Chris Christie and the Ft. Lee lane closing: looks like a Soprano, sounds like a Soprano, acts like a Soprano. Lies about it.
Looks like Tony Soprano, sounds like Tony Soprano, acts like Tony Soprano.
When the Mayor of Fort Lee refused to endorse him for re-election, Christie had his henchman in the Port Authority close the on-ramp from Ft. Lee to the George Washington Bridge. Then he and his buddies lied about it.
If you think about it, that’s much nastier than garden-variety corruption of the kind Christie engage in as United States Attorney, when he used deferred prosecution agreements to funnel money from corporate lawbreakers to his buddies - including another prosecutor who had declined to indict Christie’s brother - in return for not pressing criminal charges.
Christie as the GOP nominee for 2016? Bring it on!
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
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Christie: “Listen, I know you think [keeping lanes open is] simple. It’s simple for you, it’s not simple for me.” Give the man a break — this “traffic study” stuff is complicated! 😉
Not only a thug, but a political coward as well, as vividly exposed in his handling of Vivian Wilson’s plight. The decision on whether or not to support his presidential aspirations? Now THAT’s simple!
Any candidate who seems as internally divisive for the Republicans as Christie can only be good for the Democrats, who will have their own divisive struggle when the $64,000 Question is asked, “Anyone but Hilary?” Will the Rep(tilian) leadership really force a second consecutive non-Tea Party-approved candidate down the throats of its wild-eyed base? We’ll have to see.
And the best answer to that $64,000 Question (for those of us who really hope the Dems do nominate a woman) is Elizabeth Warren, who would probably wisely sit that tempest out until Hilary decides she isn’t really what American wants. Unfortunately, that year wasn’t 2012, but will be 2016.
Professor Kleiman,
You’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s wrong with Chris Christie. A taste:
The “fiscally conservative” Gov. Christie invested over a quarter-billion taxpayer dollars on an Atlantic City casino project. (Why couldn’t Morgan Stanley find lenders in the private market?) He lost.
Because Christie couldn’t be bothered to listen to climate scientists’ warnings about global warming, NJTransit had no plan to move their rolling stock to higher ground in the event of an extreme weather situation. Cost to NJ Transit: 25% of its trains. Comparable loss on the New York side of the river: 0.25% of its trains. Price-tag for replacement: $120 million. Now taxpayers from San Diego to Cincinnati to Bangor will pick up the tag for the Governor’s willful ignorance.
Then there was the time that King Christie decided to use the State Helicopter to avoid New Jersey traffic to attend his son’s baseball game.
Christie talks from both sides of his mouth first by promising teachers that he will “protect their pensions,” then reneging, then claiming that he “solved the pension problem,” while not admitting that he skipped a requiredpayment into the state pension plan. New Jersey still has, according to Pew, the fourth-highest level of unfunded liabilities of all the state. Mission Accomplished?
His multi-year obstruction on medical marijuana has been cruel, monstrous.
I could go on about Gov. Christie’s lies about the state of the NJ economy, its unemployment rate, his administration’s duplicity on property taxes, its insane approach to infrastructure non-investment, ad infinitum but I don’t want to overload the internet.
A bully and an oaf, Chris Christie is the last person who should be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office.
—
P.S. - Where the hell is Mitch Daniels when I need him?
Yes, I think “oaf” is even more apt and more damning than “thug”, as applied to Governor Christie. A man who should not even be accepted into polite society certainly isn’t going to be president.
I’m not so sure the company of polite society necessarily brings us presidential material. At best, it’s been a predictor of effective presidencies somewhere south of 50%, depending on who you’re asking about and your definition of polite society.
And I’ve never seen the movie or read the book, but wasn’t Hannibal Lector a polite sort of fellow? He always seems so in the caricatures of the character. “Would you like some fava beans, Mr/Ms Nominee?”