#ChrisChristie #sidesteps #scandals in second #inaugural #address • #NewJerseys #embattled #governor #sworn in for second term • #Bridgegate #blows #plans for #2016focusedspeech off course Share 9 Email Ed Pilkington in New York theguardian, Tuesday 21 January 2014 13.43 EST Jump to comments (37) Chris Christie swearing-in Chris Christie is sworn in for a second term by New Jersey supreme court chief justice Stuart Rabner. Photograph: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images Chris Christie launched himself into his second term as governor of New Jersey on Tuesday with an inaugural speech that stressed his credentials as a post-partisan leader while notably avoiding any mention of two resonant words: “sorry” and “Bridgegate”. Delivering his third major public comments in less than two weeks, Christie did not follow in the mould of his previous appearances – there was no mention of, or apology for, Bridgegate, the scandal that has mired his administration in allegations that senior aides engaged in an act of political spite. Instead, his inaugural address focused almost exclusively on his claim to have united his state for the good of every New Jersey voter. He said that over the past four years, New Jersey had “put aside political partisanship on the important issues for our people … We have worked together to make our government work for each and every one of our people.” Christies second inaugural speech should by design have been the launching pad for a presidential run in 2016. He was widely considered a favourite for Republican nomination following his resounding re-election victory in November. But he has been blown off course by a set of emails released earlier this month that suggested several members of his key staff had been involved in the decision to inflict traffic misery on the town of Fort Lee that sits in the shadow of the George Washington bridge by reducing access to the bridge, the worlds busiest. The mayor of Fort Lee had previously declined to give a public endorsement to Christie for re-election. Despite the battering he has received over the past few weeks, Christie still pressed ahead and sounded a national note in his address that paid clear homage to his higher political ambitions. At a time when the Republicans are still reeling from their bruising defeat to President Obama in 2012, he emphasised the scale of his re-election victory – “the largest and loudest voice of affirmation … in three decades” – and underlined his success in attracting electoral support from groups that in other parts of the country have largely abandoned his party. “Suburbanites and city dwellers, African Americans and Latinos, women and men, doctors and teachers, factory workers and tradesmen, Republicans and Democrats and Independents – together they have demanded we stay the course,” he said. On a few occasions, he referred to New Jersey – and by implication his brand of leadership – as being a role model for the whole of the US. He said that his state was “setting a tone for the entire nation” and that New Jersey had “brought leadership to our nation”. For all his talk about non-partisan trust and pulling together, Christie continues to be assailed by allegations that his team has engaged in acts of vindictiveness against Democrats. In the most recent claims, the Democratic mayor of Hoboken, Dawn Zimmer, alleged that the lieutenant governor Kim Guadagno had tried to tie relief money for Hurricane Sandy to a property development that the governor wanted built in her town. Guadagno, who was also inaugurated for a second term on Tuesday, has strongly denied the suggestion. An hour before the start of the inauguration ceremony, state Democrats sharpened their knives by announcing they were merging the assembly and senate inquiries into Bridgegate into one super-panel. The new merged panel will be armed with powers of subpoena and supported by an outside legal counsel, former federal prosecutor Reid Schar. Already, 20 subpoenas have been issued in a widening net that has caught many of Christies senior people. The list includes his chief of staff Regina Egea and press spokesman Michael Drewniak. It also includes the four casualties of the scandal so far: Bridget Kelly, who was dismissed by Christie as his deputy chief of staff following the emergence of an email in which she had written: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee”; William Stepien, a senior Republican strategist now sidelined in the wake of the scandal; and two Christie appointments to the Port Authority that controls the bridge who resigned in December, David Wildstein and William Baroni. Wildstein has already been called before an investigative panel on the lane closings, but refused to say anything, pleading his fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination. Several of those on the new list of subpoena are expected to also plead the fifth, which could make the panels job in uncovering the truth about the scandal difficult. Christie begins his second term in the governors office in one sense just as he likes it: he has a major snow storm to deal with. His handling of Sandy, which pummelled the New Jersey shore in October 2012, helped to propel him to national political recognition. The intensifying snow storm forced the cancellation of his inauguration party on Ellis Island on Tuesday evening. theguardian/world/2014/jan/21/chris-christie-bridgegate-second-inaugural-new-jersey
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 19:21:34 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015