Gov. Chris Christie's office knew what was coming in GWB traffic controversy, emails [Archive]

mouse

01-08-2014, 10:14 PM

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/gov_chris_christies_office_knew_what_was_coming_in _gwb_traffic_controversy_emails_show.html

Christie aide: "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee"

Gov. Chris Christie Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly sends private message at 7:43 a.m. to David Wildstein, Christie's appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
August 13, 2013
Wildstein: "Got it"

Wildstein a minute later to Kelly's Yahoo email.
September 6, 2013
Wildstein orders lane closure

The Port Authority's director of interstate capital projects, David Wildstein, orders the bridge's general manager to carry out the closures.
September 9, 2013
2 of 3 local toll lanes close

The Port Authority closes two of three local access lanes from Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge, the nation's busiest crossing, bringing traffic to a halt and turning borough streets into a parking lot.
Christie aide: "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee"

http://imgick.nj.com/home/njo-media/pgmain/img/star-ledger/photo/2013/11/-4bb7213cdcaf84e3.jpg

series of private emails between a top aide to Gov. Chris Christie and a political appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey shows the governor’s office was well aware of a plan to abruptly shut down several lanes at the George Washington Bridge in September, and then went into damage control mode as massive traffic jams turned into a political bombshell.

The communications between Bridget Anne Kelly, a deputy chief of staff in Christie’s office, and David Wildstein, a close friend of the governor from high school hired by the Port Authority in 2010 as director of interstate capital projects—a position that had no job description— suggest Wildstein was given the go-ahead to close the lanes about two weeks before the closings occurred, and that the governor’s office knew there was going to be problems.

And they detailed how the administration struggled to deal with the fallout, as complaints about the unannounced closings and massive gridlock they caused began mounting.

The controversy began when the agency abruptly closed two out of three upper-level toll lanes at the George Washington Bridge normally dedicated to local traffic, and instead opened them to commuters approaching from Interstate 95 and Routes 4 and 46.

Wildstein, who spearheaded the lane shutdown, was in direct communication with Kelly in August on the issue.

he evidence of advance knowledge of the closures by one of Christie's close staffers comes despite repeated assertions by the governor that he had nothing to do with the unannounced closures. The governor has also dismissed a legislative investigation into whether the closures were politically motivated as an attempt by Democrats to score their own political points.

Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), a former state Democratic Committee chairman who chairs the Assembly Transportation, Public Works and Independent Authorities Committee and has been leading the legislative inquiry, has a press conference scheduled for later this afternoon. In a phone interview this morning, he said he was not surprised by the new email disclosures.

-gRRXSPuKaQ

“I said all along that the order for the lane diversion came from outside the Port Authority,” he said.

Asked if he believed the email suggested the motive of the closures was indeed political, he responded, “I said all along that the order for the lane diversion came from outside the Port Authority.”

Chris Christie on GWB controversy: It's only still being covered because I'm a national figure It's now been over 100 days since the Port Authority closed lanes to the George Washington Bridge, causing widespread criticism of Gov. Chris Christie. On Wednesday the Democratic National Committee release a highlight reel of some of his latest statements on the controversy. In a Thursday meeting with the press on Thursday Dec. 19, 2013, the Governor said that the issue was "not that big a deal" and that it is still being covered because Christie is "a national figure." (Video by Michael Monday/The Star-Ledger)

However, Wisniewski said it was too soon to say that Christie himself was aware of plans for the closures in advance.

Christie's office said neither of his spokesmen were available for comment.

State Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Union) called on U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman to convene a federal grand jury to look into the possibility of criminal abuse of public office related to the bridge lane closures.

"There’s certainly reasonable suspicion that criminal acts occurred," said Lesniak, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee whose district includes several Port Authority facilities. "

Asked to specify what any such crimes might include, Lesniak said: “Abusing governmental authority for political purposes, for political gain.”

Lesniak said the New Jersey's top federal prosecutor, not the state attorney general's office, should look into the matter because Gov. Chris Christie appointed attorney general.

“No disrespect to the state attorney general’s office, but there’s an obvious conflict of interest there,” he said, alluding to Gov. Chris Christie's appointment of the state attorney general.'

Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex), a Christie critic who called on the Port Authority Inspector General’s office to investigate the closures before that office launched its own probe last month, said the new disclosures were outrageous.

