Blog Post One

     In the last few weeks, there has been an abundance of talk concerning exactly how involved Chris Christie, who is the Governor of New Jersey, was in the lane closures from Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge. This talk includes allegations that these lane closures were meant to be some sort of political retribution to the Fort Lee’s Democratic mayor, Mark Sokolich. This massive traffic jam lasted all weekend long and delayed schools buses, commuters, and first responders headed for New York. Governor Christie claims that he had no prior knowledge of these lane closures, but as this story continues to develop many state officials are refuting this claim. There are already talks of whether the Governor should resign or not if it is found that he has lied about knowing about these lane closures.

     In reading several articles about this issue, the blatant disrespect towards the Fort Lee Mayor was what stood out to me. In one email Christie’s campaign manager wrote “The mayor is an idiot”. In another email Wildstein, another official with ties to Christie, wrote “"It will be a tough November for this little Serbian". This whole incident is a prime example of what Hunter describes as Negative Face. Instead of focusing on the issues they are attacking each other. These verbal assaults take the attention away from the issue at hand. Rather than focusing on their disagreements and debating them, these political figures chose to attack Sokolich personally, and Christie chose to shut down a bridge.