Port Authority Official Claims Christie Knew About Bridgewater Closings

We all knew that this was coming, right?

Allegations now out in the open that New Jersey's own Governor Chris Christie knew about the lane closures on the GWB while it was happening.

What's the significance of this?

Well, it's the first real signal that this scandal might have been under the direction of Christie himself. He has repeatedly denied knowing anything at the time, which of course comes with it's own list of problems - including incompetency and a decidedly questionable ability to choose truly trustworthy staff around him.

That may be bad, but the alternative is worse, since it would suggest that Christie indeed is a bully, and a petty one at that. Polls had him leading the race for re-election as New Jersey's governor by around 20-24 points over his opponent, Barbara Buono, at the time of the lane closures. It was hardly urgent that one mayor from one town would not endorse Christie, since he pretty much had the thing in the bag.

Yet, the lane closures happened and, up to this point, Christie has made a point of distancing himself from it. And up until today, no one in any significant position has suggested otherwise.

All of that changed, just hours ago as I write this. Take a look at this paragraph from a breaking news article from Reuters:

"David Wildstein, who resigned his post at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey late last year, said he had evidence that proves Christie had knowledge of the jams "during the period when the lanes were closed," according to a letter sent to the authority's lawyer and released to the newspaper."

What's the significance? Take a look at what a Princeton professor say:

"It's the first time a high-level official has contradicted the governor," said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University history professor who specializes in presidential politics.

Now, whether those claims wind up being true or not, time will tell.

Polls have shown that a solid percentage of people indeed suspect that Christie would have had to know about it.

Indeed, it seems hard to believe that this governor, who wants to be in control of everything, would not hve known about it. But, I guess stranger things have happened. It's just interesting, because I remember when this story happened, and it just seemed like one of those weird things that happen from time to time. I never imagined that it would blow up to become such a huge scandal, impacting NJ's governor, and possibly threatening not only his future political ambitions, which seemed destined for a run for the Presidency in 2016. Hell, I already saw some posts on Facebook calling for his impeachment.

Again, time will tell.

Here is the article that I got the information from to use for this blog entry:



"Ex-official says Christie knew about bridge lane closures -report", by Reuters via Yahoo News, January 31, 2014:

http://news.yahoo.com/christie-knew-bridge-lane-closures-ex-official-says-214352437--finance.html