“This goes to the personal integrity of the governor’s office,” said Codey. “The governor said he asked everyone in his office if they were involved in this, and he said the answer it was a blanket no. Obviously, there’s more lies there than in the confessional.”

Chris Christie's denials in George Washington Bridge closure scandal (video) As the scandal has emerged and grown, New Jersey Gov Chris Christie has repeatedly denied any connection between his office and the decision by two aides he appointed to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to close two local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in early September 2013. A compilation of his statements throughout the month of December 2013. (Video by compilation by Brian Donohue/The-Star-Ledger)

Assemblyman Scott Rumana (R-Passaic) this week said the Democratic lawmaker leading a legislative investigation into the closures failed to give Republicans enough time to thoroughly vet the documents in advance of a much-anticipated hearing in Trenton on Thursday. Wisniewski dismissed the criticism as politically motivated.

Wildstein, who has been called to testify at the hearing, was one of seven current and former Port Authority officials from whom Wisniewski had subpoenaed correspondence-related documents involving the closures.

According to Wisniewski, some of the correspondence indicated that the idea to redirect two out of three toll lanes normally accessed by a ramp from Fort Lee originated outside the agency, though he has declined to elaborate.

Wildstein was one of two Port Authority officials to resign last month amid the growing lane closure controversy. A week after he stepped down, the resignation of his supervisor at the agency, former Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni, was announced by Christie.

Baroni testified voluntarily before the committee on Nov. 25, without being sworn in, that Wildstein ordered the closings to determine whether overall bridge traffic would move more smoothly if one upper-level toll lane, instead of three, was dedicated to traffic from an access ramp in Fort Lee. He also acknowledged that the failure to communicate the closures to other agency officials and to local authorities was a mistake.

However, Democrats suspect the unusual closings were retaliation for the mayor's failure to support Christie's re-election. In his first public remarks to reporters on the closures, Christie dismissed any notion that he was involved or that they were politically motivated, joking, "I was working the cones."

On Dec. 9, Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye told the committee, under oath, that he was never made aware of any traffic study and remained unaware of one at that point. Wildstein resigned three days ahead of Foye's appearance before the committee, while Baroni's resignation was announced by Christie four afterward, when he repeated his assertion that he had nothing to do with closures.

http://media.nj.com/storypackage/14055991/image.png

http://video-embed.nj.com/services/player/bcpid1950981419001?bctid=2930427226001&bckey=AQ~~,AAAAPLMILBk~,Vn8u6tPOf8Us2eD8W1ez5Zw-Ss_6Anfe
“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Kelly emailed Wildstein on August 13.

“Got it,” he replied.
FULL COVERAGE:
CHRISTIE AND GWB SCANDAL

Other communications show the two later traded glib text messages, brushing off concerns by local officials in Fort Lee after the bridge lane closures went into effect, tying up traffic for hours. The mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, reached out to Bill Baroni, another Christie appointee at the Port Authority, asking for help because the traffic problems were making children on buses late to school.

“Is it wrong that I am smiling?” texted Wildstein to Kelly after hearing from Baroni.

“No,” she texted back.

“I feel badly about the kids,” he responded.

“They are the children of Buono voters,” she said, in reference to Barbara Buono, the Democrat who challenged Christie in his re-election campaign, and lost by a wide margin.

Kelly was named as Christie's deputy chief of staff for legislative and intergovernmental affairs in April 2013 and is paid $114,000 annually.

The emails, which were obtained by The Star-Ledger, were exchanged over private Gmail and Yahoo accounts, not official government email accounts that would have been subject to disclosure under public record disclosure laws.

DUNCANownsKOBE

01-08-2014, 10:17 PM

lol Chris Christie
lol obese wop cocksucker

Nbadan

01-08-2014, 11:15 PM

...Christie can't bullshit his way out of this, and there is going to be an investigation.

