Desperate Christie resorts to jaw-dropping flip-flop

When Chris Christie became governor of New Jersey in 2010, one of his first acts was to pull the plug on plans to replace the 100 plus year old North River tunnel connecting to New York.  That defiant act -- the tunnel had been a major project of his Democratic predecessor -- splashed across the news and made Christie a name to remember.

What was less publicized at the time, but became known later, was the dishonesty involved.   First, Christie used falsely exaggerated cost estimates to justify the decision;  and, second, his inside men in the Port Authority then diverted funds from the tunnel project to other transportation projects.   This allowed Christie to avoid having to raise taxes, which he then crowed about as a major accomplishment of fiscal management.

That was far from the end of the Christie administration's use of transportation antics for political purposes.   Three years later, they closed two lanes of the most heavily traveled bridge in the entire world that connects New Jersey with New York, causing unprecedented traffic jams all the way back to Fort Lee, NJ, delaying commuters for hours and bringing the town to a standstill that lasted for four days. 

So it comes as a jaw-dropping maneuver, even for Christie, when he said this week -- as if none of that had happened -- that, if he is elected president, he will make sure that a new tunnel is built under the Hudson.  He even outlined how he would go about it with his transportation secretary and the two governors, and just get it done.

Not only did he cancel a similar project in 2010, but as recently as last year he was still deriding the project as just "a train to Macy's basement."   One can only conclude, from this reversal, that it is the desperate move of a failing campaign for president, where his polls numbers continue to drop, putting him in 8th place.    After all, it seems second nature to Christie to use transportation policy as his personal prerogative for political purposes.

I would suggest that dishonesty and blatant flip-flops won't save him.   I'm not sure that anything will -- or that his campaign should be saved.   Actually, I'm sure it should NOT be saved.

Ralph