'Bridgegate' won't be over until the fat guy sings

The owner of an expensive SUV risks a ticket by parking illegally around the corner from the post office in Hackensack -- and across the street from police headquarters. Limited parking at meters and glacial service inside the post office combine to make a visit there as unpleasant as possible.  

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

After days of intensive "Bridgegate" coverage, Governor Christie's State of the State address this afternoon was full of anticlimax.

Christie spent only a few moments on the lane-closure scandal, noting the past week had "tested this administration."

"We let the people down," the GOP bully said, adding he will cooperate in the multiple inquiries into what he called a "breach of trust."

But he vowed the investigations won't be allowed to delay the work of his second term.

"I am the leader of this state and its people," he said firmly.

He used the word "bipartisan" a half-dozen times or so, but didn't mention any of his first-term vetoes. 

Boring.

Today's paper

The Record today delivered another wave of stories, columns and letters to the editor on the Christie administration plot to tie up traffic at the Fort Lee end of the George Washington Bridge in early September (A-1, A-5, A-6, A-8 and A-9).

The package is poorly edited.

On Page 1, the lead story on the state Legislature's investigative panels asks "whether the action was ordered to punish the mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing" Christie's reelection campaign.

On A-5, Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, finally recalls being called at least twice last year and asked whether he could ever endorse Christie, a recollection backed up by two colleagues.

And a story on the same page -- reporting a damage lawsuit by cabbies caught in four days of upper-level gridlock -- states "the governor's staff and bridge executives backed up the George Washington Bridge as payback against a political opponent [Sokolich]" (A-5).

Bodies galore

Deputy Assignment Edtor Dan Sforza assembled a Local section filled with sensational news:

A coffin contained the wrong body, a Lodi man was dropped off at a hospital with multiple gunshot wounds and a young Leonia man was killed in the collapse of a Philadelphia apartment fire escape (L-1 and L-3).