures. These moves are generally ignored, denied or “internal” investigations instituted.

On November 5 Republican Chris Christie is reelected Governor in a strongly Democratic State with an overwhelming vote and propelling him further as the leading Republican candidate for the Presidential Race. Already, in the polls he was the only possible Republican that can give Hillary a run. 

On November 13, a Christie spokesperson stated that the Governor does not involve himself in traffic situations.

On November 16, another of Christie’s inner circle, spokesperson Michael Drewniak, stated that the reason for the lane closure was a “traffic study”.

On December 2, in a press conference Christie joked about the closure and stuck to the traffic survey causation.

On December 4, Christie insider, Michael Drewniak meets with Wildstein.

On December 6, Wildstein resigns his position and thanks Drewniak for his “sound advice”.

On or about December 8 Christie ordered Kevin O’ Dowd, his Chief of Staff to investigate to “see if anyone was involved”. According to Christie they all lied to O’Dowd.

On December 20, Fort Lee Mayor Sokolich angrily responds to Christie’s assertion, that no -one had informed his office of the problems. (This is at least a week after Christie ordered the O’Dowd enquiry)

On January 8, 2014 Wildstein’s e mails become public.

On January 9, Christie held his Press Conference where he stated he was “humiliated and embarrassed” by the events. He categorically denied knowledge and or participation in the bridge incident. This was not vintage aggro Christie. He repeated again and again that this was his responsibility. 

He stated that he has soul searched “What I did wrong to have these folks think it was OK to lie to me?. (Interesting to note that the soul searching was not about what he had done wrong to create a culture of corruption). He also announced the termination of his Deputy Chief of Staff Bridgett Kelly and axed his campaign manger Bill Stepien from the future leadership of the New Jersey Republican Party and Consultant to the Republican Governors' National Committee.

On January 9, David Wildstein, the former Director of the New Jersey Port Authority appeared at a Transportation Committee of the New Jersey enquiry and refused to answer any questions on the e- mails he had submitted to the Committee.  Many of these had redacted  sentences. His lawyer told the Committee that if they obtained his client immunity for prosecution from the States of New Jersey and New York and the Federal Government then he would provide them with answers.

On January 9, Fort Lee’s Mayor Sokolich stated that the most important result of his meeting with Christie is that the latter reassured him that this would never happen again.

CHRISTIE THE BULLY, THE  BIPARTISAN POLITICIAN AND NARCISSIST

While Christie maintained that he was not a bully, the immediate response from Senior Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, to this crises was, "This reinforces the narrative that he is a kind of a bully.” Deborah Wassermann Chairperson of the Democratic Party was more vocal. She stated that when  people oppose him he exacts political retribution." When people question him he derides them and snidely jokes. And when anyone dares to look into his administration he  bullies and attacks". On Television and the internet there have been tens of clips of Christie humiliating, questioners, opponents and media people. 

Fort Lee’s Mayor, Sokolich, while keeping his cards close to the chest agrees. In his September 16 letter, see above, he says the action is “punitive”. Also his statement on January 9 following his meeting with Christie implies he believed that Christie had the power to see that this never happened again.

Ever since this issue there is a line of Democratic mayors lining up to report Christie bullying and victimization. After refusing to endorse Christie for Governor the Hoboken Mayor received 1% of her grant requests for her town. New Jersey City Mayor states that after his refusal to support Christie’s run Christie would not meet him canceling appointment after appointment. The town Elizabeth’s Mayor said that when local legislators refused to support Christie legislation he impacted the local economy by shutting down the Division of Motor Vehicles in their town. Conversely the Democratic Mayor of Springfield, an endorser of Christie, received a grant from the New Jersey Washington Port authority out of the blue!

