Gov. Ignores Wake up Call on Global Warming, Coastal Vulnerability & Lax Regulation
Christie Doubles Down on Rebuild Czar & Deregulation
We have created a cabinet-level position to coordinate the State’s efforts across every agency – and Marc Ferzan is here today – ready to work with you on this restoration effort.
We have directed our Department of Environmental Protection to streamline approvals for restoring critical infrastructure. ~~~ Gov. Christie State of the State Address
Just a quickie this morning – I’m bedridden today, too sick to move.
While it looks like nobody in media picked up on the glaring contradiction in Gov. Christie’s speech (i.e. it was government, science, regulations, and public sector workers that responded to Sandy, the same things he bragged about slashing) at least Charlie Stile at the Bergen Record finally woke up to the obvious: Christie Using Bipartisanship as political strategy
Governor Christie issued a concise warning to any Democratic foes who might try to exploit superstorm Sandy’s recovery for political gain: Don’t go there.
“You see, some things are above politics. Sandy was and is one of those things,” Christie said during what could be described as his State of Sandy address to a joint session of the Legislature on Tuesday.
We had a very similar take, just 3 days ago, see: Gov. Christie Shamelessly Exploiting Sandy for Personal Benefit.
But in addition to simply criticizing the Governor’s obvious political game, we wrote about the Governor’s policy record that he is trying to hide – the substance of which we predicted (correctly) would be ignored by media. So we will repeat that today in hopes that someone in media, the Democratic Party, or the environmental community will latch on to it and hold Christie accountable:
In addition to the Gov.’s rank political exploitation of the Belmar Boardwalk, there is the simply astonishing hypocrisy of Gov. Christie demanding federal taxpayer dollars to restore beaches that his Administration is reducing public access to (see: Environmental groups sue NJ DEP over new beach rules that could limit access).
On top of the crude political exploitation, demagoguery, and the hypocrisy, there also is the fact of the Gov.’s actual policy record, which directly contributed to the Sandy problems (for investigative news on the Christie record,see:
And we’ve been writing about this disgusting political game since day one.
I wrote about the Gov.’s use of bi-partisanship and empathy as political cover at the very first Senate hearing on Sandy back on November 26. I wrote:
Today’s Ocean County setting and opening hearing was transparently a partisan forum to promote and lionize the Governor, and allow – for the cameras – the Democrats to emulate the empathy and leadership of the Big Dog.
Republican Hack Senator O’Toole, at the outset, made the “criticism is out of bounds” the focus of his opening satement:
During the opening remarks, Senator O’Toole criticized the Assembly Speaker for criticizing NJ Transit’s actions, while suggesting that any criticism of State policy or the State response was an inappropriate partisan attack on Governor Christie, who O’Toole claimed did a spectacular job.
I am a critic and I deeply resent that.”
I even spoke to Chairman Sarlo to complain about that after the hearing concluded.
So, the basic political and policy questions remain disappointingly unaddressed:
- Will Democrats and Legislators allow the Gov. and his Rebuild Czar to unilaterally control the game?
- Will the media engage the substance of the Governor’s policy record on issues related to Sandy, from Climate change, through vulnerability assessment and planning, through regulatory oversight at DEP?
- Will environmental groups engage at all, or continue to cower and hide behind meaningless principles?
- Why are we rebuilding in locations and patterns we know will be washed out by sea level rise and future storms?
- Will there be a real debate on a Coastal Commission?
- Will anyone write about or work on President Obama’s Executive Order on Sandy Rebuild? The total blackout on that is allowing the insane Rebuild Now! juggernaut to gain momentum, unchallenged.
We can’t continue to carry that debate alone here at Wolfenotes – someone out there needs to step up. You know who you are.