No, that wasn't one of Chris Christie's subordinates. It was one of the Democrats who endorsed him in the last election.
Up til now, I've tried my best to avoid writing about the Christie scandal(s).
My thinking: for anyone who has been paying attention to New Jersey politics, none of this is all that surprising.
However, one of the major stories that Democrats should really be learning from but I think is getting lost in all of this is how many of the Democrats who endorsed Christie-contributing not only to his re-election success but to his Presidential prospects-have continued to voice their support for him. I suppose their loyalty can be commended. Just not where it belongs.
And I think, this should be the scandal Democrats everywhere should be focusing on the most: much of the Democratic political machinery in New Jersey largely enabled Christie's bullying behavior. They threw their own mayors under the bus, their own Gubernatorial candidate under the bus, so they could be on the winning team.
I'm not saying we should go all tribalism and Democrats should never work to the benefit of Republicans and vice versa. In the course of performing their duly-elected responsibilities, conciliatory cooperation should be practiced by all sides. However, this goes beyond consensus building. This is state Democrats abandoning their own affiliated party members because their were clearly implicit consequences for defying Chris Christie, and benefits if they went along with him.
Should these NJ Democrats have risked facing Christie's wrath by refusing to go along with his schemes? Yes, absolutely. That was their choice for running as Democrats, as being elected as Democrats, and as representing Democratic values and standards. And because they definitely knew some of their other fellow Democrats would be facing that wrath; they should not have had to stand alone on so many occasions. And we should not act like all Democrats are incapable of going against the best interests of their party.
To be fair, it's not just state Democrats who left Buono dangling in the wind.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the chair of the DNC, "wrote a book about women in politics — you have the first woman nominated for governor in New Jersey's history, and we just never really got the support from the DNC," said one person close to the Buono campaign. The person pointed to a column from The Washington Post's E.J. Dionne, in which he wrote that his "hunch is that national Democrats will regret they did not give Buono, a credible candidate, more help." (emphasis mine)
However, Democrats within the state should have known first hand the importance of fighting to have Christie defeated. At least national Dems weren't freaking endorsing him in large numbers. They weren't helping to keep this character in power. They should know best of all the kind of politician, the kind of tactics, they were endorsing.
Christie reopened the governor’s office, but with an implied “you’re either with me or against me” ethos. Those who worked with him — by keeping a low profile, voting for parts of his agenda or even endorsing his reelection — could count on getting their phone calls returned and their needs addressed. Those who criticized risked being locked out.
For some Democrats, it was an easy decision. They saw no advantage in tangling with a governor whose popularity only seemed to soar with every attack on sewerage authority bureaucrats, teacher union leaders and the occasional mayor, like Atlantic City’s Lorenzo Langford, one of the few big-city mayors who openly clashed with Christie.
If anyone's keeping count, Langford lost his re-election bid last year to his Republican challenger. He'd been elected mayor three times previously.
Do I think Chris Christie and his administration resorted to the underhanded political schemes in Atlantice City that are coming to light with Bridgegate? No, but I think it is a perfect example of how allowing Christie's repugnant behavior to go unchallenged and even applauded for so long has tangibly hurt the integrity of Democrats throughout the state.
As a matter of principle, we owe the citizens of New Jersey to investigate every single allegation of unethical behavior by Chris Christie and his administration, and investigate thoroughly. But for the Democratic Party, the largest scandal here should be the members of its own party who chose to side with and run interference for Christie's brazen vindictive acts and attitude. So I hope those of us on the left do not choose to just seek out the cases of Christie retribution; we should also look more critically at Democrat politicians who have unethically benefited from this bullying, as well.
People should be held accountable for anything unethical that transpired. That should go for both parties.
7:56 AM PT: Found this link which is interesting.
The state Democratic Party constitution requires that Democratic officials who endorse a candidate of an opposing party be immediately stripped of all party positions, along with party support for campaigns.
8:07 AM PT: See Bill W's comment and see if there is anyone you recognize, or more importantly, voted for.