Spite doesn't sell, even in New Jersey. Make that, particularly in New Jersey, should said spite interfere with where we want to drive and how long it takes us to get there.
Thus what at first seemed a parochial, petty squabble about four days of lane closures and traffic jams at the George Washington Bridge last September has metastisized into a messy national scandal starring the Garden State governor who would be president, Chris Christie.
For a man of Christie's seemingly peerless political acumen to overtly orchestrate or somehow encourage a flamboyant public act of partisan revenge still strikes me as unlikely. But for those within the insular, ambitious and combative culture of his administration? Not so much.
Face it, people: Under the right circumstances, we can convince ourselves of pretty much anything. So imagine being up there on Planet Christie, where loyalists, believers and power-seekers may well have persuaded themselves and each other that punishing a perceived enemy (in this case, the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee) was simply the right thing to do.
And if they indeed did that, they also will help persuade even those who have found the governor's spell hard to resist that his administration is as boorish and belligerent as the charismatic man who runs it so often seems to be.
At 4:30 Wednesday, the governor's office put out this statement: "What I've seen today for the first time is unacceptable. I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge. One thing is clear: this type of behavior is unacceptable and I will not tolerate it because the people of New Jersey deserve better. This behavior is not representative of me or my Administration in any way, and people will be held responsible for their actions."
--KEVIN RIORDAN