Governor Christy, "Bridgegate" and Chicago Rules

Governor Christy Was inaugurated Tuesday during two storms, one natural and one political. Governor Chris Christy, a Republican, was reelected Governor of the heavily Democratic state of New Jersey by 22 percent. His honeymoon was the shortest in history, ending two weeks before the inauguration. His aides, playing hardball politics, closed two lanes for three days from Fort Lee, New Jersey to the George Washington Bridge, snarling traffic. That was an incredibly stupid act. The Governor responded after the basic facts emerged, by repeatedly apologizing to the people of New Jersey and firing the aides responsible for the fundamental error in judgment. His penance did not satisfy the Harpies. The Democrats finally found a voice. The cry went out: “Governor Christie is a bully.” He plays hardball. The Governor is a bully. Imagine that – a Republican governor, who controls neither house of the New Jersey Legislature, is a bully. The Republican Governor for four years of a heavily Blue State is a bully. The Republican worked his will for four years with a Democratic legislature. How can that be? Are the New Jersey legislators wimps? This is New Jersey, a state known, rightly or wrongly, as the home of corruption, hardball politics, Tony Soprano and the Mafia, the Toxic Avenger, and Snooki. Politics is a game of carrots and sticks, of rewarding one’s friends and punishing one’s foes. Hardball politics is a ritual in New Jersey. Governor Christy was a master of hardball politics. He out hardballed the public employee unions. He’s not the only one. Residents of the Frost Belt have one universal standard. Government must plow the roads when it snows. Mayor DiBlasio of New York City campaigned on A Tale of Two Cities: the 1% and the rest of us. He would equalize the two, starting with a 1% increase in the city’s income tax on the rich. He also used the Tuesday ‘s 10-12 inches of snow to penalize the affluent. Photo show streets cleanly plowed in Brooklyn, his home, while the streets of Manhattan’s Upper East Side received a cursory plow. Could it be a coincidence, or incompetence, or a DPW worker listening to DeBlasio, or it could be intentional? New York Rules President Obama practices the politics of Chicago Rules. His Administration’s IRS was set loose on conservatives, especially the Tea party conservatives and supporters of California’s Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban. The Tea Party organizations were slow-walked and harassed on their tax exempt applications. The National Organization for Marriage, the pro-Prop 8 sponsor, saw its confidential, and legally protected donor list, illegally released by the IRS to their political opponents. No one in the Obama Administration knew anything about the actions, although they did. Chicago Rules. Standard & Poor’s (S&P) threatened to lower the bond rating of the United States if a valid budget accord was not reached in 2011. S&P carried through with a downrating. They claimed a few days later that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, a tax cheat, threatened them. Treasury Secretary Geithner said S&P made a mistake. He called them accountable. He claimed the downgrade was a grave disservice to the country, and then added: “Such behavior could not occur without a response from the government.” The Justice Department filed suit against S&P in February 2013 alleging S&P defrauded investors by giving risky mortgage bonds the highest rating. The Justice Department did not file charges against the other major bond rating firm, Moody’s, whose conduct was similar. Moody’s was then controlled by President Obama’s favorite capitalist and mouthpiece for tax increases, Warren Buffett. The Justice Department denies the conversation, but their denials have proven false in the past in many controversies, such as the Attorney General’s initial claim he knew nothing about Fast and Furious. More recently the FBI delayed for weeks before inspecting the Benghazi consulate where Ambassador Stephens and three others Americans were killed by terrorists. It essentially performed a cursory walk through when it inspected the site. The Obama Administration claimed that the attacks were caused by a video, when it knew from the beginning it was a terrorist attack. The video’s maker was jailed for a year. Chicago Rules. The FBI recently investigated the IRS Scandal. It talked to only a few of the conservative groups, which were victimized by the IRS, but found no criminal violations by the IRS. Chicago Rules. The Department of Justice appointed an Obama contributor to investigate the IRS. Chicago Rules. The FBI, contrary to its Benghazi and IRS investigations, has dispatched a multitude of FBI agents to investigate “Bridgegate.” The Mayor of Hoboken claimed The Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey threatened a loss of Hurricane Sandy funds if she did not endorse the Governor’s reelection. That’s hardball politics. The Lieutenant Governor denies the threat. The United States Attorney for New Jersey announced today that several subpoenas were issued to the New Jersey GOP and Governor Christy’s reelection campaign. Chicago Rules. During the budget shut down last year the White House closed the National Mall and the World War II Memorial, but opened the mall to a pro-immigration reform rally. Chicago Rules. The New Jersey Legislature announced he appointment of House and Senate committees to investigate the Christy Administration not only on “Bridgegate,” but also on other problems that might arise. The Democrats are on a fishing expedition. A special, joint committee has been created, consisting of 8 Democrats and 4 Republicans, to investigate the Governor. A undercurrent of these investigations is impeachment. New Jersey doesn’t need Chicago Rules. It has New Jersey Rules. The Governor, if he survives the political storm, will emerge stronger than before.