Bridgegate judge's smack down of Christie hits a nerve Moran

By Tom Moran tmoran@starledger.com

http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/03/bridgegate_judges_smack_down_of_christie_hits_a_ne.html#incart_river_index

Gov. Chris Christie's office wants to make it clear that he is not a bully, and that the culture of his office is kind and soft, like a box of kittens.
"Honest, honorable, bipartisan and effective," are the words that spokesman Brian Murray used to describe it.



You can't make this stuff up. This came on the same day that two of Christie's senior aides were sentenced to prison over the Bridgegate revenge plot.
The judge in the case, Susan Wigenton, apparently touched a nerve by describing the attitude of this administration as, "You are either with us or against us." She said that Bridget Kelly, one of those convicted, had been "caught up in a culture and an environment that lost its way."
After seven years of watching Christie in office, no one in their right mind would dispute that.
Yes, the trial added a few colorful twists to the pile of evidence. Kelly's tearful testimony about the governor screaming obscenities at her and throwing a water battle that hit her arm was memorable. So was the spreadsheet on mayors who got rewards or punishments, based on their willingness to endorse Christie for re-election.
Journalists will remember the e-mail from Mike Drewniak, then the governor's press secretary, fantasizing about whacking me with a lead pipe. "That would put everyone on notice," he wrote.
But Murray's most gutsy claim is that this administration has been honest.
If you remember one thing from this trial, make it this: Christie was exposed as a liar on his core claim in this case.

In his mea culpa press conference on Jan. 9, 2014, he said he was "blindsided" by his staff and only learned this was an act of political revenge a day earlier, with the release of Kelly's infamous e-mail, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."
Five witnesses testified under oath that they had spoken with him about it weeks or months earlier. Three of them were his close allies, forced to reveal this by hostile questioning under oath.
A box of kittens? Not quite. More like a nest of vipers.



A box of kittens? Not quite. More like a nest of vipers.