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Christie upbeat during 2nd inauguration despite scandals

Despite multiple investigations into his administration’s hardball tactics and questionable ethics, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie emphasized the positive in his inaugural speech Tuesday.

“We have endured the worst economic recession of our lifetimes and we have begun to triumph over it,” Christie said in the afternoon address at the War Memorial in Trenton.

“We have confronted entrenched interests and their endless stream of money that have previously stood in the way of fiscal sanity for our state, and educational excellence for our children. Together, we have pushed those interests back, and put our children’s future first. We have survived the worst natural disaster in our state’s history and worked together to restore, renew and rebuild the state we love,” the Republican governor said.

Christie – under siege from three Democratic mayors and other foes over “Bridgegate” and other alleged acts of petty political payback – also stressed the importance of bipartisanship.

New Jersey, he said, “has put aside political partisanship on the important issues to our people to take advantage of the opportunities each of these challenges has presented us with every day.”

The governor touted his broad support among Jersey residents.

“It was not a vocal plurality like four years ago. No, this time, it was the largest and loudest voice of affirmation that the people of our state have given to any direction in three decades,” he crowed.

“Suburbanites and city dwellers. African-Americans and Latinos. Women and men. Doctors and teachers. Factory workers and tradesmen. Republicans and Democrats and Independents.“

And he stuck to his usual themes of fiscal conservatism and fighting special interests.

“I do not believe that New Jerseyans want a bigger, more expensive government that penalizes success and then gives the pittance left to a few in the name of income equity. What New Jerseyans want is an unfettered opportunity to succeed in the way they define success,” he said.

“Let’s be different than our neighbors. Let’s put more money in the pockets of our middle class by not taking it out of their pockets in the first place.”

The governor appeared earlier in the day at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, but did not speak.

But he and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno – also linked to one of the more recent controversies – both clapped their hands and bobbed their heads to gospel music

Christie’s inauguration party on Ellis Island Tuesday night, meanwhile, was cancelled because of the polar vortex, his staffers said.

“Unfortunately due to the anticipated severe weather conditions posed by today’s winter storm, we have made the decision to cancel this evening’s Inaugural Celebration at Ellis Island,” they said in a statement.

The feel-good nature of his remarks was in stark contrast to the political storms buffeting the governor.

The mayor of Fort Lee has accused his administration of orchestrating the now-infamous lane closures that paralyzed traffic on the Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge in September.

The Jersey City mayor said Christie’s top aides abruptly cancelled meetings with him after he declined to endorse the governor for reelection.

And Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer accused Guadagno of threatening to withhold Sandy relief money because she wouldn’t support a major development plan with ties to a Christie crony. Guadagno denied the charge.

The US attorney’s office and two state legislative committees are investigating Bridgegate – which Christie has denied knowing anything about and apologized for.

Also Monday, nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis said Christie dropped a promise to appoint him the state’s first physical fitness ambassador because he waged a political campaign against a Christie friend.

Christie – who has not ruled out a 2016 presidential run – won re-election in November by a 22-point margin over Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono.