I’ve been staying away from the New Jersey governor’s race because I find it difficult not to refer to the two candidates as Doug Christie and Dave Corzine, but I have to admit, it’s pretty entertaining:
The latest example: In 2002 he (Chris Christie) struck a motorcyclist while driving in the wrong direction on a one way street. Christie got off without even a ticket after mentioning his job title. Did Christie’s status figure in to the cushy resolution? The local police director says: “I don’t think I want to make that kind of deduction, but I think the facts speak for themselves.”
I love stories like this because they get to the heart of what a fucked up world we live in. If you’re black, you get hauled down to the station for sassing cops. If you’re poor enough, you get sent to the chair when your children die in a tragic accident. But if you’re the right kind of person, you can spend your life smashing into other motorists or running Ponzi schemes or torturing people and no one will say boo.
Scott
It’s OK if you are Republican. I’m a bit amazed more of them don’t use the gambit as a justification for everything, because you can always find someone in the press who’ll say it’s not a crime.
“Sure, Lou, sure, Mr. Christie ran over a motorcyclist while driving the wrong way on a one-way street. I want to know why we haven’t given Mr. Christie a medal for hitting this potential Hell’s Angel!”
anticontrarian
Oligarchy only sucks if you’re not an oligarch.
dmsilev
Christie will have reached true GOP nirvana if he can pull a Cheney and get the motorcyclist to apologize to him for the inconvenience.
-dms
General Winfield Stuck
Yes, but Obama was born in Africa, will make your chil’en pine for watermelon, and quote Karl Marx.
Just another tricky day in the land of Baby Jeebus.
br
@anticontrarian: You mean, oligarhy, right?
Just checking.
burnspbesq
Actually, in Jersey the rule isn’t IOKIYAR. The rule is that it’s OK if you give enough to some charity attached to the State Police union to get a bumper sticker that makes you invisible to the cops. At least, that’s the way it was when I was growing up.
Ed in NJ
I will make a prediction, since this happened in Elizabeth:
The motorcyclist will be found and interviewed. It will be reported that the motorcyclist has an arrest history, which will then be used by the GOP to suggest that he should not have been in that alley and in a position to be hit by Christie.
Also, I’m not buying the part of the story that the fat pantload Christie was able to walk the 10 blocks to get to the swearing-in after the accident. I’m guessing that he got a police escort.
burnspbesq
Chris Christie is so bad that he makes people love an ex-Goldman Sachs guy.
r€nato
Just ask Robert Novak… oops, he’s dead, I guess you’ll have to make a very long-distance call to Hell to ask him about that.
SGEW
I, for one, say boo.
Ajay
And this guy, who worked closely with Rove and promoted openly Bush’s politics, is going to be elected as a governor of NJ, which is not really a republican strong hold. That says a lot about the idiots who live there even if you take into account that Corzine is really useless. The choice is significantly worse but that somehow escapes to most.
JK
This should be the official state video for New Jersey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWUW2Vcb_-k
Long Live The Sopranos.
MikeJ
If you want to be charitable, it is entirely possible he really didn’t see his victim. It’s not unheard of for people with brain tumors, and of course he didn’t know he had one until the post crash physical.
I’m not saying Novakula was a nice person. Just that there’s a chance he was innocent of this particular infraction.
DougJ
In the northeast, I don’t think being a Republican matters so much. I think this is probably common all the way around.
r€nato
@DougJ:
I’d have to agree with you, DougJ. While ‘both sides do it’ is often false-equivalency bullshit and an opinion borne of lazy thinking, in this particular case I think you can’t be a politician of any party in NJ without being corrupt.
asiangrrlMN
@br: Damn you, you beat me to it.
@SGEW: I say boo along with you.
Violet
I’m barely paying attention to the race, but what I read makes it sound like all the bad stereotypes of New Jersey rolled into one. Have the mafia guys made an appearance yet?
Punchy
two candidates as Doug Christie and Dave Corzine
They could have a dunk-off to see who wins the governorship. Save the state a gazillion dollars in voting and vote-rigging expenses.
Dork
Cops turning to prostitution, too, eh? Tough economy.
The Grand Panjandrum
NJ is the Louisiana of the northeast. If they can goad Christie into mocking federal spending for volcano research Corzine should be OK. Unless, of course, we find out he hides cash in a freezer.
Zifnab
It works because everyone in the higher echelon of power assumes they’re exempt from the law, too.
