Kathleen Parker January 21, 2014

The question du jour is, why did Hoboken, N.J., Mayor Dawn Zimmer wait so long to step forward and level her corruption allegations at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie?

As surely everyone knows by now, Zimmer (D) claims that New Jersey Lt.Gov. Kim Guadagno (R) told her that Hoboken wouldn’t receive HurricaneSandy relief funds unless the mayor supported a commercial developmentproject favored by Christie (R).

Not surprisingly, the governor’s office denies this. And Guadagno deniesthat the conversation took place as described. An investigation hasensued.

After the famous bridge incident, this amounts to a second scandal for Christie, causing enough smoke tomake even a skeptic wonder whether there might be fire somewhere. Butthe Zimmer story also seems too good — or awful — to be true. Hence, the nagging question, heard from pundits to pedestrians: Why now?

Let’s take a look, dispassionately.

Zimmer’s only “evidence” that the conversation took place is her passionate insistence that it did — and an alleged journal entry in which she expressed her disappointment in and outrage toward Christie.On this basis alone, Christie & Co. face a full-on investigationheaped on top of other investigations regarding the bridge traffic jam.Can Democrats stick a fork in Christie yet? Certainly not for want ofroasting.

The journal entry, provided to CNN and available for viewing online, is ripe for dissection. The handwriting is messy, as if the author were distraught or in a hurry, and reads in part: “I prefer typing oncomputer — but maybe it is time to get back to journal writing.Embarrassed to say — but I found myself breaking down last night on theplane. I was watching ‘Les Miserables’ thinking about my dad — and so Icried for him. But then I was emotional about Governor Christie.”

Hmmmm.

Zimmer seems credible and sincere. But given the size of the nail she’s trying to hammer into Christie’s coffin, due diligence is in order. Let’sbegin with the words “but maybe it’s time to get back to journalwriting.”

Really? Just now? Was the inspiration “Les Miz”? Or the bridge scandal? Herdad? Why on this particular day in May 2013 was the mayor motivated(finally) to start journal writing (again)?

One is faced with at least two possibilities: Either she’s been tellingherself that she really must get back to keeping a journal. Or, she’sexplaining to future cable interviewers why this entry appears sosuddenly in a “journal” that she otherwise seems to have neglected.

The skeptic further notes that Zimmer doesn’t come charging out to sayChristie is just another corrupt politician. Instead she sets a stage,with no less than “Les Miz.” Instantly, “Do You Hear the People Sing?”is playing in my head while revolutionaries fight with sticks againstgovernment bullies and income inequality.

Zimmer weeps first for her father (don’t we all?), then for Christie. She hadhad such high hopes. Or was she merely emotional because Fantine died,leaving poor Cosette without a mother? We may never know.

It is fair to imagine that we would not be so baffled were it not for thebridge scandal. This is because it seems probable that we never wouldhave heard about Zimmer’s crisis if not for the bridge mess. Itapparently took other people pointing fingers at Christie for the mayorof Hoboken to locate her courage.

Zimmer says she was afraid that no one would believe her, which may be true. Or maybe she was willingto keep her own counsel because, as others have claimed, Christie is abully. Or maybe she didn’t speak up because this is the way politics isplayed in New Jersey and she just wanted to go along. Maybe she wasafraid she wouldn’t get the money her town so desperately needed.

Maybe.

But by failing to speak up sooner and waiting until the safety of a mob had formed, Zimmer has in a sense indicted herself. Either she is — or was — as politically corrupt as those she accuses, or she is too weak to be a leader. Perhaps she is merely, plainly and simply, afraid.

Zimmer may well be telling the truth, and it also may be impossible ever toknow. In the meantime, of this we can be certain. The demolition ofChris Christie, until now the best hope for a Republican presidency, got under way just as the serious fundraising and politickin’ werebeginning.

Why now? But, of course, now.