{"id":40802235954,"date":"2014-01-10T01:15:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T06:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/2014\/01\/10\/christies-credibility-a-bridge-too-far\/"},"modified":"2021-01-25T11:22:04","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T16:22:04","slug":"christies-credibility-a-bridge-too-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/2014\/01\/10\/christies-credibility-a-bridge-too-far\/","title":{"rendered":"Christie\u2019s Credibility: A Bridge Too Far?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at\u00a0PolitickerNJ<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

What happened with the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee is nowhere near the most atrocious abuse of power we have ever witnessed.\u00a0 It certainly is not as consequential as widespread NSA wiretapping or Iran-Contra.\u00a0 And the action itself doesn\u2019t have direct gubernatorial fingerprints like the McGreevey-Cipel or Corzine-Katz affairs.<\/p>\n

It is a story that has legs, though, because regardless of the explanation you accept for how it happened, the story undercuts Gov. Christie\u2019s brand image.\u00a0 That image has been built on two pillars: strong leader and straight shooter.\u00a0 Bridgegate forced Chris Christie to admit that at least one of those pillars was not what he has claimed and there may be future negative consequences for the other.<\/p>\n

In his marathon press conference Thursday, Christie basically admitted that he is not the leader whose moral authority compels people \u2013 both Democrats and Republicans \u2013 to do the right thing.\u00a0 The question remains why those in his inner circle felt that they had the license to do these things on behalf of their boss.<\/p>\n

And here is where we need to call it like it is.\u00a0 The governor cannot plausibly express disappointment in the \u201ctone\u201d taken by his advisors, specifically the fact that his campaign manager and former deputy chief of staff, Bill Stepien, called someone an \u201cidiot.\u201d\u00a0 Christie himself has used this term on more than one occasion, as well as jerk, stupid, numbnuts, and more.\u00a0 The governor\u2019s disappointment in this aspect of the story does not pass the smell test.<\/p>\n

The next point is his shock that this staff would have acted this way.\u00a0 Bill Stepien is very close to the governor and is well-known as a hard-nosed, take-no-prisoners defender of the Christie image.\u00a0 If those of us who follow this stuff closely know of Stepien\u2019s reputation, why does Christie apparently think he is a choir boy?\u00a0 I can only assume that Stepien must be the Eddie Haskell of Christie\u2019s inner circle.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t speak to Bridget Kelly\u2019s behavior in all this because I have never encountered her.\u00a0 Neither has pretty much anyone in the press corps.\u00a0 And that calls into question the governor\u2019s attempt to downplay the tight reins he keeps on his staff.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know Bridget Kelly because we weren\u2019t supposed to have access to her.\u00a0 That wasn\u2019t part of her job description and Christie\u2019s people do not stray from their job descriptions.<\/p>\n

And that raises the question about why Kelly felt she had the authority to give David Wildstein the go ahead to create a \u201ctraffic problem\u201d in Fort Lee. \u00a0At the very least, it must have fit into her own understanding of what her job responsibilities were.<\/p>\n

I am in no way saying that Chris Christie ordered the toll booth closures or even knew about them.\u00a0 I do not believe he did.\u00a0 However, it\u2019s hard to give credit to the view that he had no inkling that his people were, at the very least, twisting some arms during the 2013 campaign.<\/p>\n

And this is where things get politically dangerous for Gov. Christie in the long term. \u00a0He spoke for nearly two hours in his press conference.\u00a0 Lengthy press conferences are a Christie hallmark but this one was different.\u00a0 It marked the first time in four years where Christie did not end a press conference in better standing than when he started it.\u00a0 In fact, he ended it slightly worse.<\/p>\n

For one, he felt compelled to say he is not a bully \u2013 on more than occasion.\u00a0 Repeatedly denying a charge is never a good thing (cf. I am not a crook, I am not a witch, etc.).\u00a0 It is especially true in this case since most of Christie\u2019s constituents actually feel he is a \u201cbully\u201d in some regard.\u00a0 They just haven\u2019t cared about it because he was only bullying other politicians or the odd detractor \u2013 all fair game.\u00a0 Denying something that most people believe to be true can cause the public to question your credibility.<\/p>\n

He also contradicted himself in a number of places during those two hours. \u00a0For example, he said he wants to get to the bottom of this incident, but oddly he seems to have no interest in talking to the very people who were at the center of it.\u00a0 It\u2019s not clear whether everything he said will add up when the media starts parsing his responses.\u00a0 And the possibility exists that Christie\u2019s version of events may not be fully corroborated by others who could be implicated in the unfolding scandal.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing for Christie to lose some of the sheen from his leadership mantel.\u00a0 That can be rebuilt, especially if this incident blows over after a couple of months.\u00a0 On the other hand, if at any point Chris Christie undercuts his reputation as a straight shooter, his presidential aspirations are in peril.<\/p>\n

One lapse in leadership does not necessarily make you a bad leader.\u00a0 But one lie will permanently brand you a liar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at\u00a0PolitickerNJ What happened with the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee is nowhere near the most atrocious abuse of power we have ever witnessed.\u00a0 It certainly is not as consequential as widespread NSA wiretapping or Iran-Contra.\u00a0 And the action itself doesn\u2019t have direct gubernatorial fingerprints like the McGreevey-Cipel or Corzine-Katz affairs. It is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":939,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40802235954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802235954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/939"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40802235954"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802235954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40802244189,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802235954\/revisions\/40802244189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40802235954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40802235954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40802235954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}