Christie and the IRS

Contrast the Governor's contrition with Obama's lack thereof.

Now that we have your attention, allow us to explain. Governor Chris Christie apologized to New Jersey on Thursday for aides who closed traffic lanes in order to punish a Democratic mayor, and he fired a deputy chief of staff. We mention the IRS because Mr. Christie's contrition contrasts so sharply with President Obama's handling of the tax agency's abuse of political opponents and his reluctance to fire anyone other than a military general for anything.

In his long press conference in Trenton, Mr. Christie was properly contrite, saying he had been "lied to" by the senior aide he proceeded to fire. He also said he is withdrawing his support for his former campaign manager to run the state Republican Party because the man had shown "callous and indifferent" behavior toward the people inconvenienced by the traffic-lane closures. If Mr. Christie really didn't know about this cheap exercise in political payback, and nothing new emerges, the incident shouldn't interfere with the Governor's expected presidential run.

Christie and the IRS - WSJ.com

Nixon fired all his staff too. It took the media to expose this, not a Christie investigation. He threw his people under the bus - and likely where they belong. But that isn't the only question nor is it just whether Christie knew or not.

I'm getting tired of politicians declaring they have no clue what their staff is doing or what goes on in their office - nor ever having any reason to investigate when things clearly when terribly wrong - ethically and/or legally in their own office.

So in a way, his explanation was to explain he was sorry he's incompetent and can neither manage or police his own staff. HE picked them. It was HIS office and HIS staff. Obviously he is an unskilled incompetent manager in selecting staff, managing staff and policing staff. "I didn't know, I just work here" doesn't work when you are the chief executive officer.

Christie was far from contrite. If he was actually contrite he would have had an investigation the second that he heard about it (if he didn't actually order it). Now he is just sorry that he got caught.

joko104 said:

Nixon fired all his staff too. It took the media to expose this, not a Christie investigation. He threw his people under the bus - and likely where they belong. But that isn't the only question nor is it just whether Christie knew or not.

I'm getting tired of politicians declaring they have no clue what their staff is doing or what goes on in their office - nor ever having any reason to investigate when things clearly when terribly wrong - ethically and/or legally in their own office.

So in a way, his explanation was to explain he was sorry he's incompetent and can neither manage or police his own staff. HE picked them. It was HIS office and HIS staff. Obviously he is an unskilled incompetent manager in selecting staff, managing staff and policing staff. "I didn't know, I just work here" doesn't work when you are the chief executive officer.

Click to expand...

How many people work for you? 3? 10? 50? Thousands?

The contrast is how it's handled. The IRS scandal was mostly ignored and is still ignored. No one took responsibility or accountability and to this day no one was fired. Obfuscation was how the WH handled it, with Lerner in front of Congress pleading the 5th. False stories about it being one group in Cincinnati was a ruse. Anyone involved was quietly shifted to other jobs (not fired) and the media gave Obama a pass, leaving Obama the ability to call it a "phony scandal". Those same Democrats are now calling for Christie's head, claiming he's not fit for office... hypocrisy at it's finest.