Bridge Closures Led To Emergency Response Delays, Disrupted Treatment For 91-Year-Old Woman Who Died
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/01/08/3138621/report-bridge-closures-led-emergency-response-delays-death/

Here Are The 4 Most Incriminating Email Exchanges In The Chris Christie Bridge Scandal
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/01/08/3134241/emails-tie-christie-aide-bridge-closing-scandal/

Nbadan

01-08-2014, 11:19 PM

Anyone remember this Christie exchange?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/slc987/christieyells_zps39a2cfff.jpg

I went to listen to him speak. I stood in the front of the crowd that was standing towards the back. I know he caught sight of me. He stared at me a few times during his speech. I left right as his speech was over to position myself right at the door of the bus. He came out, shaking everyone's hands as he was getting on the bus. I asked him my question, expecting him to ignore me but he suddenly turned and went off.

I asked him: "Why do you portray our schools as failure factories?" His reply: "Because they are!" He said: "I am tired of you people. What do you want?"

I told him I want money for my students. He fought back with the amount that he has spent on education. My response was along the lines of the fact his amount was not actually an increase from the previous years, given the rate of inflation and other factors. ...

The crowd started arguing with me. He screamed at me to just do my job. The crowd cheered for him. I just looked at them and told them: "Hey, this is my life. I had to do this." I tried to follow him to Atlantic City to continue the conversation but the roads were blocked by police when I got there.

- See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/11/exclusive-govchristie-to-teacher-i-am.html#sthash.e0C8vPa7.dpuf

NJ was ranked 3rd in the nation in school quality. Yet there was the governor screaming at a teacher as his wife smiled/smirked.

Nbadan

01-08-2014, 11:23 PM

Or this Christie exchange..

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1036557.1331360909!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_200/christie10n-1-web.jpg

Chris Christie called a Navy veteran an "idiot" at a New Jersey town hall meeting Thursday after they locked horns over the governor’s plan to merge two public universities.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/new-jersey-governor-chris-christie-calls-navy-veteran-idiot-article-1.1036558#ixzz2ps8BYagE

Nbadan

01-08-2014, 11:40 PM

Will Christie Apologize?

Lots of politicians get blamed for gridlock, but few can really grab it with both mitts and own it the way Gov. Chris Christie now can. One of his top aides gave the go-ahead to shut down traffic into Fort Lee, N.J., because the town's Democratic mayor wouldn't endorse Christie's re-election bid. "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," wrote Bridget Anne Kelly, a deputy chief of staff in the governor’s office.* Then, when the traffic was causing the predictable problems, Christie's aides appeared to delight in the fact that the ones being inconvenienced were likely to vote for Christie's opponent.

The problems for Christie and his presidential ambitions are obvious. The scandal is cinematic, amusing, and repeatable, which means it won't go away. Any of Christie's opponents in 2016 can refer to it at any time. New reporters will now be assigned to the Christie dirt-digging beat. It will be a stone in Christie's shoe as he endures the already irritating process of lugging himself across the country to campaign for the nomination.

The fate of his presidential campaign hangs on how he responds to the Fort Lee traffic scandal.
The story also confirms the existing stereotype that Christie is a bully from a state known for playing rough and being ethically loose. It raises questions about just what kind of operation Christie is running and whether he can be trusted. Christie has dismissed questions about the bridge issue and said—at least before the latest revelations—that no one in his office knew about it. Also, this would appear to close off Christie's lane to the high road (sorry). How can he say things like this from now on? "We watch a Congress at war with itself because they are unwilling to leave campaign-style politics at the Capitol's door."

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/01/fort_lee_traffic_scandal_chris_christie_s_2016_pre sidential_campaign_hangs.html#lf_comment=128139451

Nbadan

01-08-2014, 11:45 PM

In the best possible light, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie built a top staff of lying thugs who threatened lives and safety to serve his political ends. If not, Christie is a lying thug himself.

Emails and text messages among his close aides made public Wednesday documented that in September they gleefully engineered George Washington Bridge lane closures to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for failing to endorse their boss’ reelection.

Local officials say the gridlock they caused delayed ambulances in responding to four calls, including one involving an unconscious 91-year-old woman who later died.

Christie’s presidential ambitions are all but kaput, as he will be lambasted and lampooned as a man of low character and horrible judgment — again viewing him in the most favorable way.
The Port Authority’s sudden, unannounced closing of bridge entrance lanes produced hours-long backups for four days. They ended only after Executive Director Patrick Foye discovered the shutdowns, which were later traced to rogue orders issued by Christie PA appointee David Wildstein, a high school buddy, and to a cover-up by Bill Baroni, Christie’s top person at the bi-state agency.

