No more sarcasm today.

At a news conference that carried on for nearly two hours, the brash governor was unusually contrite -- but still insisted he was "blindsided" by yesterday's release of explosive e-mails linking the George Washington Bridge scandal to his office.



"How did this happen?" Gov. Chris Christie mused before a room overflowing with state and national reporters, insisting he was brazenly lied to by top aides and political appointees.

"There's this reputation out there of me being a micromanager. I'm not."



Today's body count is two: Christie's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, who infamously wrote, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," and Bill Stepien, his campaign manager, liaison to the Republican Governor's Association and nominee for state party chair, who called the Fort Lee mayor "an idiot."



Christie promised to apologize in person today to the mayor and people of Fort Lee who suffered through four hour traffic jams that went on for four days. This would include paramedics trapped in gridlock as calls came in of car wrecks, chest pains and a 91-year-old woman who suffered a heart attack.



No doubt about it, he took the right first steps. But this is just the beginning.

Now we need the redacted information in these emails to be fully exposed. We need the testimony of the governor's top officials -- including Kelly, Stepien and his old friend who resigned from the Port Authority, David Wildstein, who futilely tried to squash his subpoena this morning.

And we need a full accounting from the governor himself.



Christie's insistence that he found out about this "for the first time at 8:50 yesterday morning" -- after he had finished his workout and got a call from his communications director -- stretches the bounds of belief.



So does his clinging to the story about a phantom "traffic study." When his appointees at the Port Authority resigned, did he really not ask why? And was he not curious enough to inquire about the content of the emails being handed over in these subpoenas? Did he prefer to read about it all in the papers?



How does a former U.S. attorney give his staff just one hour to come clean, before running out to the media to insist that none of them were involved, and mock reporters for even asking about the lane closures? What sort of investigation is that?

Thankfully, the current U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Paul Fishman, has opened his own inquiry. The true test for Christie now is how he responds to this probe. The governor says he has nothing to hide. If so, he must compel his officials to testify, and turn over any relevant information, including his own emails if necessary.



Christie says he can never guarantee "a perfect governor's office." But he can promise us a transparent one.

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