Our 2014 Politician Crook category had one clear winner, but three strong nominees.
The Nominees Are...
NJ Governor Chris Christie - Governor Christie still harbors hopes of a run at the White House, but he might as well steel himself for the possibility of the Big House as more and more news emerges of his criminal wrongdoing. Why, he'd make a great candidate for a Republican Attorney General molded in the same form as Edwin Meese.
After calling for 'reform' of the Port Authority, Governor Christie and his partner in crime, NY Governor Cuomo vetoed a bipartisan effort to do just that, saying they want the power to reform it themselves. Sure they do.
Why did they want to reform the Port Authority? Because Chris Christie turned it into a patronage machine, giving his pals nice high-paying, taxpayer-funded jobs so they could shut down bridges just because.
Even more crooked than BridgeGate, Christie is at the heart of a scandal to redirect billions of dollars in pension money to his Wall Street pals at the expense of public workers, sparking resignations and accusations.
Christie is also mismanaging federal Hurricane Sandy funds when he's not bullying selfless Ebola aid nurses.
Christie isn't just a crook. He's also a bully, and that quality seems to protect him from any consequences for whatever he decides to do.
Michael Grimm -
Soon-to-be former Representative Michael Grimm started 2014 with a bang, threatening a reporter within an inch of his life for daring to mention the criminal investigation of his business dealings. Grimm ended the year with a quiet whimper, pleading guilty to one count of tax evasion and agreeing to resign his seat in Congress.
Amazingly, while Grimm faced 20 indictments, he was overwhelmingly re-elected by his district. The true criminal act on his part was clinging to a seat he knew he would have to relinquish, just because he could.
Worst of all, he was a former FBI agent. An outlaw in lawmaking and law enforcement.
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Former VA Governor Bob McDonnell -
Despite his insistence that he didn't really do anything wrong when he took those gifts from a wealthy donor, Governor Ultrasound faced down a jury in Virginia and lost soundly. Now he faces many years in prison for his graft.
Blatant grifting aside, McDonnell's bigger act of crookedness was tossing his wife of over 30 years under the Ferrari to save his own ass, intimating that she was "close" to Jonnie Williams. He didn't quite say she had an affair, but he certainly painted her as a strumpet who sold him out for pretty things. As if he didn't love that Ferrari, too.
Real family values:
The Winner Is...
Chris Christie, because he's just a little more crooked than the already convicted crooks. Somehow, like Saint Ronnie, he manages to stay out of the clutches of the law while breaking it at every turn.
