Shots In The Dark: Corzine on the Hot Seat

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Corzine on the Hot Seat

John Corzine wasn't wearing his seat belt even though his SUV driver was going 91 miles an hour.

What's wrong with this sentence?

1) No Democratic governor should be driving around in an SUV that is not a hybrid. (Corzine's Suburban was not.)
2) ...wasn't wearing his seat belt...even though SUVs are notoriously unsafe at high speeds.
3) ...91 miles an hour. That put not only Corzine at risk, but everyone else on the highway.

New Jersey troopers driving the governor around are apparently allowed to break the speed limit when necessary because of "security concerns."

(The extension of "security concerns" to virtually every elected official in American life, no matter how plebeian, is a great unreported story. It's really just an excuse for assuming anti-democratic privileges such as bodyguards and the right to speed.)

Why was Corzine rushing so? He had to get to a meeting with the Rutgers women's basketball team.....

¶ 8:35 AM

Comments:

Absolutely correct. I can tell you from personal experience that elected officials (and their security details) turn on the lights and sirens for pressing matters such as being late to lunch with an old friend.

To be fair, they often have hellacious schedules, and that lunch might be followed by a series of events in the afternoon at which hundreds of people might be present--so a delay in the official's schedule sets off a chain reaction of inconvenience for many.

But Corzine was a total bonehead not to be wearing his belt.

# posted by Anonymous : April 18, 2007 11:41 AM

In that regard, guess which Clinton cabinet official was notorious for having his driver bring him and his then-wife to the Bethesda public school to see his kids' school pageants? Apparently having a personal driver to take you to your personal appointments is a perq of most upper-level government jobs.

# posted by Anonymous : April 18, 2007 11:54 PM

Hmmmm....did he subsequently move north after leaving the administration? Where he found another driver?

# posted by Richard Bradley : April 18, 2007 11:58 PM

In fact he found two, and he apparently identified them and called them (to their face) 'Driver One' and 'Driver Two', since he didn't want to have to treat them as actual people.

# posted by Anonymous : April 19, 2007 12:08 AM

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