New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has to face the press some time, and I guess he figured that 11 am is as good a time as any. But, unless he is announcing his resignation, I don’t think it is possible for him to improve his situation or do much to slow the cancer that will consume his administration. He will face government probes, including at the federal level, and he will be in court a lot, trying to explain why ambulances were delayed and answering to mayors who want to be financially compensated for the damage Christie did. This story will never go away until Christie goes away. The conspiracy wasn’t actually all that tightly-held. A lot of people knew about it both when it was happening and shortly afterward. They are going to get sued. This isn’t something that can be solved by asking a loyal subordinate to take the fall. It won’t work out like that.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
OH, how I’d love to see that.
But even more, I’d like to see him pull a Rob Ford and REFUSE to resign.
Oh, yeah.
He won’t resign.
But what the fuck can he even say for himself that won’t immediately be disbelieved and investigated?
Nothing.
press conference will be awesome.
Also, reposting this from December 2013:
Can’t wait to see if his usual arrogant NJ dickishness will be on display.
This is a Godsend for Democrats. Christie was the one GOP candidate who could have caused serious problems in the 2016 Presidential election. He may still do, but all these weasel words can’t but damage his manufactured reputation for administrative competence, pragmatism and straight talking. Won’t help the GOP in the mid-terms either, if one of their most popular candidates is constantly in the news in a bad way. Makes it even more likely they will nominate an evolution denying firebrand as their Pres. nominee.
Arrogance personified.
Interesting to see how the ex Fed’l Prosecutor (Bush appointed?) will protect himself. His ego won’t let him resign but he’s lost any opportunity to get out ahead of this one, so the Right’s field for 2016 is happily folding up their strait jackets to give them arms free room to race to the podiums.
He is a bully, and this is the entire story. He bullied a teacher. He bullies critics. Whenever criticized, he immediately attacks the critic. And now we see how this kind of terrible approach will do in long-term public policy. If POTUS and China pissed him off, what would he do? Raise tariffs?
Resigning is for Democrats. Anyway, by the time Christie’s lap-band surgery starts working its magic and he loses 100 lbs or so, that’ll be the top story and all this’ll be a distant memory.
…”by the time Christie’s lap-band surgery starts working its magic and he loses 100 lbs or so, that’ll be the top story and all this’ll be a distant memory.”
He’ll “lap” the field? I suspect he may in fact survive this scandal. Republican’s have a way of getting away with this kind of shit all the time. I’m sure you will see some of the bullying, arrogant nature on display at the press conference as soon as someone asks a “pointed” question. For a bully and a big man, he’s awfully thin skinned.
The big wild card to me is how the rest of the GOP will treat him. I think it’s still the best bet that they rally around him sufficiently for him to get past this, but otoh he’s pissed off enough people on the right that they might well take the opportunity to pull him down.
Guess we’ll find out.
This episode sparked a political observation for me. I realize this isn’t exactly profound, but it is the culmination of what we’ve witnessed the last few decades.
The GOP is now the Thug party. Forget policies or religion or even tribes. The GOP is where people who are naturally Thugs go.
It wasn’t always like this. Up to 50 years ago the Thugs gravitated to the Democrats in the South and in the cities in the rest of the country. Both parties both had their fair share of Thugs running things.
Today the only Thug I can think of left in the Democratic Party is Rahm Emanuel whose doing Daley-esque Thug things in the mayor’s office. Hmmm … probably there are still a few Democratic Thugs in local politics in one-party areas like Chicago. But they are a vanishing species nationally.
American politics has evolved to where we have the Thug party and then everyone else. The challenge is to get the everyone else into a coalition.
American politics has evolved to where we have the Thug party and then everyone else. The challenge is to get the everyone else into a coalition.
I had a similar realization recently. To me, politics in the US has boiled down to one big exercise of the Spanish Prisoner–and there’s a gigantic coalition going all-out to convince as many of us as possible to sell each other out in a lame attempt at self preservation.
Of course there’s always been that struggle between opposing ideologies in civilization going back to Plato at least (virtue as its own reward vs virtue as a weakness to be exploited, individual vs the commons, etc), but the polarization certainly seems much more visible, like all the veneer of social nicety has almost entirely worn away. Thugs are no longer concerned about concealing themselves in polite society, and in fact are self-identifying loudly and unapologetically, and this in turn allows them to locate each other and band together.
Like you, I think they’re a dying breed, but there’s enough of them to muck up progress for probably decades, and with so many things near the tipping point as they are, this thuggishness may well lead to some very severe but avoidable disasters. It’s hard to come up with scenarios in which everything works out OK in the end.
Idk I don’t see Christie resigning. He is a bully and seems like the type who will hold on and refuse to be bullied put of office. I see him staying but wounded and just throwing ‘bows at everyone in his path.
Basically I expect bluster all the way.
Chris Christie the nightmare of the Democratic party. Are you guys serious? Or just crazy?
Have you recently actually TALKED to anyone from South of the Ohio and East California? There is NO WAY that Christie can receive the nomination. There is no way that the Deep South (INCLUDING Florida) will give any delegates to Christie. There is no way the Mountain West will give any delegates to Christie.
I’ll grant you a decent chance at the VP slot, but even there, the powers that be the Republican Party outside the NE will be extraordinarily wary of Christie.
Oh no, Christie’s biggest weakness that I can see remains getting past the rabid right wing base of the party in a primary. I don’t see him packing it in over this or any other scandal, is all. He might even win a bit of respect with the base for giving the world the finger, but he’ll never survive the primary with pics of him hugging That One making the rounds.
So no, he’s not a threat imo, presidentially speaking. But I don’t think he’s going down with this ship just yet, either. Short of criminal indictments, nobody can make him, and if he does like every other embattled GOP pol and digs in, he can weather this storm of criticism. Outrage only lasts for a few weeks without continual fanning from the media, and they’ll drop this all as soon as they can get away with it.