He's Back......Chris Christie Returns

Did we ever doubt it? Did we really think someone could change their ways so easily and for the long term? Remember the contrite and humble Chris Christie of just 11 or 12 weeks ago as he stood before the press?

Well all of that came to an end on March 28th as Christie held his first press conference since his internal investigation began and two days after attorneys he hired, issued their report and cleared him of any wrong doing in the George Washington Bridge scandal. The report also has cost the taxpayers of New Jersey at least $1Million. It was some 300 pages long and reporters have been scrambling over every page. I've read a large portion of it but not all.

The main story though is Christie's return to his old self - loud, boisterous, blunt and to some a bully. He went out of his way to demean members of the press who bothered him. It's an attitude more than anything. What's so surprising is how comfortable he seemed to be as he slipped back into his old self. A lot of statements like "I am who I am", "You get what you see", and so forth.

In the process he continued to throw people under the bus. Bridget Kelly, one of his top aides seems to be his favorite to toss but he seemed to be dragging Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York over to see how he'd fit under one of those bus tires. Christie remarked about the NY side of the Port Authority pretty clearly being part of the problem. And Cuomo's guy at the Port Authority, Patrick Foye, in Christie's mind started this whole thing by leaking a memo about the stupid and potentially illegal lane closures. Cuomo has tried to steer clear of the whole thing. We'll see what happens now as Christie starts the discussion on structurally changing the operations of the Port Authority. It's also no small detail that Christie's appointee and the Chair of the Port Authority, David Samson, resigned just hours before the press conference.

The bottom line is that Christie returned as his prior self in this most recent press conference, taking on the press, calling them out as well as calling them incompetent and stupid. He controlled the podium and cut a number of responses short. That all plays well with much of the general public and Christie knows it. Although there's a lot of anti bullying talk around the country everyone remembers their high school days. Bullies do what they do in large part because of the attention their behavior grabs. Bystanders watch, sometimes in awe of the power of the bully, sometimes enjoying the combat that takes place. Most of the time their behavior is a crowd event and they are fed by the attention, silent or sometimes vocal.

Many have called the report itself a whitewash. To me, it actually reads like a defense attorney's presentation. The difference is that the taxpayers of New Jersey are paying for it. Its worse than that in its treatment and reference to the women who had a role in all of the events that are discussed. Only the women, Bridget Kelly and Mayor Dawn Zimmer, are identified as having emotional issues related to the events that took place. None of the male players, it seems, had any emotional issues. Interesting.

All of this will continue to play out but one thing is for sure. Chris Christie is who he is and he wants to be sure we know it.