Pity Gov. Chris Christie. He sounds so assertive, so obstreperous, so, so ... in charge.

Then it turns out maybe he’s just another chief executive locked in a closet by his staff. Or at least that was the explanation he offered on Wednesday.

Those senior advisers of his who conspired to close ramps in Fort Lee, N.J., that lead local traffic to the George Washington Bridge, which just happens to be the nation’s busiest bridge? That payback because the mayor didn’t endorse him? He was mortified.

“What I’ve seen today for the first time is unacceptable,” Mr. Christie said in a late afternoon statement transmitted from the fastness of the State House. “I am outraged. ...”

Our governor’s problem is that this is a patented rhetorical move. Somebody crosses the governor, on a matter large or small, someone displeases him, and unfortunate stuff often happens. Last month my colleague Kate Zernike collected a baker’s dozen examples of his retributive justice. A former governor blocked Mr. Christie on some matter, and the State Police superintendent pulled his police escort. A political scientist at Rutgers declined to endorse a Republican gerrymander of state districts, and darned if the governor’s office didn’t cut $169,000 for an institute directed by this professor.