The Billy Joel Defense

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/19/opinion/the-billy-joel-defense.html

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Three guys in suits are standing around, having a laugh.

GUY 1: Get a load of Cuomo, on his Harley.

GUY 2: And look who’s with him — Billy Joel!

GUY 3: Haw, haw.

That’s roughly the explanation a defendant on trial in New Jersey gave for a photo showing Gov. Chris Christie yucking it up with two close associates — the defendant, Bill Baroni, and David Wildstein — at a 9/11 ceremony at ground zero in 2013. The picture, presented in federal court on Monday, was taken on the third day of the infamous lane closings at the George Washington Bridge. The case is about whether Mr. Baroni and another defendant concocted the scheme, then covered it up, to punish the mayor of Fort Lee.

Does the photo show three men laughing maliciously over a political dirty trick — as Mr. Wildstein testified? Or does it show Mr. Baroni’s more innocent take — Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York and the Piano Man had ridden together on motorcycles to the event, and the three New Jerseyans somehow found that hilarious.

That’s one totally unexpected Billy Joel story. Here’s another: In a New York State Assembly race on Long Island, Dean Hart, the Democratic challenger, is attacking the incumbent, Michael Montesano, a Republican, for being unable to get a bill passed to rename part of Route 107, in Oyster Bay, “Billy Joel Boulevard.”

Mr. Hart, with a Long Islander’s devotion, says he cannot fathom how such a bill could fail. “Next to Teddy Roosevelt, Long Island really doesn’t have a more famous or popular person than Billy Joel,” he said in a statement. Fans of Jerry Seinfeld, Mariah Carey and Howard Stern, among others, could argue about that all day and night, but Mr. Hart has no time for that. He has bigger plans. He’s pledged $1 million to erect a statue of Mr. Joel at the Nassau Coliseum, in marble or white granite.