chris christie...

[RayThom]

I'm going to wait until the "round mound of resound" gets the nomination from his party before I start weighing his pluses and minuses.

Regardless, final analysis: fat chance!

[wesw]

they ve already lost their careers their reputations and possibly their freedom, what do they care if he throws them under the bus? that s all part of the falling on their sword thing. he won t testify against them, he knew nothing, right. "just take care of my family boss...."

[Econoline]

Sitting governors are indicted and tried fairly frequently.

Here in Illinois, a governor will occasionally make it through his term without being indicted...

That said, I trust Big RR (and Sue and Ray) to know more about NJ politics than Lord Jim.

[Lord Jim]

The charges that have been brought in this case are federal charges, brought by Paul Fishman, the U.S. Attorney for the state of New Jersey (a job Christie once held)

Not conceding anything about how the internal politics of New Jersey would somehow insulate Christie from being indicted, which I don't accept... (The Democratic controlled legislature also conducted a lengthy investigation and much to their frustration couldn't find a thing...any particular reason that the Democratic political machine of New Jersey would be protecting Christie?)

When it comes to federal charges the same rules will apply to the Governor of New Jersey as would apply to the Governor of New Mexico, or The Governor of North Dakota...(or the Governor of Illinois... )

And on top of that there isn't a single US Attorney for any state in this country (regardless of their personal political affiliation) who wouldn't jump at the chance to bring down a Governor if they thought they had the ammo to do it...

There would be no greater career enhancer...

[Big RR]

Jim--you're right about the same rules applying in federal prosecutions, but the circumstances are different. US Attorney Christie would have loved to prosecute Jim McGreevey, but the political establishment bucked it and he couldn't/wouldn't make a case. I don't think that lesson was lost on him.

Face it, in a state as corrupt as NJ is (at least as corrupt as any other states where governors are routinely indicted), doesn't it surprise you that a governor has never been indicted (at least in my lifetime, I haven't searched the history books)? It just doesn't happen for better or worse (and I think it's the latter).

[Sue U]

I don't know that New Jersey is particularly corrupt, but it certainly is a state where politics is a serious professional sport -- a brutal, cutthroat and vicious contact sport. Politics here makes the machinations of House of Cards look amateurish.

After all, this is a state where Governor Christie twisted arms to get state employees to give up benefits in return for fully funding the pension fund, touted his success doing so, and then challenged the law that enacted his own deal as unconstitutional. Whaaaa???????

As today's Philadelphia Inquirer put it:

Promises, promises

New Jersey's worst fiscal manager in recent history could do even more damage under a Supreme Court ruling giving him legal permission to continue breaking the state's promises.

The court ruled Tuesday that Gov. Christie doesn't have to follow a 2011 law that he lobbied for, signed, and bragged about. The legislation required the state to pay its share of public employee pensions in exchange for an agreement by workers to pay more and get less. But the court found in a narrow ruling that the law violated the state constitution by creating a government debt that was not approved by voters.

It will mean more hardship for public workers and taxpayers alike. Every time the state ducks its pension obligations, it ensures taxpayers will have to come up with more in the long run.

Christie has argued that he skipped a $1.6 billion payment last year to avoid a fiscal crisis, but he played a major role in that crisis. His administration repeatedly fumbled revenue projections, refused to take steps toward a truly balanced budget, and granted extravagant tax cuts to corporations. His policies have drawn a record nine credit downgrades and left the state lagging the national economic recovery.

Christie is not entirely responsible for the pension debacle. Republican and Democratic governors going back to Christie Whitman failed to pay the state's share. Supposedly to solve that problem, Christie and state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester) worked together to extract concessions from government employees, who pay about 75 percent of their pensions through salary deductions for an average retirement benefit of $28,000 a year. Employees agreed to a higher retirement age and to forgo cost-of-living adjustments for current and future retirees in an effort to stabilize the system and ensure that the state would meet its obligations.

The court's decision puts the responsibility for solving the pension problem back on the shoulders of Christie and lawmakers, which probably isn't good news. The Legislature's ruling Democrats say they will keep the state's promises to workers. That should mean that the budget currently under review will cover pension expenses and that legislators will resist Christie's plan to cut the state's pension funding even more next year. Sweeney has proposed raising taxes on businesses and wealthy individuals as well as freezing corporate tax breaks, all of which deserves consideration.

The Legislature and the governor should consider a special session to resolve the pension issue. Their continuing failure to do so violates the public trust and threatens to further undermine the state's economy.

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20 ... mises.html

[Big RR]

Par for the course. And of course this will only encourage the unions to try and reach an accord with Christie or other governors in the future.

And sue, I don't think NJ is particularly corrupt (as I said, as corrupt as any other state, but not worse), but a lot of our cherished practices like pay to play pretty much enshrine it.

Most other governors would probably be facing impeachment over reneging on the deal that both the governor and the legislature were part of, but the dems wouldn't even run a serious candidate against Christie in the last election, so that's not going to happen.