Christie And The Cowboys-Just The Tip Of The Iceberg [View all]

[Laxman]

Last edited Mon Jan 12, 2015, 02:58 PM - Edit history (1)

So the Cowboys lost today. Everybody is having a little fun at the expense of Governor Christie as his Super Bowl dreams have come crashing down. I certainly got a bit of a laugh thinking about a downtrodden Christie brooding up in the visiting owner's box at Lambeau Field-maybe wiping away a tear or two. But that's just the fun part. There is a very serious side to this that has to do with the governor's complete lack of ethics and the relationships between the rich powerful elite and elected officials. Jerry Jones didn't have Christie and his family flown to Dallas last week and hosted in the owners box because they were ole fishin' buddies. There is a serious side to this that has to do with the purposeful flaunting of ethical principals and the unbridled ambition of people like Christie and the need to understand that this is not about what team he roots for or if he goes to games, or even how goofy he may look whooping it up with Jerry Jones. This is about a guy who has consistently displayed a disdain for adhering to the rules while demanding compliance from others. Mostly this is about somebody who needs to be held accountable for abusing his power, enriching his cronies, trampling over anyone who gets in the way of that unbridled ambition.

Chris Christie is a bad person who has done a lot of very bad things while in public office and it is likely that he is going to get away with them. Beyond just a general dislike that I think everyone on this site can understand, it is important to know the specifics of his misdeeds so that there is a rationality to that dislike. It's more than just making fun of the boorish fat man. There's substance and reason to the criticisms of Mr. Christie and even if he gets away with all that he's done, it's important that somebody was watching. I was a public official for nearly 20 years. During that time I was in literally thousands of situations that required judgment calls on matters of ethics. Rarely was it difficult to discern between right and wrong. In the few exceptional cases where it was a close call it didn't take a great deal of intellect or integrity to understand that the correct course was to choose the route of caution. I collected hundreds of receipts to save in case I had to prove I had paid for my own iced tea or soda while out with people who had business with the government-lest anyone think I would compromise the public interest for the price of a soft drink, let alone a lunch. I spent years explaining to people who I could legitimately call my friends why I could not let them buy me a beer. I took, and still take, the concepts of ethical behavior and responsibility for public officials very seriously. I say this as a preface to give some context as to why I am so exceedingly incensed at the behavior of the beloved governor of the Garden State.

You see, I was in the audience the day this fool deigned to lecture me, and hundreds of others in the room that afternoon, on the meaning of ethics. That day, at a convention in Atlantic City, the then U.S. Attorney Chris Christie warned that public officials shouldn't even accept a sandwich from a local deli owner because the public should never have to wonder about the integrity of their elected officials. In the intervening time his abuse of power as U.S. Attorney, his ethical lapses regarding his travel, his cronyism as governor, his mismanagement of public funds and the abuses by his administration, his staff and the governor himself while in public office have all come to light. This was a man who made his reputation with a massive sting on public officials that violated protocols, ethics and good judgment just to burnish his image as a corruption buster. So when I see the man who warned against accepting a sandwich take a gift with a value in excess of $100,000 it's a bit hard to accept. When I find that this gift was bestowed by a man who was awarded a public contract with a value in excess of $850 million it is extraordinarily disturbing. It is utterly amazing, and unbelievable, that this governor, the champion of ethics, could accept such a gift-unless he is just so taken with himself that he believes he is above the rules set out for the lesser among us. But it takes a lot of attention to detail and a lot of energy to do the research or keep up with changing stories. People generally lack the critical thinking skills or the attention span or the time to follow what's going on or think about it in depth. That's what people like Christie count on. It's how they get away with unethical or illegal behavior. It takes a lot to hold them accountable and he is confident that nobody has what it takes to bring him down.

There are folks so partisan that they will give him a pass on just about anything but I can't believe that if you lay the facts out that this will hold true much longer. The Republicans eventually turned on Nixon. So I've been keeping the Christie Crime Digest as a sort of catharsis but also so there's a record somewhere that lays out the patterns of behavior and the extent of his misdeeds. When someone tells you "it was only a couple of football tickets" or that Bridgegate was "just an inconvenient traffic jam" there's got to be an answer that it's much much more and hopefully the "Digest" provides that resource. I've seen the guy do bad things from close range and I had a visceral dislike for him, but until I started to keep track, I didn't quite grasp the depth of his depravity. This is a person who never should have risen to the positions of power that he has held and certainly shouldn't be allowed to hold another powerful position.

So it's ok to have a little fun at Christie's expense now that the Cowboys have lost. Don't get too caught up in it however. There's a real dark side to this that can get lost in the cartoons and the videos depicting his giggling 12 year-old school girl demeanor and 6 inch vertical leaping abilities. This guy is dangerous and unethical and he needs to be brought down. Not because of his questionable choices for sports allegiances or his awkward high fives but for his very real and very serious misbehavior. I may have a personal dislike for the governor, but it's all with good reason. We need to keep after this guy but never for superficial or petty behaviors. There's too much other real stuff there.

I feel so much better now. DU has done a public service by allowing me to vent.