Chris Christie CHANGES HIS STORY On Those 'Dedicated Lanes' [View all]

[Segami]

"The fact that one town has three lanes dedicated to it, that kind of gets me sauced." - Christie on Dec. 2, before the Bridget Kelly e-mails broke

In a column in February, I likened our governor's approach to Bridgegate to the Jimmy Buffett song, "That's My Story and I'm Sticking to It." Not so fast. It turns out Chris Christie's views have changed on just when he first learned that there are three access lanes to the George Washington Bridge "dedicated" to Fort Lee. First check out what he said in that infamous "I worked the cones" press conference on Dec. 2:

“I didn’t even know Fort Lee had three dedicated lanes until all this stuff happened, and I think we should review that entire policy. Because I don’t know why Fort Lee needs three dedicated lanes to tell you the truth and I never knew it until this whole happening came about. My urging to the Port Authority would be to review that whole policy. I sat in that traffic, before I was governor, at the George Washington Bridge. And the fact that one town has three lanes dedicated to it? That kind of gets me sauced."

“But I do believe and I told Chairman Samson this, that we should look at this. One lane maybe. Three lanes? I don’t quite get it. I read something in one of the stories that this was host community relations. I mean what’s gonna happen if they get a little bit upset? Are they gonna move the bridge?”

Note the punitive tone toward Fort Lee and the suggestion that its residents are getting some sort of special privilege. Those lanes represent 25 percent of the total access lanes but they carry 26 percent of the traffic. Most of it consists of Jersey drivers from the towns along the Hudson River seeking the shortest route to the bridge. Why would the governor of New Jersey be "sauced" that these Jersey drivers had access to the bridge equivalent to the access granted to the out-of-state drivers on the Interstate highway? I'll take a guess. At this point, Christie was still trying to sell the cover story put forth by his Port Authority appointees David Wildstein and Bill Baroni. That was the contention that this was a legitimate traffic study.



That story fell apart a week later when Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye testified under oath before a legislative committee that the study was faked. Shortly thereafter Baroni and Wildstein resigned. And then on Jan. 8, the infamous "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" e-mails surfaced and the whole thing was blown wide open. But consider the fact that as of Dec. 2 Christie claimed to be unaware there were three lanes "dedicated" to Fort Lee. Now consider what Christie said during a Feb. 3 appearance with Eric Scott on NJ-101.5 (go to the 7:20 mark of segment three here.) In answer to a question from a listener, he said "these were three toll booths that are dedicated just to Fort Lee." Does that mean the people of Fort Lee got some special privilege? Anyone who ever drove through that town would have to realize that's not true. Because of those three lanes, Fort Lee residents get stuck with a traffic jam every rush hour as out-of-towners seek short cuts to the bridge. But how could the governor have known that? After all, he told us on Dec. 2 that he didn't know those three lanes existed. All he knew was what he saw while encountering traffic jams when he drove along the main access roads to the bridge.




cont'

http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/03/chris_christie_bridgegate_bridget_kelly.html