For months, responsibility remained clouded. During that time, Christie made light of the charges. He joked that the press was suggesting he had moved traffic cones personally. Last month, he described the affair as “not that big a deal.” He supported Baroni’s story that the lane closures were part of a traffic study.

His aides’ communications, made public Wednesday, put the lie to that...

<snip>

More: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/christie-waterloo-article-1.1570246

ElNono

01-09-2014, 12:21 AM

Too big to prosecute, tbh

Nbadan

01-09-2014, 12:23 AM

Too big to prosecute, tbh

It's not about prosecuting...it's about exposing Christie as a bully and his staff as ethically challenged...

Nbadan

01-09-2014, 01:07 AM

Lol at Christie throwing his aides under the bus...

Now Crispy says he was "misled" by his aides

“What I've seen today for the first time is unacceptable,” the statement read. “I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge. One thing is clear: this type of behavior is unacceptable and I will not tolerate it because the people of New Jersey deserve better. This behavior is not representative of me or my Administration in any way, and people will be held responsible for their actions.”

See more at: http://www.northjersey.com

Trainwreck2100

01-09-2014, 01:29 AM

remember this christie exchange

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQlBRstoo20qaXi7tURUTo-DCE_No9psRC_JrIvKbYI9c9JzqRTYA

dude was never gonna make it out of the primaries anyway

pgardn

01-09-2014, 01:46 AM

The far right Republicans don't like him either.

The Fat Man is dead.

Jacob1983

01-09-2014, 01:47 AM

Why do these dumbass politicians say shit like this in emails? You would think they would be smarter and sneakier when it comes to hiding their dark shit from the public.

Nbadan

01-09-2014, 04:13 AM

This One Paragraph Shows How This Could Just Be The Start Of Chris Christie's Problems

The recent Mark Halperin and John Heilemann book, "Double Down: Game Change 2012," suggests that there could be plenty of dirt on Christie to uncover. One of the things that most concerned Mitt Romney's staff about the nomination of Christie as vice president in 2012 was that they were "stunned by the garish controversies lurking in the shadows of his record."

Here's the key paragraph:

The vetters were stunned by the garish controversies lurking in the shadows of his record. There was a 2010 Department of Justice inspector general’s investigation of Christie’s spending patterns in his job prior to the governorship, which criticized him for being “the U.S. attorney who most often exceeded the government rate without adequate justification” and for offering “insufficient, inaccurate, or no justification” for stays at swank hotels like the Four Seasons. There was the fact that Christie worked as a lobbyist on behalf of the Securities Industry Association at a time when Bernie Madoff was a senior SIA official—and sought an exemption from New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act. There was Christie’s decision to steer hefty government contracts to donors and political allies like former Attorney General John Ashcroft, which sparked a congressional hearing. There was a defamation lawsuit brought against Christie arising out of his successful 1994 run to oust an incumbent in a local Garden State race. Then there was Todd Christie, the Governor’s brother, who in 2008 agreed to a settlement of civil charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission in which he acknowledged making “hundreds of trades in which customers had been systematically overcharged.” (Todd also oversaw a family foundation whose activities and purpose raised eyebrows among the vetters.) And all that was on top of a litany of glaring matters that sparked concern on Myers’ team: Christie’s other lobbying clients, his investments overseas, the YouTube clips that helped make him a star but might call into doubt his presidential temperament, and the status of his health.

http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-christie-bridge-scandal-2016-president-2014-1

Nbadan

01-09-2014, 04:16 AM

Chris Christie Outraged By Christie Administration

:lol

Nbadan

01-09-2014, 04:19 AM

Former New Jersey Republican Gov. Tom Kean, a longtime Christie mentor, was stunned when he learned of the emails.
“That’s a big deal because they were saying there’s no connection to the governor’s office,” he told POLITICO. “That’s a connection.”

If Christie is losing people like Tom Kean he is finished.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/chris-christie-aides-bridge-emails-101897.html

FuzzyLumpkins

01-09-2014, 04:20 AM

If the best the dems can come up with to label Christie is 'bully' then they have a tough row to hoe. Especially after the current POTUS has the label of an ineffectual pussy following his back and forth with Congress.

