This really is the
gift that keeps on giving. Christie finally
speaks:
"Mistakes are made and when mistakes are made people have to be held accountable for them," Christie said. OK. Go on. But the whole affair is "created and manufactured," according to New Jersey's governor, and "a whole lot of hullabaloo." Really?
As a reminder, this is what the "manufactured" affair is about:
One day after the Wall Street Journal reported that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had privately asked New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to back off an investigation into Bill Baroni, Christie's top appointee to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Baroni has resigned.
Last September, Baroni mysteriously ordered the closure of two of the three lanes from Fort Lee, New Jersey, to the George Washington Bridge. The blockade created enormous traffic jams in Fort Lee and jeopardized public safety by disrupting the ability of first responders to move throughout the city. Three days later, the lanes were reopened, but the question everybody wants answered is this: Why were the lanes closed in the first place?
Baroni claimed the lanes were closed as part of a traffic study, however,
no one at the NY/NJ Port Authority had heard of the study. In reality, it looks like the closure was payback for Fort Lee's mayor not endorsing Christie'e reelection campaign.
Read below the fold for Christie's response.
But back to Christie:
"I don't have any recollection of ever having met the mayor of Fort Lee in my four years," Christie said. "He was not somebody that was on my radar screen in any way—politically, professionally, or in any other way—until these stories came out in the aftermath of the closing."
Then Christie said that Democrats just want to make everything about him, including stuff, apparently, that his cronies do in order to take political revenge but which end up screwing over regular people just trying to get to work. The line delivered to Tony Soprano by his mother applies here to Christie: "Poor you!"
Finally, the money quote from the governor:
"I am ultimately responsible for every person that I put into this government and the actions they take. That's different, obviously, than direct responsibility. But ultimate responsibility? Sure. I understand that."
In other words, I take responsibility, but don't try to hold me accountable. Got it?