Blutogate

 I remember, back in the early days of my dayjob a conversation I had with our manager, about the relative merits of being leader and follower. As far as said dayjob, I was just fine being a worker-bee, and had no particular aspirations--well, beyond just keeping said dayjob. 

But in the world of music, a then ancillary pursuit, secondary by economic necessity but certainly not in my heart, I  have always liked being a bandleader. After working for someone else all day(him then)it was cool to run something the way I wanted to.  

"I like being able to call the shots", I recall telling him. "Yes, but remember, they're your shots", he admonished. 

And that seems to ring true here. What comes out of your administration, whether you're running a band or managing a State, relates directly back to you. They're your shots, after all. Your responsibility, however many hands carry them out.

Governor Christie appears to own up to these things when called on the carpet. He makes a big show of contrition and then tells the public of the "corrective action" taken- in other words, the staff member or members who were disciplined or fired for the mistake under his administration. He did it during Hurricane Sandy and he's doing it again. 

Kind of a dual purpose served by one's Inner Circle, one's top aides: to carry out the Boss's directives, at times to advise and counsel; but then to take the bullet if caught. They're the ones who are sent to kneel before Zod. They form a protective dermal layer. 

It's a truism that bullshit(and culpability) rolls downhill. If you live in Illinois, and particularly if you work in state government, you find that it rolls downstate. But, bad jokes aside,  it always comes from a higher point to a lower one. The manager I mentioned at the beginning of this blog would come down on his staff(i.e. me and the others, individually or collectively) after he'd been chewed out by his boss. 

And it's sad that in politics, skepticism is the first thing that comes up in an investigation(okay, scandal)like this one. Guilty until proven innocent. The first comment I saw on Facebook in reaction to all this was, "don't you think he sounded like Nixon?" Hence Blutogate..

Funny thing, I might've been inclined to believe him at face value, if not for the big show he put on about it. The big show of nobility, and then to say 'this has nothing to do with my run for the Presidency in 2016'. Horsehockey. It has everything to do with your running for President in 2016, and your public image. Just be honest. 

You can often tell if someone is lying to you(or better, caught in a lie to you)by the fact that they get louder. Maybe not in decibels, but let's say they just get more emphatic. More emphatic than they'd need to be if they were telling the truth. Like they're trying to convince themselves of the same lie they're trying to sell you. 

From what I've seen in the news, Chris Christie seems to be pure quid pro quo. As long as you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. But the minute you don't scratch my back, the minute you don't help me advance my career, I pull the plug.

And I'm not talking about the Mayor of Fort Lee(who was originally believed to be the target of the lane closures as political retribution)but rather the new Mayor of Jersey City, whose recent election was met by a wave of offers to meet with a wave of state officials as far as assistance in getting started, and all abruptly ceased once he refused to endorse Christie for re-election. One by one, they all cancelled on him. 

Christie's caught in a shitstorm, and the fit is hitting the shan from several different directions. Centrally it's the bridge incident from last September, the central question being did he know about and authorize it(uhh, probably, don't you think?), an impeachable offense; peripherally it's the development project for land next to(again, peripheral to)the George Washington Bridge, which would provide direct access and greatly facilitate traffic; and off at a right angle is his(possible mis) use of funds allocated for those areas impacted by Hurricane Sandy, funds which were used in part to pay for commercials(featuring Christie and his family- and of course the press is jumping on the self-aggrandizement here!)for New Jersey post-Sandy tourism.

These stories can be interesting in that you keep peeling off layers, and every new layer removed is a new revelation. A new slant, or missing bit of information. Bridget Ann Kelley, from her quotes, seems to have a mean streak, a nasty sense of schadenfreude: "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee"; "Is it wrong that I'm smiling?"

Well, yeah. It's despicable. And David Wildstein is no choirboy himself. Regarding the schoolchildren who had to bear the 4-day traffic jams, "They're the children of Buono voters"(Barbara Buono is the Democratic candidate Christie beat in the last election). Jesus! They're the children of Buono voters.  Yes, and as enemies of SPECTRE, must be destroyed. You can almost hear Adolfo Celi( Largo, from the James Bond movie Thunderball)delivering the line. 

What I've never liked and continue to dislike about Politics is that it often seems to bring out the seamier side of human nature. My Dad, when he was a Circuit Judge, told me something he'd heard from a fellow Judge there in the Courthouse: "Yeah, I hope they put that guy in front of me. I'm up for re-election".In other words, I'm gonna put the screws to that guy just to enhance my own career. Terrible.

But what I'm beginning to like about Politics(and this is something of an epiphany for me, who's hated this shit his whole life!)is that nothing is as it seems.