Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was on CBS's
Face the Nation yesterday and bravely tried to defend New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie with
this argument:
“So far, there’s no evidence to suggest that he’s not telling the truth,” he said. “I think the governor knows the consequences. If he’s lying, it’s a really bad situation. If he’s not lying, then something very unfair is being done to him. So let’s see what happens.”
By all means, let's see what happens, but when your best defense is to say that you're not lying because you know that if you are lying that you're going to face really bad consequences, so therefore you're a victim of some really unfair things, then you are scraping the bottom of the barrel.
First of all, even if you're not lying, the best-case scenario is that you presided over a political operation that while acting on your behalf, shut down traffic lines as some sort of political power play. That doesn't make you a victim: It makes you derelict in duty while your constituents were victimized by your own staff.
And that's the best-case scenario.
The worst-case scenario is that you're actually lying, because even then your allies can't defend you. And given the changing accounts from Christie and his office of what he knew and when he knew it, it's going to be pretty hard for him to claim that he told the whole truth at every step of the way.
So despite the best efforts of Giuliani, we're not looking at a scenario where Christie escapes this scandal with a clean bill of health as long as he can prove he didn't lie. Because even if he's basically told the truth about what he knew, he was still the guy responsible for letting all this happen. And keep in mind, this is only with respect to the lane closures: We haven't even begun talking about how Hurricane Sandy relief aid was used, though I'm sure we'll learn that there too, Christie was the victim.
But hey, it's not all doom and gloom for Christie-land, because after getting snubbed last year by CPAC, they've extended him an invitation. Who knows, maybe they're pleased with the lane closure story since New Jerseyans who live near the George Washington Bridge are probably more likely to be Democrats, anyway.
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