On Christie's GWB excuses, why did it take this long?

On a two-hour visit Friday to Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus -- where a gunman fired random shots and committed suicide last Nov. 4 -- I didn't see a single security guard inside the mall. A man wearing a safety vest and a shirt with a patch on his shirt helped shoppers cross the busy road near this unguarded entrance.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Did it really take nearly five months for The Record's editors to make a detailed case against what Governor Christie said he knew about the George Washington Bridge lane closures ordered by his aides, and how little he dug into it?

And why is this exhaustive examination of the "evidence" presented by Staff Writer Charles Stile, whose boring political columns are chiefly responsible for voter apathy in North Jersey (A-1 and A-6)?

Out of Stile

This should have been published as a news investigation, not as an opinion column by a writer who has been one of the biggest boosters of Christie's White House ambitions. 

No other credit is given for the column, so it isn't known whether Port Authority reporter Shawn Boburg or Staff Writer Melissa Hayes, who is assigned to follow the governor, worked on the project.

The bridge scandal broke open on Jan. 8, when The Record reported Bridget Anne Kelly, then Christie's deputy chief of staff, e-mailed David Wildstein, a Port Authority executive:

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

Wildstein, one of Christie's cronies on the bi-state agency that operates the bridge, responded to the Aug. 18 message: "Got it."

The result was four days of early September gridlock in Fort Lee, where Democratic Mayor Mark Sokolich had refused to endorse the GOP bully for reelection.

We're in a jam

Since then, all the key figures, including Christie, have stymied investigators by lawyering up, taking the Fifth, stonewalling or saying they don't remember anything.

And they are sticking you and me with their legal bills, which could total $2 million.

In return for their loyalty, Press Secretary Michael Drewniak and other members of Christie's staff got raises averaging 23%.

Isn't that hush money?

Afterthoughts

The Christie piece and another front-page story on the "resegregation" of Teaneck schools seem like afterthoughts amid all the coverage of a POW released in Afghanistan, and a bunch of foul-mouthed and foul-smelling pro hockey players (A-1).

The number of errors in the last two Sunday editions has declined dramatically in the absence of columns by Road Warrior John Cichowski.

The best story in today's Local section is the obituary for Jewish-Chinese community theater actor Edward B. Thom, formerly of Englewood (L-1).

Self-driving hype

On the Opinion front, a column by Edward Niedermeyer, an auto-industry consultant, oversells the significance of Google's self-driving car (O-1).

Like millions of hybrid and all-electric cars before it, the driverless car will make only small inroads into sales of gas-guzzling SUVs and ever-more-powerful performance and sports sedans.

In a masterful rewrite of previous columns, Staff Writer Mike Kelly bluffs his way through another piece on another disturbed gunman, who killed six and wounded 22 in California (O-1).

'Worst governor'

Letter writer Stephen Gigante of Hackensack hits the bull's-eye on Christie, who has proven such an elusive target for the editors (O-3):

"From the George Washington Bridge scandal, to violations of OPRA, to diverting Port Authority ... funds to the Pulaski Skyway, to the failure to make pension payments and to putting himself in commercials hyping Sandy relief [before last November's election], Governor Christie is ... becoming a footnote for the term 'worst Governor New Jersey has ever had.'"

Greed is good

The upbeat Business section cover story on the expansion of North Jersey hospitals outside their main campuses doesn't explore the impact of their tax-exempt status on municipal property taxes (R-1).

Most of Hackensack University Medical Center's 2.5 million square feet "on its main campus" in Hackensack is tax exempt, raising the levy paid by city residents.

HUMC has fundamentally altered the character of the neighborhood and makes a big demand on services, but gives little back to the city. 

If the hospital buys a building in another town, will that property be tax exempt as well? The story is silent on that angle. 

Flip side of news

Given The Record's superficial coverage of all of the foreclosures in New Jersey, today's Real Estate cover on Kevin Errico -- a Re/Max agent in Saddle River who "flips" empty homes for profit -- is really in bad taste (R-1).

But it is no surprise. 

Real Estate and The Record's Business section reflect the Borg family's enduring philosophy of putting profit ahead of journalism.