Rat 1, formerly of the USS Christie, splashes overboard

Well that was fast.

The NY Times reports that David Wildstein, in a letter released by his lawyer, "contests the accuracy of various statements that [Gov. Christie] made about him and he can prove the inaccuracy of some," and asserts that "evidence exists as well tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures ... contrary to what the governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference."

To me, it's also anticlimactic. Exciting, but anticlimactic nonetheless.

Christie's been a dead-wannabe-walking since Bridget Kelly's mysterious instructions and Wildstein's seemingly miraculous comprehension of them came to light. I have since followed major pundits' deep and profound speculations about Christie's political future with no little amusement, in that the number of believable outcomes had already been narrowed to one. His future was toast.

The man was swimming in a veritable ocean of seaminess, corruption and petty spite. To entertain anything but his direct participation in it seemed the folly of the decade, akin to wondering if Nixon was perhaps innocent. Indeed I ceased writing or even thinking about Christie, his guilt being so impressively obvious. 

As noted, to me he was but a dead-wannabe-walking. Such political corpses don't hold my interest.  

 

Comments

[Turgidson]

I look forward to the centrist/moderate Republican pundit reaction to this development. They fluffed Christie so enthusiastically, then worked so hard to minimize this story as it emerged, and many were forced to say, after gushing in praise of his marathon press conference "but if we find out he knew, he's dead to me"-type things. But they're going to have a really hard time letting go. Christie was their everything. Their one and only.

Morning Joke and Mika in particular will be a laugh riot on Monday, assuming they don't conveniently forget to cover it. They're probably desperately hoping for a Richard Sherman hot mic moment at the Super Bowl to yammer on about instead.

[Robert Swartz]

I've been re-reading Fred Emery's 1994 primer "Watergate: the corruption and fall of Richard Nixon". And the parallels are striking. Which is why, having witnessed the original as my first sentient political moment, I felt exactly as you did from the first. He's dead politically - and may not even survive his term - although putting an old crony in charge of the state ethics office might help...

[Peter G]

It does feel a little like rubbernecking at the scene of an accident. Caused by a drunken street racer running into a bridge abutment. And look! There's a tarp covering the remains of Christie's career. So sad. I'll probably get around to feeling guilty about about this later. But I'll cross that bridge when they remove the fucking traffic cones.