The Web has changed the world. It has transformed education. Since the advent of widespread broadband, childhood and adolescence have been fundamentally transformed. But with the recent happenings and revelations emerging out of the latest Christie scandal here in New Jersey, the Web is displaying another positive characteristic. It’s holding those in power quickly accountable in ways not possible even in the recent past.
If you haven’t been reading the news or watching TV or if you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past two weeks, you’d know that the hard-charging governor of New Jersey is in real trouble. Without a doubt, staffers in high positions in his Trenton office used the power of the state to punish an entire community and every commuter in September of 2013 by choking approaches and lanes in and around the George Washington Bridge. These delays and jams caused loss of property, slow responses from emergency personnel, the death of an elderly woman and a school bus accident. Christie also called New York’s Governor’s office to slow the investigation and learn more about those looking into the situation. And that’s what we know right now.
Was the governor, who is now questionably denying all knowledge of the illegal operation, involved? Did he clearly call the shots? We’re not exactly sure yet, but it doesn’t look good from even this present standpoint.
How did these revelations, and that’s the best word to describe them, come out so fast and with such precision? In the past, such a scandal could have been delayed, or entirely avoided, by ‘losing’ memos, denying conversations and roughing up potential witnesses in the back of a 7-11. But no more.
Today, at least in government, almost every memo, every letter, ever instant message, official or not, goes over email and text. Yes, the private conversations of the governor and perhaps his staff are still privileged and rarely recorded, but official communications? They’re stored in government computers (several) and readily available.
Take former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Kelly’s “smoking gun” letter to officials in the Port Authority. A single sentence, albeit fresh and full of arrogance, sunk her and perhaps within weeks the governor as well. Let’s review it:
“Time to make some traffic in Fort Lee.”
There’s more, but that’s enough for me. After this “order” was emailed out, the disastrous events soon followed. And a Pandora’s box was opened for the entire Christie administration.
Here’s another example. Christie called the governor of New York to find out more about the investigation, though publically he said he didn’t care about it. Did Governor Cuomo state that? Yes. Are there phone records? Definitely. This simple act could itself be a serious felony known as “obstruction of justice.”
And what about the accidents on the bridge? The 911 calls? Written and digitized reports from emergency responders? Record of death of an elderly woman? The TV reports of the magnitude and longevity of the traffic crisis? The furious emails raging between Port Authority officials who were well aware they were committing a serious crime (or crimes)? Check. Check. Check. We got them. And therefore, we got them.
Have these sorts of things being going on in American politics? Sure. Absolutely. Perhaps the best example is former president Lyndon Johnson, who in the 1960’s used to rough up his opponents and threaten others who tried to stop his legislation. In this day and age, if one of his furious, profanity-laden conversations was played for the public via YouTube, or found in an email, it would doom him, instantly. And J. Edgar Hoover? Forget it. One could only imagine how email could have sunk and incriminated him, if the Web had existed at that time.
Christie’s present problem is that only he knows, right now, if there is a “slam dunk” email or recorded conversation or message incriminating him. If it’s “floating” out there, yet to be discovered, he’s got to be sweating, because he denied everything. Everything. If such a document comes to light within the next few days, you can forget about this political career…the Feds may be escorting him from the Statehouse in cuffs.
But even if there is no direct record found linking the Governor to the manufactured crisis, for most New Jerseyans it really doesn’t matter. The fact that he surrounded himself with these sorts of appointees, and allowed them to exercise this level of power without his oversight, is enough to label him incompetent. But we know Christie is not incompetent, and that’s the most worrying factor at work right now.
The other web factor that needs to be examined and, dare I say,celebrated, is the instant burst of civic connectivity and expression that’s been more than apparent since the start of the scandal. Almost immediately New Jersey citizens were emailing, blogging, posting, counter-posting, letter writing, Tweeting, Facebooking and uploading videos to express their thoughts on the matter. Trenton legislators, long isolated from the public due to their relative lack of fame, are finding their inboxes flooded with angry emails from constituents (not lobbyists) demanding clean government. The degree of public outrage simply is not subject to denial. A lot of people – millions of them - are furious about this, regardless of where they stand on the Governor’s future.
So here we are with our first email scandal, at least on a state and national level. Yes, the Web has had a lot of bad press lately…NSA surveillance, hacking at Target stores, high school bullying, etc. But have no doubt; the age of the “lost memo,” the “phone call that never happened” and the “witness that has no power to publicize and thus was forced into silence” is over.
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