Using the word “lynching” as a noun is pretty dubious unless you are talking about an actual lynching. Stu Rothenberg should think about it for a while. It is offensive as a metaphor for, say, an extrajudicial proceeding unless that proceeding entails actual torture and death. What Rothenberg is attempting to say is that Chris Christie is being convicted in the court of public opinion before all the evidence is in, which is a fair point if you care to bend over backward to defend the governor. But the presumption of guilt in the public is not the same as the presumption of guilt on the jury. And the presumption of guilt by the jury is not the same as a mob taking you out of Drumthwacket and hacking you to pieces.
I’m sure Rothenberg doesn’t appreciate it when people make lazy comparisons to the Nazis and the Holocaust. How would this sentence look:
But given the governor’s immediate reaction to the personal crisis that has engulfed him, it isn’t too soon to wonder when the accusations and media frenzy crossed the line from inquiry and investigation to throwing him an oven….
That doesn’t go down so well, does it?
