In the case of Watergate, Deep Throat famously advised Woodward and Bernstein to "follow the money" and I am somewhat disappointed that no journalists (or law enforcement) seem to have put this all together in the case of Chris Christie. It really is not that complicated but getting all the evidence may be the difficulty.
Not being a journalist (and without the resources to investigate beyond a computer and the internet), I am free to speculate based upon things we already know. But we do know that money and politics have long been intertwined . . . and I believe that at the root of Bridgegate and all of Christie's mounting travails is money.
After all, money makes the world go around . . .
Consider all of the backscratching . . .
A contractor makes donations to the RGA and the Christie campaign and then (in spite of a poor record with other hurricane recovery efforts) gets a plum job on Sandy relief.
And then all the patronage jobs at the Port Authority for his pals.
But perhaps the biggest plum was that handed to David Samson, Chair of the Port Authority's Board of Commissioners. Is it just coincidence that his law firm has a huge practice in real estate, development and land use? and that business has been good? maybe the press is starting to think about this angle?
We already know that Wolff and Samson has ties the developer at the heart of the Hoboken allegations made by Dawn Zimmer. And Christie met with that developer back in September.
Meanwhile, there is that billion dollar development in Ft. Lee. We don't know whether there was pressure put upon the investors there to either steer business to Christie cronies (Samson's firm? A contractor?) or to make donations to the Christie campaign. Nobody is talking. But it is not a far reach to surmise that the real message in the bridge closure was not directed at the mayor of Ft. Lee for failing to endorse, but at the developers for refusing to give the Christie machine a slice of the pie.
I suspect there are lots of folks who have been feeding at the trough of "Christie capitalism," helping the governor (perhaps putting on an event to laud his work on drug programs or simply being a "trusted aid") or by making donations (either directly or through a PAC). This is looking more and more like a RICO situation with a far-ranging criminal enterprise, extorting money in return for lucrative development deals and more.
FOLLOW THE MONEY!!!