The only overlap of substance between Gov. Andrew Cuomo's fourth State of the State address on Wednesday and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's marathon news conference on Thursday was that both dealt with the behavior of the Port Authority, the bi-state entity that makes the two men Siamese twins on transportation issues.
Cuomo dealt with it in a matter of seconds: Citing miserable customer reviews, the governor said he wants the Port Authority to relinquish major infrastructure overhauls at New York City's main air terminals, JFK and LaGuardia, and let the state take over.
Christie's situation offered evidence of why Cuomo might want to have as little to do with the Port Authority as possible: Trenton's boss had to apologize for his top aides' use of the authority in a political vendetta against Democratic Mayor Mark Sokolich of Fort Lee — or "this little Serbian," as Christie's authority appointee David Wildstein called Sokolich in an email to the governor's deputy chief of staff.
Sokolich is actually of Croatian descent. I don't know Wildstein's ancestry, but I'm not so sure his forefathers and mothers would be proud of his central role in the scandal.
The Wednesday release of that email exchange and others concerning the decision to shut down several toll lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge — causing four days of traffic havoc in Fort Lee — forced the dependably pugnacious Christie into an uncharacteristic defensive crouch.
After a day and a night in hibernation, he emerged Thursday morning in a remarkable news conference in which he prostrated himself for what his staff and political lackeys had done to punish Sokolich for failing to support Christie's successful re-election bid — all without his knowledge, he insisted.
I listened to the first 20 minutes and then switched it off to take part in a meeting. When the conference wrapped up an hour later, Christie was still answering questions, shaking his head in wonderment at the perfidy of those who had betrayed his trust and the good faith of interstate commuters.
One thing is for sure: This imbroglio will not help Christie in his effort to become best friends with his hero Bruce Springsteen, an artist whose work extols the democratic virtues of unrestricted traffic flow.
If Christie is telling the truth about his lack of involvement in the Fort Lee debacle, he'll survive politically. But if any of those placed under the bus by him emerge with sworn testimony or documents suggesting otherwise, he's roadkill. Or bridgekill.
If that occurs, Thursday's Q&A goes down in the history books as a Jersey-sized counterpart to President Richard Nixon's April spring 1974 address in which he announced the resignations of Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman and the firing of John Dean in an attempt to fight his way out of the sucking vortex of Watergate. ("I will not place the blame on subordinates," Nixon told the nation. " ... In any organization, the man at the top must bear the responsibility.")
Since the bridge scandal blew up into a national story in December, Cuomo has said he takes Christie at his word that he had nothing to do with the efforts to gridlock Fort Lee. But at best, Cuomo has to be questioning whether Christie knows what's going on in his own shop. Because the only other answer is that Christie lied to Cuomo, too.
Cuomo has taken criticism for Wednesday's comparatively pallid State of the State address, which lacked both surprise (its big proposals had been announced or leaked days before) and oratorical flourish (there were 375 slides in the accompanying PowerPoint — think about that for a moment).
Those who see Cuomo and Christie as frenemies jockeying for the title of Sturdiest Northeastern 2016 Presidential Timber might argue that Cuomo picked a good day to seem subdued, or even boring.
He will also benefit from Friday's second email dump, which included a furious missive from Cuomo's Port Authority appointee Pat Foye, who called the lane closures an "abusive decision which violates everything this agency stands for."
If you want rhetorical passion in non-apology mode for one week, that's as good as it gets.
cseiler@timesunion.com • 518-454-5619