My Mom always told me, "Son, pause to think, before you speak."
That wise motherly advice has often served me well over the years. Too bad for Chris Christie, he seems to have the opposite instinct.
Who can forget this snide one-liner from the unflappable "mover of cones" ...
Christie says it's Democrats, not he, playing politics with GWB traffic flap
by Michael Phillis, State House Bureau, northjersey.com -- December 2, 2013
[...]
At a press conference Monday, Christie responded with thick sarcasm when he was asked whether he had anything to do with the lane closures.
“I moved the cones, actually unbeknownst to everybody,” he said.
Notice how Mr. Christie
avoids answering the reporter's direct question: "whether he had anything to do with the lane closures?"
If Mr. Christie did indeed "have nothing to do with the 'faux traffic study'" -- Why then, did he complain so vehemently to his Port Authority 'counter-part' over in New York state, about all the hard questions now being asked?
Christie Appointee Resigns Over Huge Traffic Jam to NYC
by Bill Hoffmann, newsmax.com -- 13 Dec 2013
[...]
Asked about the closures Monday, Christie quipped, "I moved the cones, actually unbeknownst to everybody."
But Christie is definitely not laughing behind the scenes.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Christie phoned New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, to complain about a Cuomo appointee's handling of the flap.
The newspaper says Christie complained that Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority, was "pressing too hard" to get to the bottom of the issue.
Isn't such "interstate interference" simply another form of guilty denial? ... the "unbeknownst" beginnings of a
very crude kind of "GW Coverup"?
Especially, given Christie's current-day outrage about the situation now, you'd think he might have shown a little bit more "curiosity" about it back then. (Back when civic-oriented citizens were rightly outraged about the "intentional" public safety hazard, they had to endure -- for no valid reason.)
But that "speaking on impulse thing, before you think through the long-run ramifications," will get you every time. As Chris Christie is now finding out.
It seems a lot of political maneuvering was done "off-line" in the aftermath of this GW Bridge fiasco. Here a "now-former Christie aide," informs the NY noise-maker that his concerns will "get fixed" -- but first he must 'quit going public' about his concerns.
You know like "good public servants" are supposed to do -- do everything in secret.
Documents Lay Bare Port Authority Infighting, Stonewalling In 'Bridgegate' Lane Closures
by Keith Brown (Editor) wall.patch.com -- Jan 11, 2014
[...]
Foye's concerns about the lane closures were captured in a Wall Street Journal report last month that said Christie complained in a private phone call to Cuomo that the Port Authority head was pressing too hard to get to the bottom of the lane-closure maneuvers.
In an exchange that same day, Baroni took issue with Foye was venting his concerns in an email to other Port Authority officials and wrote, "Pat, we need to discuss prior to any communications."
"Bill we are going to fix this fiasco," Foye shot back.
"I am on way to office to discuss. There can be no public discourse," Baroni responded.
Here's the wider context of that
interstate exchange as reported by the Wall Street Journal, and recorded as part of the public record of the current NJ Investigation, into this little cone-moving flap:
Document page 326
Christie Aide Quits Over Traffic-Jam Controversy
Lane Closure Has Turned Into a Headache for Potential 2016 GOP Contender
by Ted Mann, Heather Haddon -- Wall Street Journal - (Full Text) [Dec 13, 2013]
A top appointee of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie resigned Friday as a controversy over a traffic jam in a New York City suburb mushroomed into a political headache for a potential 2016 GOP presidential contender. The resignation of Bill Baroni, Mr. Christie's top representative at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, represented the second time in a week that a Christie ally has stepped down over disruptive lane closures ordered at the George Washington Bridge.
[...]
The controversy has highlighted differences between the camps of Messrs. Cuomo and Christie, two ambitious governors who control the sprawling authority and have different sets of employees there. Mr. Cuomo's top Port Authority aide, Patrick Foye, has said he wasn't told of the closure and called it "abusive" and the resulting traffic a safety hazard. Mr. Foye said under oath this week that he didn't believe there was a traffic study. Mr. Foye sent a Sept 13 email reversing the lane closures and vowing to investigate, triggering an immediate response from Mr. Baroni, according to correspondence reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. "Bill we are going to fix this fiasco," Mr. Foye emailed Mr. Baroni. Mr. Baroni replied: "I am on way to office to discuss. There can be no public discourse." The Journal reported Thursday that Mr. Christie recently called Mr. Cuomo to complain about Mr. Foye. Mr. Christie on Friday denied having such a conversation. A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo said Mr. Christie's comments on Friday were correct. People familiar with the matter maintained on Friday the conversation took place.
Here's that same NJ Investigation on
page 307, recording the report that New York Governor Cuomo,
eventually decided to agree with Governor Christie's version of the GW Bridge events --
whatever the explanation of the day might have been at the time ...
