Chris Christie, the darling of the Republican establishment finally has hit a wall that, hopefully, will take him off the stage for the Republican presidential nomination. That is, aides in his New Jersey government got caught deliberately tying up traffic in the city of a political rival. Of course he has fired the obvious culprits but his explanation that he didn't know about any of it smacks of the current White House resident. What these failures, as the ones in the Obama administration, illustrate is a crisis of leadership. Politics apparently revels in unethical behavior that is tolerated by some political leaders providing they have no knowledge of the unethical act. This is the case for Christie, Obama, Nixon, and Reagan, to name a few.
Personally, I always thought Christie, with his love of gun control, belonged in the Democratic party. The good news for Republicans is that the Democrats are so busy destroying him right now that a Democratic Christie will be poison.
While the man might be a conservative on fiscal matters, his weakness on gun control would ensure that many voters would stay home in a Christie Vs. Hillary presidential election. Taking a partial Hillary quote out of context, "What possible difference could it make." To me, none at all.
Thank goodness that Christie, like most politicians, had no ethical requirements or training for his staffers and that he got caught now. What a huge benefit for the Republican party and good riddance.
All politicians should address ethics in their elected administrations with training and an ethical pledge signed by all members of the administration. Not doing so is an outright blessing for dirty tricks and unethical behavior. A simple questionnaire with ambiguous ethical political situations would also sort out all but the most skilled ethically challenged individuals.
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