And they should just come full on with the fattie hate and quit beating around the bush about his weight. 'Status of his health?' Passive aggressive bullshit.

Nbadan

01-09-2014, 04:26 AM

I think your wrong Fuzzylips...Christie's run may not be mortally wounded by this scandal, but he is going to be wounded none-the-less...

boutons_deux

01-09-2014, 07:12 AM

If the best the dems can come up with to label Christie is 'bully'

what Dem has called him a bully?

He's a classless (eg, "I worked the cones" sarcastic bullshit), unethical, Wall St 1% obese greasebag bully, an extreme right radical with carefully cultivated facade as moderate, which is enough for the Repug/TB to block him, with no help from the Dems.

FuzzyLumpkins

01-09-2014, 07:26 AM

what Dem has called him a bully?

He's a classless (eg, "I worked the cones" sarcastic bullshit), unethical, Wall St 1% obese greasebag bully, an extreme right radical with carefully cultivated facade as moderate, which is enough for the Repug/TB to block him, with no help from the Dems.

What you are posting is obvious propaganda trying to 'define' Christie. Goggle 'bully christie' and its right there for you.

Defining Romney as an oligarch worked wonders 18 months ago. Its typical dem strategy. This shit is just weak as hell as opposed to other efforts.

boutons_deux

01-09-2014, 07:37 AM

What you are posting is obvious propaganda trying to 'define' Christie.

I post WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT, for WHATEVER THE FUCK REASON I WANT, GFY

he's a greasebag schoolyard bully, with shitbag staff, a reflection of himself.

Bishop Gecko was crushed. He was, with "You People" Queen Ann, an elite 1%er, clear as day to anyone, totally fake, inauthentic, a fraud, a transparent facade he thought he was ENTITLED to be President.

Where did the Dems trash him as such?

as for bully, the evidence:

Stories Add Up as Bully Image Trails Christie

But the gesture would come to seem genteel compared with the fate suffered by others in disagreements with Mr. Christie: a former governor who was stripped of police security at public events; a Rutgers professor who lost state financing for cherished programs; a state senator whose candidate for a judgeship suddenly stalled; another senator who was disinvited from an event with the governor in his own district.

In almost every case, Mr. Christie waved off any suggestion that he had meted out retribution. But to many, the incidents have left that impression, and it has been just as powerful in scaring off others who might dare to cross him.

Now, the governor is dogged by another accusation of petty political revenge. Two close political allies ordered the abrupt shutdown (http://nyti.ms/19mDYiZ) of two local access lanes on the George Washington Bridge in September, gridlocking Fort Lee, N.J., for four days. The borough’s mayor said it was punitive because he had declined to endorse the governor’s re-election.

The governor mocked the suggestion as preposterous. But Democrats in New Jersey — and privately, some Republicans too — say it would hardly be out of character for Mr. Christie. As the governor prepares to run for president, the accusation has reinforced his reputation as a bully.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/25/ny...ing-image.html (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/25/nyregion/accounts-of-petty-retribution-reinforce-christies-bullying-image.html)

Greasebag is a bully is not coming from Dem strategy.

FuzzyLumpkins

01-09-2014, 07:56 AM

:lol

I never said you couldn't post it. I just said what it is.

Deep breaths.

I would also posit that you are ignorant of that NYtimes author and what she does. She wrote a book that did nothing other than define the tea party in 2010. and ffs read the last two sentences of the quoted portion of the article.

boutons_deux

01-09-2014, 08:30 AM

Jon Stewart crushes, as usual

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/09/jon-stewart-on-chris-christies-scandal-you-can-see-paul-ryans-bner-from-space/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

mouse

01-09-2014, 11:55 AM

Too big to prosecute, tbh

:lmao

If you think about it who else is better to represent an obese nation?

mouse

01-09-2014, 12:01 PM

Why do these dumbass politicians say shit like this in emails? You would think they would be smarter and sneakier when it comes to hiding their dark shit from the public.

I was wondering the same thing, It's like a Monsanto scientist feeding his child milk and corn.

