The Suburban Sociopath....
or maybe "The Psycho of Mendham" would be good monikers for this dangerous man. From the very first time he looked into a camera with his adoring wife and baby next to him and lied about his opponents in the Morris County Freeholder race to his horrific abuses as U.S. Attorney to lying to the press about the failed Race to the Top application to his "pick which story works best" press conferences about Bridgegate and everything in between and since. He's not just a bad person, there is something wrong with this guy and he's continuing to press on towards the White House. He'll do anything, say anything, hurt anyone to get ahead, step on anybody in his way and bully his path forward. He needs to be contained while his only damage is to our fair state. I'm no psychiatrist, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night (that's a lie) and I think it's pretty clear that this man is a sociopath.
I'm mindful of the element that jumping to a conclusion like this is like the officers in the Cain Mutiny diagnosing Captain Queeg but the pattern of behavior is frightening. Reading Louis Manzo's book Ruthless Ambition: The Rise and Fall of Chris Christie not only confirmed many of the things we may have believed or suspected about Christie, but showed his depravity to be far more extensive than was already apparent. I may be a tad obsessive about this but there are 117 items and counting in the Christie Crime Digest that say this man and his crew of equally amoral sycophants that enable his ambitions should be feared and held to account for their actions.
The ability to disconnect from the truth and create one's own reality is an effective tactic for career advancement in the U.S. attorney's office. The "crimes" alleged by federal prosecutors need not necessarily bear a particularly strong semblance to the actual fact pattern, for more important than what actually transpired is the prosecutor's version of what occurred. Embellishment, prevarication and outright deception have long proven to be powerful prosecutorial tools. Christie's tenure as U.S. attorney was served well by these methods, allowing him to rack up a superficially impressive record as a crime fighting federal prosecutor. Serving as the chief federal prosecutor for the district, with near limitless discretionary power, likely fed into his despotic/authoritarian tendencies which are often exhibited by sociopaths.
While all sociopaths lie, falsifying and misrepresenting does not necessarily make one sociopathic. Lying is often recognized as being sociopathic when those asserting the lies allow their fabrications to become their own reality. A sociopath often cunningly lies in order to gain or achieve something. In Christie's case, the over-arching goal was career advancement. The rules in federal court, grossly stacked in favor of the government, allow federal prosecutors to routinely replace actual facts with their more self-serving version of events. In short, insistence upon creating their own reality and ignoring inconvenient facts is rewarded with their subjective reality displacing the real one, at least as far as the relevant legal proceedings are concerned. So it should come as no surprise that Christie continues to deny any wrongdoing, even in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary. It is a strategy that has served him well in the past. Nevertheless, continuing to lie despite a growing body of contradictory facts reveals a significant element of Christie's sociopathy. In many ways, this chronic mendacity is precisely what one would expect.
Christie's blossoming feud with former appointee David Wildstein allows further insight into Christie's pathology. Given that retaliating for perceived slights and subsequently upping the ante is another hallmark of sociopathy, Christie's actions in regard to Wildstein's perceived perfidy are practically textbook. Christie, at his January 9, 2014 press conference, took to insulting Wildstein and claiming he was something akin to a passing acquaintance. This despite the fact that they attended high school together and have been associated professionally for many years. Ready for the pointing out of this inconvenient fact, Christie explained that while they were indeed at same high school, they were on disparate trajectories.
Read the rest here: http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Sociopathy-of-Chris-Ch-by-Barry-Sussman-Chris-Christie_Chris-Christie_Prosecution_Scandal-140208-879.html
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The article articulates many of my fears about him extremely well.
