New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie prides himself on his tough-guy persona, but apparently he
can't take a little mockery—at least, not when it comes from his favorite musician:
The governor could not bring himself to watch the traffic jam-themed parody of “Born to Run” sung by his idol, Bruce Springsteen, on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,” though he was told by his college-age son, Andrew, that it was funny.
Christie has talked about the soul-searching he's done over his allegedly after-the-fact discovery that his top aides gridlocked a town for petty political retribution; he's also said he's not a bully. He might want to extend that soul-searching to the possibility that, if you delight in publicly berating people with less power than you (and posting the videos to YouTube) but can't take deserved mockery, you just might be a bully after all. Another lesson to take might be that being a publicly devoted Bruce Springsteen fan while governing his home state in opposition to almost everything he ever sang about is likely to bite you in the ass every so often.
Christie said he'd had a sleepless night after the revelations that his aides intentionally caused the Fort Lee, New Jersey traffic jam. So you have to wonder what this did to Christie's sleeping patterns:
"I let Chris Christie know that we were gonna do it," Fallon said Sunday. "And I said the silver lining: Bruce Springsteen says your name."
Life is offering you ample reason to continue soul-searching, governor. Keep at it! It shouldn't take mockery from Bruce Springsteen to get you to "being a petty, vindictive bully is a bad thing," but if that's what it takes, you've got your opportunity. Embrace it.