Early in 2014, we noted several good days not to be Chris Christie like this one and this one. Today is an especially good one as the "Bridgegate" scandal trial gets under way. Christie is not on trial in the sense that these proceedings can send him to prison or anything. The ones accused are two of his former officials who apparently arranged for the actual bridge closing. But Christie is on trial in the sense that both the prosecutors and defense lawyers are trying to pin some of the blame on him.
An investigation once yielded the finding that he did not know the closure was deliberately engineered until long after it occurred and he, of course, has steadfastly denied it. But it's odd to see the prosecution insist that he did and even odder to see the defense, representing those who closed the bridge, say yeah, sure, he knew all about it. They will probably be using the phrase "tacit approval" a lot. No wonder Trump didn't pick this guy as his running mate.
I have a personal interest in this that you probably won't care about. I'm a lifelong Democrat, though in the past I did vote for a few Republicans for small offices and sometimes skipped voting because I didn't like either of my choices. I also used to cite a fair number of Republicans as folks I could imagine myself voting for against certain Democrats or wouldn't be upset to see win. I didn't shriek and bemoan the end of the United States of America when the first George Bush won. I thought his advertising — the famed Willie Horton ad — was deliberately deceptive and meant to inflame racial fears (glad no one does that anymore) and he should have lost because of that. But I didn't think he'd be a bad president and I still don't think he was. He was certainly the best President George Bush we ever had.
John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Chris Christie were also, once upon a time, Republicans I could see myself voting for in the right match-up. None of them are on that list any longer. In fact, no one is on that list these days, though I'm nicer about it than certain Republican acquaintances who insist all Democrats are evil and quite intent on destroying America.
What interests me about Christie is like what interested me about the others: Did I just misjudge this person from the start or did they change? Like, I can imagine McCain not being truly caught up in the progressive-hating swamp fever but thinking, "If I'm ever going to be president, I'm going to have to pander to the right-wing nut jobs" and making that move. I don't think that was true of Huckabee. I think all that reasonableness that once impressed me about him was an intentional charade. And I just plain don't know with Chris Christie.
It probably doesn't matter with Christie. All this guy has in his future is maybe a job in the Trump administration (if there is one) and maybe a job on Fox News or doing a right-wing radio show. If he gets indicted for perjury or anything else in this Bridgegate mess, he may not even have those job options. I'm still kinda hoping to get some insight into how much I was duped. If he actually had principles and sold them out for a chance at the presidency, he sure sold them for a longshot.