Cops don’t arrest other cops. That’s where it starts. Then appointed police commissioners don’t get arrested by cops. And the mayors who appoint them are – be extension – immune. If those mayors run for Congress, the cops still remember them. And pretty soon, it’s taboo to arrest anyone above your social standing. With the implicit assumption that if you or one of your peers fuck up, all will be forgiven.
So you develop this mile long train of back scratching and reach-arounds. Modern day feudalism. Just sucks to be one of the peasants.
Adrienne
@Ajay: He’s not going to be elected the governor of NJ. You can pretty much bank on that.
Sam Hutcheson
I assume you are referencing the Cameron Todd Willingham execution in your post. If so, while we have reams of evidence to suggest that the trial was a mockery and a travesty of justice, we do not have evidence to suggest that the fire was a “tragic accident.” It is possible, I’d even say likely considering Willingham’s record and known disposition, that he was both railroaded by a inept and laughable trial yet still guilty of murdering his children.
GregB
Membership has its privileges.
-G
Demo Woman
@Sam Hutcheson: What record? Stealing a bike and petty theft?
geg6
The United States of America is the very definition of a banana republic. I’m sure the Founding Fathers would be very proud of what we’ve created from their masterpiece.
Person of Choler
“But if you’re the right kind of person, you can spend your life smashing into other motorists or running Ponzi schemes or torturing people and no one will say boo.”
You left out “leaving young women to suffocate in a submerged Oldsmobile while spending hours dashing around generating excuses” as one of those things boo is not said about.
Fleem
@The Grand Panjandrum:
Here’s the thing about Corzine: he doesn’t NEED to hide cash in a freezer. Ex-Goldman Sachs = Ex-tremely loaded.
Say what you want about him, I suspect he doesn’t need to be on the take.
r€nato
@Person of Choler:
that reminds me of the time nobody was allowed to say ‘boo’ about the fact that one party’s candidate for president was a military deserter, while at the same time his own campaign was smearing his opponent – a decorated war hero who volunteered for combat duty in an unpopular war – as a ‘coward’ and undeserving of the awards he earned for his courageous service.
DougJ
we do not have evidence to suggest that the fire was a “tragic accident.”
The experts in the New Yorker article believed it was a tragic accident. They said it was probably caused by space heaters.
DougJ
You left out “leaving young women to suffocate in a submerged Oldsmobile while spending hours dashing around generating excuses” as one of those things boo is not said about.
You can add it. But as with Robert Novak, I’d prefer not to speak so ill of the recently deceased.
GReynoldsCT00
@JK:
I miss that show…
GReynoldsCT00
@Violet:
See comment #12
Maude
My gov’s name is Jon. Let’s show some respect here. DougJ.
BTW, I will be voting for Jon or else I’ll write in Dave.
DMD
There aren’t enough Republicans in NJ for IOKIYAR to apply. It’s just a matter of NJ’s ruling class being redonkulously corrupt.
BombIranForChrist
In Louisiana, being corrupt is almost a point of pride. Is it the same in Jersey?
chopper
see also: bill janklow.
Dr. Squid
This is what is known as “conservative ideology.” The only fight between conservatives is over who exactly is the right kind of person and who is the wrong kind.
trollhattan
I, for one, will never forgive Doug Christie for choking in the Western Conference finals against the Lakers.
Just sayin’
Person of Choler
r€nato(29) People said plenty about a certain presidential candidate’s alleged military desertion. Fellow named Dan Rather, for example, made quite a big deal of it.
DougJ(31) Chappaquiddick was a glaring example of how Our Betters elude accountability for their misdeeds. It remains so whether its perpetrator is alive or dead.
Marcus
Sam: What record? the Led Zeppelin poster he had? Which was literally used as evidence of his being a sociopath? Did you read the New Yorker story? Please explain how anyone can read that and think he was still guilty of “murdering his children.”
bob h
This is going to stick in the craw of NJ residents because NJ drivers pay very high insurance rates and registration fees, and the State is very strict about enforcing them. And here Fatso gets off because of who he is?
Sam Hutcheson
I stated in my original post here that the trial was a travesty of justice. No one is arguing differently. But there seems to be a history of abuse by the guy and there is evidence that he attempted to kill the younger children before.
I don’t know if the guy murdered his children or not. Neither do you. That’s sort of the point. We can agree that he was railroaded and the Texas court system made a mockery of justice. We’d probably agree on the problems inherit in death penalty cases such as this. But one New Yorker article is not binding evidence to proclaim the guy innocent any more than an Iron Maiden poster was evidence to proclaim him guilty.
Thomas Levenson
Re Choler a@41. We need better trolls.