AntiChrist

01-09-2014, 12:15 PM

Use of power to punish political enemies? That is a scandal. He should do the same thing Obama did and deny any knowledge of it.

mouse

01-09-2014, 12:24 PM

Jacob1983

01-09-2014, 02:52 PM

Jon Stewart is an unfunny koolaid drinker trying to make people think that his spoof comedy show is a news program.

boutons_deux

01-09-2014, 03:26 PM

How the Media Marketed Chris Christie's Straight Shooter Charade He's been relentlessly and adoringly depicted as some sort of Straight Shooter. He's an authentic and bipartisan Every Man, a master communicator, and that rare politician who cuts through the stagecraft and delivers hard truths. Christie's coverage has been a long-running, and rather extreme, case of personality trumping substance.

But now the bridge bombshell casts all of that flattering coverage into question. How could the supposedly astute Beltway press corps spend four years selling Christie as a Straight Shooter when his close aides did things like orchestrate a massive traffic jam apparently to punish the governor's political foes? When an appointee joked in texts about school buses being trapped in the political traffic backup? How could Christie be a Straight Shooter when he's been caught peddling lies (http://www.politifact.com/new-jersey/statements/2013/dec/22/chris-christie/chris-christie-claims-3-lanes-george-washington-br/) about the unfolding scandal and now claims he was misled about what people close to him were up to?

The truth is Christie was never the Straight Shooter that political reporters and pundits made him out to be. Not even close, as I'll detail below. Instead, the Straight Shooter story represented appealing fiction for the press. They tagged him as "authentic" and loved it when he got into yelling matches with voters.

Media Matters recently rounded up some of media's Christie sweet talk, which is particularly enlightening to review in the wake of the Trenton scandal developments:

In the last month alone, TIME magazine has declared that Christie governed with "kind of bipartisan dealmaking that no one seems to do anymore." MSNBC's Morning Joe called the governor "different," "fresh," and "sort of a change from public people that you see coming out of Washington." In a GQ profile, Christie was deemed "that most unlikely of pols: a happy warrior," while National Journal described him as "the Republican governor with a can-do attitude" who "made it through 2013 largely unscathed. No scandals, no embarrassments or gaffes." ABC's Barbara Walters crowned Christie as one of her 10 Most Fascinating People, casting him as a "passionate and compassionate" politician who cannot lie.

... much morehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-boehlert/how-the-media-marketed-ch_b_4567992.html

ChumpDumper

01-09-2014, 03:27 PM

I think the bully image would probably help him in the primaries.

boutons_deux

01-09-2014, 03:31 PM

I think the bully image would probably help him in the primaries.

yep, Repugs like their candidates intensively nasty, uncivilized, flame throwing, lacking in all decorum and respect for anyone but themselves, willing to say anything. See: Santorum, Gingrich, Cain, ...

boutons_deux

01-09-2014, 04:04 PM

Jon Stewart is an unfunny koolaid drinker trying to make people think that his spoof comedy show is a news program.

you right-wingers Can't Handle The Ridicule your politicians so justly deserve, and you right-wingers are equally deserving of ridicule for electing your assholes over and over and over.

Jon and Coal Bear have ridiculed Dems and they certainly deserve it, but the Repugs are just so much more and so more frequently deserving.

ChumpDumper

01-09-2014, 04:37 PM

Jon Stewart is an unfunny koolaid drinker trying to make people think that his spoof comedy show is a news program.When did he ever do that?

boutons_deux

01-09-2014, 05:21 PM

The real Chris Christie traffic scandal you've forgotten

To get a better sense of his willingness to sacrifice his citizens' welfare for political expedience, you have to go back to an earlier scandal. That 2010 affair, coincidentally, also involved traffic, but on a much greater scale. And it involved lying and bullying too.

It's proper now to recall an action Christie took in 2010 that he owned up to quite proudly. This was his unilateral torpedoing (http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/10/gov_christie_kills_hudson_rive.html) of a $9-billion federal-state project to build a commuter train tunnel under the Hudson. The project would have doubled capacity on the route--a crucial improvement given forecasts of sharply rising ridership and the decrepitude of the existing tunnel. It was the largest public transit project at the time, and had already begun. Christie's refusal to approve his state's share killed it.

The cancellation made Christie a darling of the conservative budget-cutting movement, instantly raising his profile as a GOP up-and-comer. Two years later, he was still crowing about his courageous act before conservative audiences.

