Barry Blitt makes light of the "Bridgegate" scandal that enveloped New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's administration in his cartoon for the cover of the next New Yorker magazine. If you play politics with traffic, you risk getting run over.
Whatever perverse pleasure Governor Chris Christie's top lieutenants and close friends enjoyed by inflicting a traffic nightmare on the mayor and residents of Fort Lee, New Jersey in September surely can't be worth the political firestorm that erupted this week as the "Bridgegate" scandal unraveled in a series of sinister emails. And the damage may not be done, note observers, criminal and civil charges could be forthcoming.
Though Christie denies knowing about the vindictive motivation behind the closure of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge until this week, and political observers are hesitant to predict how the scandal might effect his suspected presidential ambitions (the election is almost three years away, after all), the episode fits into the Governor's pattern of playing politics with transportation, observes Sarah Goodyear.
So chuckle, if you will, at Blitt's cartoon (and don't miss the symbolic shape of the Governor's hair, as Laura J. Nelson, transportation reporter for the Los Angeles Times', kindly pointed out), but Christie's political opponents may get the last laugh.
Read the full story: COVER STORY: BARRY BLITT’S “PLAYING IN TRAFFIC”
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