So about a month ago, while flipping through television channels at night, I came upon a developing news story that actually surprised me. You see, last September, without any warning, two entrance lanes to the George Washington Bridge were closed. Why should this be the concern of any television reporter other than the early morning person who reports on the morning commute? Well, according to the news telecast, the two entrance lanes were located in Fort Lee; the mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, was a Democrat who had failed to endorse Republican Governor Chris Christie in his re-election bid; and the official explanation for the closings – that New Jersey officials wanted to conduct some kind of traffic study, sounded, well, kind of fake. (Among other problems, Patrick Foye, the Port Authority’s Executive Director, had no knowledge of it, and the study had not been announced in advance to Fort Lee officials – or really anyone else).
The media continued to follow the matter and question Christie about the closings. Publicly, he laughed off the entire episode as some sort of joke – because isn’t it super funny when state officials interfere with interstate commerce and allegedly lie about it? But privately, Christie reportedly was not so pleased. State assembly members continued to pursue their investigation and subpoenaed documents and emails. In the meantime, two Port Authority officials who either ordered or defended the lane closures (Bill Baroni and David Wildstein) resigned, although beforehand, Baroni addressed state assembly questions
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Suggested movie title: CORPUS CHRISTIE subtitle: George Washington (Bridge) Tells a Lie
Posted by: Shag from Brookline | Jan 9, 2014 6:58:33 AM