UPDATE:

Well, nothing in Governor Christie’s press conference was surprising. He apologized profusely, claimed he was heartbroken, and announced that Bridget Kelly has been fired, effective immediately. He called the conduct unacceptable, and emphasized the fact that Kelly lied to him about the situation.

Christie claims that he saw the e-mails and knew of the situation for the first time yesterday morning. He apologized over and over again, said he would apologize to the mayor of Fort Lee personally, and that he would continue to interrogate his staff to get to the bottom of the situation. He also repeatedly claimed that he was the one ultimately responsible, yet strangely enough, the ones paying for what he says is his responsibility are his staff members, who he blamed for the situation over and over again. It was all his staffers, his dishonest staffers who broke his heart and lost his trust. Christie’s responsible, but it totally had nothing to do with him. He also claims that the mayor of Fort Lee wasn’t even on his radar, because they seek lots of endorsements from Democrats and most of them are declined. When asked what he would ask of himself, he said he asks of himself what he did wrong to make the staff think they could lie to him (not what he does to make his staff think he’d approve and appreciate such underhanded, mafia-esque tactics, of course).

He better be praying that nothing comes up to link him to these e-mails.

It was impossible not to notice Christie’s strangely stilted, slow method of speaking during his statement — and then immediately after finishing his statement, when he began taking questions, began speaking normally again.

Will this have any long-term effect on Christie’s chances of taking the oval office in 2016? Not in the slightest. This is a big deal now, but give it until next week, and no one will care about this scandal anymore — unless, of course, something comes up linking Christie definitively. And even then, in all likelihood time will wipe that away, too. In the long run, this ultimately will be a non-issue.

Original post:

Liberals and conservatives have finally found something they can agree upon: hatred of Chris Christie over the George Washington Bridge lane closure controversy. Christie’s top aides are accused of orchestrating a massive traffic jam by closing several lanes on the bridge as payback against the mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie in the last gubernatorial election — and there are some pretty damning e-mails to back up that theory. It certainly makes Christie look like a petty, vindictive bully, even though he claims he knew nothing about the entire debacle.

Christie supporters are, of course, handwaving the entire scandal away, saying that it’s just the closing of a few lanes on a bridge. But considering that the lane closures kept EMS responders from attending to at least four medical emergencies — including one where the woman ended up later dying — this could end up blowing up even more than it already has.

So what will Christie do? Resign? That’s doubtful, although anything is possible. Of course, resigning could actually help his political prospects, in this age of our current never-take-responsibility-for-anything president. See, when Obama has a scandal he passes the buck. I take responsibility for my problems. POTUS 2016!

We’ll find out what his damage control plan will be shortly, though — he has announced a press conference at 11:00am today to deal with the controversy. Check back here later to find out how it all went down, although I suspect it will be the usual proclamations of ignorance and disappointment in his staff, as well as announcing that the aides responsible have been fired.