When we got back from our annual Christmas trip to Puerto Rico last Friday, the first thing I did was turn on CNN to find out what had happened in our absence— and therewas a panel of three “experts” talking about how New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had blown it by going toDisney World while the state was paralyzed by the recent snowstorm.
Oh, oh, I thought. This can’t be good. If a national network like CNN is devoting a whole program to a New Jersey governor’s vacation, this must be amuch bigger deal than it looked to be at first blush, maybe right up there with W’s flyover of New Orleans after Katrina.
Noting that this had become an “international” story, it was the consensus of the experts that our governor had badly damaged his reputation, and perhaps even his political future, by being outof state at such a critical juncture. And as they talked, and talked, and talked about it with barely constrained glee, two things became increasingly apparent.
First, it was a really slow news week, and it was nice to have something to bump the “Top Stories of 2110” retrospectives out of the rotation. If this had happened nearly any other time in the year, Christie’s vacation would never have rated a mention, except on MSNBC.
And second, despite CNN’s so-called objectivity, the whole thing had a partisan stink to it. Here was this too-big-for-his-britches (it’s an idiom, not a comment on his weight) darling of the GOP proving that he doesn’t care enough to abandon the Magic Kingdom and fly home in his home state’s hour of need. It was time to take him down a peg.
The more I’ve learned about this brouhaha in the last few days, the more sympathetic to Christie I’ve become. He’s doing a pretty good job of defending himself, so I won’t do it here, except to note a few things.
Unless he came back to New Jersey to drive a snowplow, he was probably just as effective providing leadership on the phone from Florida as he would have been on the phone from Trenton. And even if he had made the decision to cut short his vacation once the storm hit, he would have had a deuce of a time getting back to New Jersey since air travel was all but shut down until Wednesday, Dec. 29. He came back on Thursday, Dec. 30, the first day that air travel in the entire region was approaching normal.
What did his critics expect, that he’dmush up here by dogsled?
And yes, it turns out that most of the critics were New Jersey Democrats, so the whole flap had a distinctly partisan edge, although they made a good point about Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno being out-of-state at the same time. This is the first time we’ve had a lieutenant governor, so we’re kind of feeling our way here. But as Democratic State Senator Raymond Lesniak told the Star Ledger, the whole point of having a lieutenant governor is that someone will be in charge while the governor is away. If they’re both away in the first crisis, wemight havemade amistake creating the office to begin with. Still, we apparently survived the storm without Christie and it’s my prediction that he’ll be forgiven (except by those Democratic politicians). But it’s also my prediction that we’ll sort it out by ourselves, without any help from major news organizations like CNN. Now that the slowest news week of the year is over, I suspect we’ve heard the last fromthem on the matter.
Reader response to recent columns about NewJersey’s crazy pocketknife laws has been phenomenal. My mailbox was bursting when I got home fromvacation, and it’s still coming in. Looks like thismight be a hot-button issue, despite the deafening silence so far fromfolks in law enforcement who might explain our goofy laws, and legislators who might change them.
I shared some of that response lastweek, and I’ll likely share some more as the issue develops, but one note convinced me we’re on to something here. I won’t identify the writer for obvious reasons, but here is part of what he said:
“I want to thank you for your articles on knives and New Jersey laws. Hopefully enough peoplewill read the articles and be encouraged to contact their lawmakers. If they realized the fullmagnitude of the issue, the citizens ofNewJerseywould be greatly alarmed.
“I recently served on a Grand Jury assignment for 18 days over 18 weeks. While I cannot comment on the specifics of the cases I heard, I heard enough to rush home and remove all the tiny Swiss Army knives (the ones with the scissors, nail file and small blade) from our key rings and confiscate my son’s Boy Scout knife. As you point out in your article, any size knife found in your possession, possibly during a routine traffic stop, could get you charged with a felony. Size does not matter.
“The laws seem to be written by people who lack any practical knowledge or experience in the world. Even Grandma transporting a wedding cake and a cake knife is at risk. (However, I suspect there is some discrimination against younger people at play here as well.) Maybe the laws are written to provide law enforcement more leeway in dealing with gang violence, but in practice law-abiding citizens are being targeted for less than noble reasons.”
I couldn’t agreemore, so here’swhat I think we should do. I’d like all the peoplewhowrote to me, and all those who are concerned about the issue, to write their state Assembly representatives and Senators and demand a change in the state criminal code to clarifywhat kind of pocketknife it’s legal to carry in this state, or whether it’s legal to carry one at all.
And I’d like to extend an open invitation to any state legislator to work with us by stepping forward to write and sponsor legislation that will make it happen.
I’ll keep everyone posted as we go along.
Gregory Bean is the former executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers. You can reach him at [email protected].