Cuomo Backs Christie in Bridge Lane-Closure Flap
by Cathy Burke -- Newsmax [Dec 16, 2013]
Neighboring New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday backed Chris Christie's explanation of a bridge lane closure that has ensnared the New Jersey governor in controversy for weeks, two reports said Monday. Christie has insisted the lane closures in Fort Lee, N.J., leading to the heavily used George Washington Bridge into New York City, were precipitated by a traffic study. Some Democrats, however, said the unannounced lane closures were pure political revenge -- because Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich wouldn't join other New Jersey mayors in endorsing Christie for re-election. "I am sure it is as Gov. Christie says it is," Cuomo said Monday, both the Daily News and Wall Street Journal reported.
And here is apparently, the story that Governor Cuomo was simply blanketly agreeing with (if you follow the Newsmax linked time-line, in the previous quote).
That then-Christie story-line was simply this -- that "a mistake got made" ... Now there's a Newsflash!
Christie: Bridge Traffic Controversy 'Sensationalized'
by Sandy Fitzgerald, newsmax.com -- 14 Dec 2013
[...]
On Friday, Bill Baroni, the governor's chief appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, stepped down.
Earlier in the week, Port Authority executive David Wildstein, a longtime friend of Christie's who ordered the lane closures, quit his job.
Christie, announcing Baroni's resignation on Friday, complained the burgeoning scandal has been "sensationalized."
Further, he said "a mistake got made" and Baroni's resignation was 'a change I was going to make anyway."
Christie on Friday, addressing many of the accusations that were brought up during a six-hour hearing this week, said he has not heard of a "culture of fear" Port Authority workers described, and denied meeting Sokolich.
[...]
Flash-forward to the current Chris Christie apology tour.
That Traffic-Study that wasn't has now somehow morphed into this 'secret vendetta' of 'a few rogue operatives' --
most of whom, have now been severely dealt with.
You see, it's all clear as mud -- and we can put it all behind us now. Because Chris Christie is very sorry, and very sad -- Soprano-sad that he ever joked about moving those damn cones!
Three top moments from Chris Christie’s morphing traffic study news conference
by Alexandra Petri, washingtonpost.com -- Jan 9, 3014
[...]
1) Transforming Traffic Studies.
“I don’t know whether this was a traffic study that then morphed into a political vendetta or a political vendetta that morphed into a traffic study,” Christie actually said at one point.
“That’s the worst Transformer in history,” quipped Ben Greenman, on Twitter.
The presser went on to develop into an elaborate vendetta against traffic studies or traffic study against vendettas, or whatever the appropriate terminology is. “I don’t know what makes a legitimate traffic study. It’s not my area of expertise. And so I wouldn’t have a nose for that. I just wouldn’t. I don’t know what makes a legitimate traffic study.” No one ever saw the day when Chris Christie would have to stand in front of the people of New Jersey insisting he did not know how traffic studies worked. “I’ve been told that sometimes they’re done live, sometimes they’re done by computer model. I’ve heard that in the professionals who’ve testified for the Port Authority. But you’d have to go to them to ask them what a legitimate traffic study is. I probably wouldn’t know a traffic study if I tripped over it.” Or if hundreds of commuters did.
“I don’t know whether -- like I said -- I think I answered this before -- I don’t know whether this was some type of rogue political operation that morphed into a traffic study or a traffic study that morphed into an additional rogue political -- I don’t know.”
Well long as "you don't know" Sir, then I guess that clears it up, and everything is accounted for then. Glad we got to the bottom of that. So in recap, according to the rogues' fearsome leader:
Stupid mistakes were made. Only a few rogue operators made them. And we have no earthly idea WHY -- THEY had to stop traffic, like that. But boy, are we sorry about it now!
Must have been some sort of rogue, virtual-vendetta, morphing secret traffic study, hey Governor? One that the New York Port Authority officials --
were never told about, eh?
Nothing like getting to the bottom of it. You know, that someone, somewhere "made a mistake." The Buck stops there ... and nowhere else. Certainly NOT with the {cough, cough} "mover of cones" ...
Like, I was describing at the beginning of the post: Sometimes it's better to keep your mouth shut, and be thought a fool ... than to open it, and remove all doubt.
Of course, that requires a healthy quantity of forethought and self-restraint -- ingredients sorely lacking in the "cone moving operation" -- otherwise known as Christie's senior {gone-rogue} staff.
Without that, your own words and actions, eventually give away the real truth: about vendettas, and rogues, and fictitious "mistaken" traffic studies, and such.
Even as your clammy exterior, betrays the claim that "you simply don't know," much about anything ...
As no doubt, this uncalled-for Political Vendetta of an Investigation will eventually prove, Right Governor?