Like pricey defense attorneys, editors try to clear Christie

Numerous projects on Main Street have made driving through Fort Lee agonizing, even when the Port Authority isn't conducting a "traffic study" on the George Washington Bridge. Today's tie-ups looked much like this photo, which was taken last Monday.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The U.S. attorney for New Jersey ended nearly 20 months of speculation by charging three of Governor Christie's allies in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal.

And ex-Port Authority official David Wildstein's guilty plea to conspiring with two others suggested Christie's role in the political vendetta will finally be revealed at a trial in federal court.  

Now, The Record's editor, Martin Gottlieb, is muddling the picture once again by using the front page to rehash the $7.5 million whitewash commissioned by the GOP bully (A-1).

The "ANALYSIS" bug on the story by Salvador Rizzo changes nothing: 

Attorney Randy Mastro's 360-page report is not evidence, and will never be introduced at the trials of former Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly or Bill Baroni, the Port Authority's former executive director.

It is merely an elaborate attempt to do what every defense lawyer does in return for obscene amounts of money: 

Put Christie's actions in the best light possible.

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman will have to prove his charges before a jury; there were no restraints of any kind on what Mastro's report stated or speculated.

NJ Transit

Is another story on Page 1 today the first time in decades the editors actually asked commuters to comment on the quality of NJ Transit's rail service (A-1)?

Why did the interviews have to wait for a proposal to raise fares 9 percent and reduce late-night service?

It would be hard to find a bigger enemy of mass transit than the Woodland Park daily, which should be calling on Christie to plug the $60 million gap in the agency's budget.

Oh, that's right. Christie's own budget is such a disaster because he's repeatedly vetoed taxes on the wealthy and given hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to businesses.

Drivers rock

The Record's sympathies have always been with drivers, as the Road Warrior column has shown repeatedly for nearly a dozen years.

After all, the region's auto dealers spend millions on newspaper advertising every year.

That's also probably why the editors won't call on Christie to raise the gasoline tax, an action that would make drivers pay to fix the roads and bridges they use every day.