It happened in America

While the so-called Bridgegate scandal, which has led to a conviction, is a solely domestic American affair, the last place where it should have happened is in America. On Friday, two former allies of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie were found guilty for their roles in the Bridgegate scheme that crippled transportation as well as Christie’s White House bid. Former Christie top aides Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni face up to 20 years after a 12-person jury took five days to convict the Christie cronies on all nine counts. The story began in September 2013 when the Port Authority, which operates airports, tunnels and bridges around New York City, unexpectedly closed two of three access lanes from Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge. The closures snarled traffic for days at the mouth of the busiest bridge in the world. Apparently, Baroni and Kelly had shut down access lanes to the bridge to punish the town’s mayor, who is a Democrat, for declining to endorse the re-election campaign of Christie, a Republican. The incident morphed into a full-blown scandal in January 2014 after an email from Kelly was revealed that said: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee”. What does this have to do with the US? It should be nothing. Such an act of political revenge is what happens in a Third World country. And when it does, Americans thank their lucky stars that these things don’t happen in their country. But obviously they do. The George Washington Bridge, which links New Jersey and Manhattan, is the world’s busiest, carrying 102 million vehicles a year. Those massive days-long traffic jams prevented people from going to work and schools while ambulances and firefighters could not do their job. Christie would have been the establishment front-runner in the Republican primaries were it not for the scandal. Though he was not criminally charged, and doubled down on his claim that he knew nothing about the scheme, the fallout from Bridgegate derailed both his presidential ambitions and his chances of joining the ticket as Donald Trump’s running mate. In May, Trump named Christie the lead of his White House transition team. Christie is also thought to be seeking a spot in Trump’s cabinet should Trump be elected president. Bridgegate has jeopardized that possibility. But Bridgegate is much more than about Christie’s career; it revealed much about internal US politics. Few witnesses had positive things to say about the governor. He was portrayed as a hotheaded bully who used every arm of government for his own political ambition. Under Christie, the Port Authority became a powerful tool to curry favor and punish his enemies. The Christie administration seems to have considered the $8 billion a year Port Authority a goody bag to distribute favors, money and jobs. If the way the governor’s office was painted is correct, then it was a political, vengeance-driven administration in which staff used the Port Authority to assist those friendly to Christie and punish those who weren’t. Aides Baroni and Kelly shared an intense commitment to the political success of Christie by trying to secure the backing of a Democratic official who would burnish his national reputation. When he refused, they felt they could use their political positions to execute a scheme to punish him. They donned the role reserved for authoritarian rulers, playing footloose in an entire city. Again, is this the America that prides itself on the rule of law and a firm justice system that can apply those laws? Yes it is. Baroni and Kelly were brought to justice in the end but not before they carried out a vendetta, a disgraceful political payback plot that could happen just about anywhere except America.