The Christie Scandal Isn’t Going Away

Jeffrey Toobin: “Bridgegate, as it may become widely known, is at once deeply bizarre and totally familiar. It’s strange, of course, because it’s about the previously little-known world of punitive traffic jams. But the scandal is playing out in the customary manner for investigations of high-ranking government officials–and there are lessons evident from past experience for both the hunter and the hunted.”

“The first and most obvious lesson is that it will take longer than anyone expects to resolve. As in many federal-government scandals–Watergate, Iran-contra, and Whitewater, to name the most famous–there are parallel criminal and legislative probes underway… Legislators work on politicians’ schedules–that is, fast, in keeping with a media news cycle. Prosecutors shouldn’t (and usually don’t) care about day-to-day coverage; they focus on their larger task.”