One thing that is not partisan: we all hate traffic. Boston to NYC to Jersey – bad traffic and potholes motivate voters just as well as high gas prices. How perfect for MSNBC, eh? They’re loving this one. Opinions about the GW Bridge Scandal seem to diverge aggressively beyond our common hate of sitting in stagnate off ramps, however.
Conservative networks are tentatively supporting him, liberal networks are going full throttle to make it a scandal-gate so Christie won’t run for president in 2016, and as usual the truth is likely a more complex explanation that is in between the extremes. So what does this pothole-hating democrat think about the Chris Christie GWB “traffic study” scandal?
Given how many people within Christie’s administration are taking the 5th (now including his former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Kelly), one can’t help but lean towards something politically-motivated happened. The emails look that way, and given how many people are either begging for a deal or pleading the 5th, it doesn’t look good. The question is how many it with damage.
Unfortunately, the most recent reaction by Governor Christie – the character-bashing statement where he basically calls David Wildstein a high school geek (geeks rule, Mr. Christie) – throws a bit more fog onto the motivations of either Chris Christie, or whomever recommended the character-attacking course of action.
Again, (both sides of the aisle love to use this open-ended scandal-building technique) we are forced to “ask questions, and the American people deserve answers! Why was a person who the Governor freely now mocks and belittles given the position by the governor? I can understand the “disgruntled employee” argument when things get ugly within a staff, but that doesn’t fit in this scenario. Nor do the high school-like attacks directed at Wildstein by either Christie or a terrible political “advisor” who recommended that course of action bode well for for the motivations of Christie’s administration. I don’t care if the politician is hard left or hard right – calling out opinions of high school biology teachers against someone who he himself hired doesn’t look right. If this behavior was on any popular CBS crime drama in an interrogation room, all those viewing would say aloud, “Oh, yeah, THAT guy did it.”
Fish Stinks From The Head
When I got my first management position my boss sat me down and threw out a German phrase that best translates to, “The fish stinks from the head”. (Yes, he was German and I saw him only a couple days each year, so these were always nerve-racking meetings.) While I sat there examining my plate (we were in a seafood restaurant so I paused before reacting; curious if he was commenting on his sea bass), he gave me more hints to his meaning by saying that the tenor and actions taken by the person in charge always “infect” the entire staff. If the head is rotten the whole body is rotten. (I was grateful and relieved: you can imagine how a young(ish) person trying to climb the ladder would initially feel very nervous at the thought of his rarely-seen boss showing such distaste for a restaurant I recommended.) The general concept we all tend to understand: staff generally follows cues from the boss. It’s more than “the buck stops here”. It’s more nuanced in that the entire tone and character of a business is set not just by policy, but by how the person in charge acts, speaks, and behaves.
Therein lies Governor Christie’s problem.
We might never know “who new what when!?!?”. In the same way the hard right loves to shout about Obama being to blame for all the acts of his administration, so too is the hard left about Christie. I agree with both: the fish stinks from the head. I just hope that the conservative right applies the same criteria to Chris Christie’s responsibilities as they do to Barack Obama – it is undeniable hypocrisy not to. (Hope fails eternal in politics, though.)
Even if Christie was not directly involved in the traffic nightmare “traffic study”, it is exceedingly difficult for any reasonable person to not assign some responsibility (different than blame) due to the behavior and style of management that made him famous: calling people morons, telling them to shut up and calling them stupid in press conferences, etc. If the boss acts in such ways – of course the people who work for him will be prone to behave in the same “NJ Hard Core” manner.
Chris Christie never had to tell his Deputy Chief of Staff to send an email calling for “some traffic problems in Fort Lee”. He projected that attitude during his entire administration. People in charge don’t have to be explicit. Most often they don’t have the time to give detailed instructions on everything happening around them – they can’t. It’s impossible. Hence, staff follows his lead and follows the example set by the person in charge. The example given by Chris Christie over his entire tenure has been: it’s time for traffic problems in Fort Lee. It’s fun to see a politician act and speak how Chris Christie has… but “Bridge Gate” is the only logical result of that sort of politician.
As is the norm, the rest of the people who call this country home will only pack away more frustration and disappointment as a result of the politicians and media hawks trying to exploit Bridge Gate. In one way or another, people in power always abuse their power – the rest of us just get stuck in their traffic.
