On Climate, Energy, & Environmental Issues, It Is A Myth That Christie Was a Moderate and Just Recently “Pivoted” To Appease Right Wing Primary Voters and Corporate Donors

The Campaign “Pivot” Myth Absolves Christie Collaborators of Responsibility:

If Christie radically changed recently, then he wasn’t so bad at the outset

If he wasn’t so bad at the outset, then enablers were not fools, knaves, or cowards

See how that works?

• With respect to the responsibility of intellectuals, there are still other, equally disturbing questions. Intellectuals are in a position to expose the lies of governments, to analyze actions according to their causes and motives and often hidden intentions. In the Western world, at least, they have the power that comes from political liberty, from access to information and freedom of expression. For a privileged minority, Western democracy provides the leisure, the facilities, and the training to seek the truth lying hidden behind the veil of distortion and misrepresentation, ideology and class interest, through which the events of current history are presented to us. The responsibilities of intellectuals, then, are much deeper than what Macdonald calls the “responsibility of people,” given the unique privileges that intellectuals enjoy.   ~~~ “The Responsibility of Intellectuals” Noam Chomsky (1967)

• One of two Republican governors elected in 2009, Christie may offer a template of eco-dismantlement for other gubernatorial hopefuls seeking to capitalize on anti-government sentiment. Since many of the DEP programs operate under federal delegation with national minimum standards, Christie’s actions set him on a collision course with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, headed by former DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson. ~~~ CHRISTIE OUTLINES RADICAL ECO-ROLLBACK IN NEW JERSEY – Bill Wolfe, March 15, 2010

Figure this one out:

Despite candidate Chris Christie’s 2009 campaign YouTube videos where Christie said he was looking forward to fights with the Obama EPA; or a dog whistle platform that was code for regulatory rollback obvious to anyone who was paying attention, or a savagely critical DEP Transition Report; or the radical set of anti-regulatory Executive Orders #1 – #4 issued the first hour of his first day in Office; or his appointment of a DEP Commissioner with no environmental training or experience but a “customer service” based DEP “Transformation Plan”, or daily use of red meat right wing slogans like “job killing red tape”,  or a series of radically anti-environmental policy moves, can you recall 1 news story over the last 5 years – or editorial for that matter – that specifically reported as a fact or accused Gov. Christie of knowingly, intentionally, and as a matter of policy of “dismantling” climate change or environmental programs?

Reports that Christie was intentionally “dismantling”?   I can’t – not one (in the mainstream press – of course, we wrote that almost daily here).

The best I can recall the press offering up is Drewniak or a DEP Press Office hack Ragonese attacking Jeff Tittel or myself – as a “disgruntled former employee”  that was making “completely ridiculous and irresponsible” claims – for Tittel making such absurd, false, and irresponsible claims and partisan attacks.

Or, when that dismantling door opened a crack and let out a ray of truth, even in marginal publications, Christie had cover:

Defending the [regulatory] freeze

When contacted for comment, Pringle emphasized that the [DEP Transition] report makes no specific recommendations for weakening environment regulations and that most of its directives call for reevaluation, which could take the direction of strengthening laws.

During the committee’s deliberations, he said, “When somebody would propose something, I’d say, ‘Okay, but you can’t undermine environmental health protections, and they’d say, ‘Of course, of course.’ It’s an open question whether our standards of environmental protection and theirs are the same. [NJEF] endorsed the Governor because he made strong commitments to protecting the environment during the campaign, and having worked closely with him, I think he’s committed to the same standards that we have.”

Dave, you were played – you fell for the equivalent of kissing babies. Don’t mean to single you out, so did a lot of other folks we’ll get around to calling out here.

So, after 5 years of this “Christie is a moderate” bullshit, how are we now supposed to process this statement – from the horse’s mouth (or was it the horse’s ass?) – in another proud Christie YouTube moment?:

The EPA Administrator in the Obama Administration who started this entire power grab  – a woman named Lisa Jackson – where does she come from? New Jersey.

She was Jon Corzine’s environmental protection Commissioner when Barack Obama recruited her to come to Washington D.C.

I spent the last 5 years dismantling the overreach that she did in New Jersey and our environmental protection area.

Get that everybody?

Gov. Christie just bragged about dismantling NJ’s climate, energy, and environmental programs.

If he just took credit for doing that “dismantling”, why was that never reported by the NJ press?

• The responsibility of the intellectual

I am going to use Chomsky’s notion of the “intellectual” very broadly here, to include anyone with access to information and/or knowledge that can expose the political lies and abuses of those in power. My loose definition is not limited to those with academic positions in the University. (and the original source, the writings of Dwight MacDonald in the 1940’s are even more powerful that Chomsky’s).

At the same time I want to broaden Chomsky’s  notion of “intellectuals”, I want to narrow and shift his focus from foreign policy and war – i.e. “to what extent the American people bear responsibility for the savage American assault on a largely helpless rural population in Vietnam” – to NJ’s environmental policy scene, which is no less savage but a lot less visible.

Chomsky’s essential question remains apt for our purposes:

As for those of us who stood by in silence and apathy as this catastrophe slowly took shape over the past dozen years—on what page of history do we find our proper place? …

IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY of intellectuals to speak the truth and to expose lies.

We saw a superb example of Chomsky’s “responsible intellectual” recently, when someone on the inside of DEP or the Attorney General’s office in a position to know leaked the Christie Administration’s Exxon Settlement to the NY Times.

