Our political Quote of the Day comes from Doug Mataconis, who is part of a New York Times op-ed debte on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s bridge scandal.
Mataconis’ short piece — which needs to be read in full — first points to Christie’s press conference and concludes:
The governor went a long way toward putting this matter behind him with his press conference today in which, at times both contrite and angry, he fired a key member of his staff, severed his relationship with his closest campaign adviser, and made clear that he was blindsided by the revelations contained in the emails that first came to light Tuesday morning.
Mataconis believes Christie needs to be open with the press, the legislature and even possibly call for an independent investigation. Then he ends with this:
In addition to Christie’s immediate political future, of course, there’s also the question of what all this may mean for the governor’s viability as a potential candidate for president. Political rivals on both the left and the right are ganging up against him largely because this is the most politically vulnerable he has appeared in the four years since he took office. Given Christie’s position as both a strong threat in a general election, and the adversarial relationship that much of the conservative base of the G.O.P. has had with him, both Democrats and Republicans are likely to return to this story as the 2016 race heats up. But absent any evidence that the governor was personally involved in either the lane closures themselves or that he hasn’t been transparent about what he knew and when he knew it, the likelihood that Governor Christie’s 2016 ambitions will be significantly harmed seems remote.
I’ve noted often to beware of the pack journalism convenetional wisdom. It’s not always correct and it doesn’t always even lean in the right direction. It’s tempting to echo it. Mataconis here is giving it his own take. And I suspect he’s correct.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.