Christie is beginning to look more and more like an enforcer who instituted a reign of terror on his opponents rather than a bipartisan politician. To show the frame of reference Christie was functioning in, he seriously believed that the Democratic legislature would automatically endorse his appointment of O’Dowd his current Chief of Staff, on January 14, as attorney general. O' Dowd would then be the chief judicial officer of New Jersey, overseeing the legitimacy of Bridgegate. This is not going to happen. 

Christie is in for another disappointment as the new Democratic Speaker of the Assembly is going to extend the subpoena power of the investigating committee beyond January 14. This had been previously in doubt. Speaker - elect Vincent Prieto has now stated that there are too many questions unanswered about this threat to public safety and abuse of power. To show the extent of distrust that has now manifested that there is talk even of impeachment by Congressmen Wisniewski who is conducting the probe. 

While Christie’s performance was masterful at the Press conference on January 8 and political theater at its best, he failed to address why he did not ask any of his inner circle what was going on at Fort Lee as all hell was breaking lose over a period of three months. It strains credulity that a trained prosecutor in effect gave all his staffers one hour to tell all and bought that they knew nothing of what was going on.  His office as early September 13 had been told by the head of the New York Port authority that the lane closures were “abusive” and had had potentially dire consequences.

Further at the press conference it was all about him and not about the millions he had inconvenienced. Jay H. Ell lost count of the times he said “I am”. He was disappointed, he was let down, he was the victim of it all. "What was in it in him that he gave the impression that it was ok to lie to him".  He fired Kelly not because of her abusive behavior but because she lied to him.  This press conference follows his narcissistic keynote address to the Republican Presidential Nomination Convention where he had the gall to speak about himself and not Romney. E. J. Robinson of the Washington Post labelled his egocentricism at the Press Conference as staggering.

Christie is not yet of the hook for personal involvement in this saga. This is only the beginning and he is already playing heavy defense.

MOTIVE:

For anyone who knows the dynamics of bullies and enforcers there is already motive enough for “teaching Sokolich a lesson” for all to see. However, there appears to be a possible additional motive that would answer the question as to why “the lesson” was delivered to Sokolich in Fort Lee. As Christie keeps saying he had never even met Sokolich and would not even have recognized him in a line - up. So why on earth would he want to go for him?

For the followers of this saga they may have also noted that Sokolich kept mentioning, in interviews, a billion dollar project for the town. That project is near the Port Washington Bridge and a big business advantage was that it had near access to the three access lanes for easy transit to New York. The moment those lanes were shut the backers nearly pulled out. This would explain why Sokolich’s priority would be to be reassured by Christie that this could never happen again. 

The story that this Project may have played a key role in this episode was revealed by Brian Murphy on Steve Kornacki’s MSNBC show. It is interesting to note that both Murphy and Kornacki, as reported by the online newspaper Business Insider, worked for the same Wildstein, the Head of the New Jersey Port Authority, when he ran a New Jersey political website. 

Timeline for new motive:

In the September 12th letter, see above, that Sokolich sent to Boroni, the deputy head of the Port Authority, it is now learned that in addition to objections to the lane shutting he wanted to know what is going to happen to his billion dollar project.

On a date unknown Boroni publicly questions the need for a small town to have three access lanes.

In Christie’s December 2, press conference, besides laughing the whole matter off, states, “Why does Fort Lee need 3 access lanes?”

CHRISTIE IS HISTORY

Christie is a high high profile politician and is the Republican’s establishment’s only realistic hope of defeating Hillary. He is backed by Fox to the hilt. To - date the only support that he really has got other than the Republican media is from the administrative Republican hierarchy, most of whom have defended him by attacking Obama and Hillary. Not even have the New Jersey Republican legislators been vocal in support. The Tea Party candidate Ron Paul did not even bother to hide his glee. Christie is in deep trouble. Not the least of his trouble that the so called “bipartisanship” is history. The Democrats in New Jersey are no longer frightened of him.  

The general consensus of all the pundits in all the media is that if they cannot actually prove that he was directly involved he will survive. Jay H Ell believes, with all that has happened and all there must be to come, he is history.