We saw another superb example of that when former DEP Commissioner Brad Campbell, someone with expertise and inside access to information, wrote an Op-Ed in the NY Times exposing that Christie betrayal as “an embarrassment to law enforcement and good government”.

Those individuals were “intellectuals” acting responsibly.

Still, these efforts fell short – public disclosures of wrongdoing should have been made BEFORE the Exxon deal was done to enable public interests a chance to organize and derail it.

Unfortunately, many similarly situated (broadly defined) intellectuals still are not now – and have not during the entire Christie Administration – acting responsibly.

They remain caught up in the web of deceit and duplicity of the Christie regime – or focused on careerist ambitions and staying safely under their desks and below the horizon.

Or worse, they are busy creating self serving myths to absolve themselves of a range of questionable judgements and behaviors, from outright quisling collaboration with Christie, to cynical transactional or opportunistic accommodation of Christie, or playing a role in creating and crafting the Christie narrative and inflating the Christie bubble (Blue Fleece, anyone?), or merely sitting in silence on the sidelines – a cowardly self imposed sit down and shut up.

This US News story is perhaps the most transparent and egregious propagation of that myth – all of the myth makers are in there:

“Going back to Gov. [William] Cahill, at least, elected in 1969, every New Jersey governor has by the end of his term become an environmental governor,” says John Weingart, associate director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. “In a number of cases, that was not even remotely on the horizon when they were elected. But for a variety of reasons – some of them idiosyncratic for that moment – they have gotten behind a major environmental initiative, and that’s come to define their administration in part.

“That has not happened with Christie, and there aren’t particular indications that it will.”

Wow! So Christie just hasn’t come around! And there is “no particular indication that he will” – what a harsh slam on Christie! Tell us what you really think now John! Go bro!

You are less critical of the Gov. than he is of himself – Coming around ignores the 5 years of “dismantling” the Gov. himself brags about.

One might ask: where the hell has that intrepid and harsh academic critic Mr. Weingart, safety ensconced at Rutgers, been for the last 5 years when Gov. Christie was “dismantling” NJ’s climate and environment programs? Hiding under his desk?

Where were all the other US News sources quoted and highly praised (as “policy wonks” and “experts”) and relied upon in that US News and World Report story?

• Who are the “irresponsible intellectuals”?

In addition to the opportunistic johnny come lately myth makers, there is another set of Christie enablers and promoters.

I am talking specifically about the cynical Sweeney/Norcross/Adubado machine Democrats, who cut corrupt and politically damaging “bi-partisan” deals with Christie.

I am talking about the NJ media who created the Christie monster: whose cheerleading, editorials, and endorsements inflated the Christie bubble; and whose lack  of curiosity and courage failed to examine or tell the truth about the Christie regime and its policies.

Of course there were exceptions – What’s Wrong With Christie’s Government is still one of my favorites – and NJ Spotlight has been a persistent voice of clarity.

In that abdication by the NJ press corps, it’s no accident that the national press corps had to step in an fill the breach: e.g. all the disturbing facts in the devastating criticism in The National review’s piece “Chris Christie’s Entire Career Reeks” were well known to the NJ press corps.

But the NJ press corps never wrote that critical story. Why? And they only became emboldened critics after Bridgegate.

I am talking about professionals in State government and the academics and environmental professionals who knew exactly  what was going on but never had the courage to blow the whistle or even leak documents that would expose the abuses.

I am talking about self serving environmental groups, some of whom politically endorsed Christie in exchange for policy commitments he failed to honor; to others who were equally corrupt in taking money from the Christie DEP in an implied quid pro quo to withhold criticism; to others who worked with the administration and withheld criticism of its policies in hopes of favorable policy concessions or program funding; or to others who simply sat by in silence and worked on non-controversial issues to avoid conflicts with the Administration.

And last, but not least, I am talking about NJ’s philanthropic foundations who fund this irresponsibility and cowardice – including the Dodge Foundation, who advised at least one grant recipient to “tone it down” on the criticism of the Governor.

A pox on all your houses.

• What is the Myth of the Christie “Pivot”?

The myth that Gov. Christie was once a moderate on the environment, but radically changed, has been building for some time.

It began as buyers remorse by the NJ Environmental Federation who had endorsed Christie in exchange for specific policy commitments, all of which Christie reneged on.

NJEF crafted this myth to avoid criticism and it began early – perhaps the meeting with the Koch brothers stories was one of the earliest expression of the radical change. Others built on that myth for many of the same reasons.

We see it most clearly in this very recent US News and World Report – just look at the sources and the myths they construct:

Oil Baron of the Pine Barrens – Chris Christie campaigned for governor as a moderate who backed clean energy. After a meeting with David Koch, that changed.

Oil baron of the Pine Barrens?

Does this national reporter even know where the Pinelands are?

Maybe he should tell his “expert” “policy wonk” sources that Gov. Christie himself bragged about dismantling at that their tepid remarks fall short?

I know how nation media outlets parachute into a state political landscape they are unfamiliar with and search for sources. They ask sources for other sources – and typically fall into an echo chamber, where like minded folks circle the wagons and get their stores straight – or their myths in this case.

That story just perfectly shows that the reporter had to be spun to produce that story, which is the smoking gun showing exactly how manufactured a myth it really is.

Not even the Star Ledger – outraged by the Planned Parenthoood “lie” – would go there.