New Jersey is hit by a serious case of “do as I say, not as I do,” this week as government spending reform advocate Chris Christie gets caught using a state-owned helicopter to go to his son’s high school baseball game on Monday.
Apparently the New Jersey governor arrived in the $12.5 million dollar helicopter just before the game began and then couldn’t even be bothered to walk the 100 yard to the baseball diamond from his landing site, opting instead for a black sedan with tinted windows to drive himself and his wife across the field.
The governor left during the 5th inning, having watched the game surrounded by bodyguards. His son, Andrew, was playing catcher. Christie’s people won’t say where he was coming from that this game, which was held in Montvale, eighty miles from the state capital of Trenton, made it necessary for him to go to put the expense of a helicopter trip on the state’s bill.
Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak claims that use of the helicopter was warranted, and that Christie only uses the chopper when his schedule demands it. However, the Newark Star-Ledger points out that Christie had no major events on his schedule on Monday, aside from a meeting with several activists from Iowa who are hoping he will run for President.
“Gov. Christie obviously doesn’t include himself in his hollow call for shared sacrifice,” state Assemblyman Paul Moriarty, a Democrat, told AP. “Gov. Christie must learn that taxpayers cannot afford his helicopter joyrides.”
While we can understand, as parents, can applaud Christie wanting to be there for his son, a less ostentatiousness, and less expensive, method of transport must have been available somewhere.
