What Chris Christie Needs to Say to Save Himself

Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, is going to speak to the news media today about the revelations that his top aides seem to have ordered a traffic snarl in Fort Lee in order to punish a mayor who endorsed Christie's opponent in last year's gubernatorial race. A patient whose EMS response was delayed by the jam later died, though it's not yet clear that she could have been saved had the response been faster.

I'm frankly amazed that this is a scandal. By which I do not mean that I am amazed people find it scandalous; it's utterly outrageous. I'm just amazed it could have happened. Leave aside the cretinous, bullying, petty nature of the offense, the willingness to hurt thousands of New Jersey residents to take out your childish pique against minor local politicians. Why retaliate against a mayor for an endorsement in a race in which the outcome was never in doubt? And why retaliate so ineptly? As a former lobbyist of my acquaintance pointed out, they could have accomplished exactly the same thing just by commissioning an actual traffic study. The combination of moral turpitude and incompetence is what you expect to find among petty felons, not the governor's office.