The nearly-year long investigation into New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s involvement in “Bridgegate” has revealed no evidence so far connecting Christie to last year’s George Washington Bridge lane shutdown that caused complete gridlock for commuters traveling between New York and New Jersey.
From NBC New York:
“My experience with federal law enforcement is that once you reach critical mass if you don’t have it within nine months or so you’re not likely to ever get it,” former federal prosecutor Robert W. Ray said. When the final report is issued, Christie may still face complications from the scandal, said Lee Miringoff, Director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion“That’s good news for him,” Miringoff said. “The bad news remains that politically as chief executive it looks like he was not in control of his administration at the time when this occurred. So that remains the downside for him. That doesn’t go away but this panel provides greater credibility barring any further revelations coming out.”
I did a flash poll of 10 friends who are politically involved, and not one of them could remember the specifics of Bridgegate. They vaguely remembered something about lane closures, Chris Christie, and a staffer who may or may not have sent an e-mail. If this completely scientific poll is representative of even half of the small percentage of primary voters, Christie’s opponents are going to have an even harder time turning this nothingburger into a legitimate Thing.
That’s not to say they won’t try.
When Bridgegate first broke, the left went into a collective (coordinated?) meltdown. Closed lanes! Conspiracy! DRAGONS! Even Bill Maher gave up on the left’s ability to talk about the situation without having to breathe into a bag midway through the monologue. Daily Kos bloggers begged MSNBC to stop obsessing over it. It was punditry as punishment–we would be made to lean in!
From 5 p.m. to midnight, MSNBC spent 211 minutes on Christie, highlighting reports and emails suggesting Christie aides closed lanes of traffic as part of a political imbroglio, raising questions about a TV ad paid for with Hurricane Sandy relief money and debating Christie’s future political prospects.It would have been more, but MSNBC’s Chris Hayes previously had planned an 8 p.m. special to discuss the 50th anniversary of the war on poverty. Hayes did return for a live 11 p.m. show, where he spent all 41 minutes of programming discussing Christie.Excluding Hayes’ 8 p.m. special, MSNBC anchors spent only 30 minutes over seven hours Monday night talking about anything other than Christie. (About 20 minutes of each show is commercials).Al Sharpton and Lawrence O’Donnell both devoted their entire show to Christie.
Rachel Maddow even invented a fever dream conspiracy to justify dragging the race card into it:
Someone might want to check on poor Rachel tonight. What a blow!
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