Which of these governors’ reactions to scandal is not like the others: Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York, former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevy and current New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie?
Both Govs. Spitzer and McGreevey resigned, of course. In both cases, they were embroiled in sex scandals — and both were Democrats. Spitzer resigned in 2008 after an investigation uncovered the fact that he had numerous encounters with high-priced prostitutes. McGreevey resigned in 2004 after it was revealed he was engaged in an improper relationship with an appointee and after he revealed that, as he put it, he was a “gay American.”
Gov. Christie is involved in a much more serious scandal, of course. At least one life may have been lost and tens of thousands of others were put in jeopardy because of a petty and capricious act ordered by members of his senior aides, if not by Christie himself. So far, he has avoided taking responsibility for these shameless acts by shifting blame to people he hired to fill the most senior positions on his staff.
A series of emails released yesterday revealed that Gov. Christie’s top aides violated the public trust last fall by shutting down the George Washington Bridge, the main traffic connector from New Jersey into Manhattan, said to be the busiest bridge in the world, for several days. The shutdown caused severe gridlock throughout the city of Fort Lee, which is situated at the foot of the bridge in New Jersey.
The emails confirmed that Christie’s aides shut down traffic in Fort Lee as an act of political retribution against the city’s Democratic mayor, Mark Sokolich. What had Mayor Sokolich done to incur the wrath of Christie’s staff? He had declined to endorse the governor’s reelection bid.
Christie’s aides were lucky in one sense. Although a 91-year-old woman died after ambulances took too long to get to her because of the stalled traffic, it could have been worse. Had there been a major traffic accident, a high-rise fire or some other man-made or natural disaster, the aides’ actions in deliberately gridlocking traffic could have endangered the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of people.
Whether the order to shut down the bridge came directly from the governor — meaning he not only deliberately put New Jersey residents in harm’s way for petty politically reasons but also that he lied about his own complicity multiple times — or whether the order came from corrupt political hacks on his senior staff — which is evidence of gross incompetence on the governor’s part — Chris Christie should do the right thing now and resign.
That is unlikely, of course. Apparently, it takes a sex scandal and membership in the Democratic Party to force a governor to resign in disgrace these days. For example, Virginia’s outgoing Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell chose not to resign and instead humiliated his state by remaining in office despite accusations, none of which were successfully rebutted, that he and his family received bribes from a wealthy donor. (McDonnell apologized for accepting the bribes in his final speech as governor yesterday.)
Although former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican nominee for vice president, was accused of multiple acts of corruption, her resignation in July 2009 effectively put an end to the investigations. In fact, in a quick search of memory and the Internet, it appears that the most recent governor to resign due to corruption charges was former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington, who resigned 17 years ago after being convicted of bank fraud. Symington was a Republican.
