We all knew there was no way The Daily Show's Jon Stewart was going to let the New Jersey bridge closing scandal go by without commenting on it, having grown up there himself. Stewart was "outraged" over the latest turn of events, but not for the reasons everyone was probably expecting.
Jon Stewart skewers George Washington Bridge scandal as 'third-rate' by standard of N.J. corruption:
In a scathing opening segment, host Jon Stewart first attacks the scandal with feigned astonishment on a familiar Daily Show trajectory - funny enough. But then Stewart takes his critique in a surprising direction: He's ashamed that corruption in his home state has sunk to the level of snarling traffic for revenge.
"As a guy who grew up in New Jersey, I'm disappointed, ashamed of the state I grew up in. Political payback through traffic congestion? To see New Jersey sink to such a piss-poor, third-rate quality of corruption....This is New Jersey! A state renowned for its piss-rich, first-rate corruption." He then recounted, with the help of his audience chanting "New Jersey," a litany of real and fictional (but mostly real) tales of the Garden State's best worst cases: Abscam, David Friedland, The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire. The finale - the political-bribery-to-organ-dealing odyssey of the Solomon Dwek scandal.