His depiction of the project was typically blustering and deceitful: "They want to build a tunnel to the basement of Macy’s, and stick the New Jersey taxpayers with a bill," he said. You'd think that was pretty funny, unless you were a New Jersey commuter who knew that the "basement of Macy's" in midtown Manhattan is actually Pennsylvania Station, where the commuter trains go.

By then, Christie's rationale for killing the tunnel had been exposed as a passel of lies. He had claimed that it would cost more than $14 billion, and that New Jersey would be on a "never-ending hook" for 70% of the cost. In fact, as the Government Accountability Office reported (http://www.gao.gov/assets/590/589192.pdf), $14 billion was the maximum estimate, and $10 billion the most likely final bill. And New Jersey's share was 14.4%, not 70%.
But the cancellation allowed Christie to divert the state's share of the tunnel budget to a state highway fund, which in turn allowed him to avoid raising the state gasoline tax--already among the lowest in the nation--by a few cents.

So here's the toll: Christie sacrificed the long-term welfare of his own citizens for short-term personal, political gain. He did so with bluster and deceit. Even after his own figures were exposed as bogus, he didn't hold a two-hour press conference to apologize and promise it wouldn't happen again.

But which is the real Chris Christie? The one who claims to be "sad" and "humiliated" at the action of aides who at the very least figured they were acting as he would wish? Or the one who gloated over saving his state a few bucks in the near term by doing something that will cost it billions in the long term?

Here's a good bet: We'll be seeing a lot more of the gloating and bullying Chris Christie than the sad and humiliated model as time goes on.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/1780/article/p2p-78833032/?related=true

ChumpDumper

01-09-2014, 05:29 PM

Keep trying, I guess.

Jacob1983

01-09-2014, 05:40 PM

I'm a right winger? I voted for Gary Johnson, not Romney. Thank you. And please don't try to defend Jon Stewart. The guy is a fraud in the sense that he tries to make people think that The Daily Show is a news program like 60 Minutes while it's basically a spoof comedy show about the news. I love how Obama jizz drinkers call anyone that doesn't agree with them on anything "right wingers, racists, bigots, etc...". I will be glad when Bush's 4th term is over. I want some middle aged white Lutheran guy from Ohio or upstate New York as the next president. That way, I don't have to hear people bitching about his skin color and stupid shit like that.

clambake

01-09-2014, 05:43 PM

you might be the only one that thinks that.

ChumpDumper

01-09-2014, 05:44 PM

boutons_deux

01-09-2014, 05:44 PM

Chris Christie was a ticking time bomb. It was only a matter of time before he blew up

If there is a singular skill that separates presidential contenders from presidential “also-rans” it is discipline. The ability to stay on message, to keep emotions in check, to avoid distractions, to understand that the long-game must take precedence over the daily news cycle and to dodge the inevitable political headaches that emerge is essential to political success on a national stage.

Obama has it; W had it; Nixon (at least in public) was practically the king. Here’s who doesn’t have it: Chris Christie, and it’s the reason that his political career is on life support.

it was fairly obvious that Christie was a man whose decisions were guided as much by impulse and emotion as political calculation.

There have been not one or two but repeated losses of his temper, even with his own constituents. This video of Christie yelling at a skeptic on the Jersey boardwalk while holding aloft an ice cream cone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkzzHjq6wJI) spoke to Christie’s remarkable inability (particularly for a politician) to control his temper. He couldn’t even prevent himself from yelling at a teacher (http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/11/04/behind_that_photo_of_chris_christie_wagging_his_fi nger_at_a_teacher.html)who questioned his education policies only days before Election Day in November.

this behavior fits a regular pattern of reprisals (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/25/nyregion/accounts-of-petty-retribution-reinforce-christies-bullying-image.html?pagewanted=2) and retaliation against anyone who even mildly crosses Christie.

Christie has decided to use the Captain Renault defense, “‘I’m shocked, shocked that my aides would do this.” He even claimed (we can only assume with a straight face) that, “this behavior is not representative of me or my administration in any way.” It’s the rhetoric equivalent of a drone strike on irony.

That he has a long track record of personally striking back at political opponents who cross him – but sat this one out – stretches credibility. As the New York Times noted (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/nyregion/christie-aide-tied-to-bridge-lane-closings.html?hp):

Even Republican lawmakers who have supported Mr Christie tell stories of being punished when he perceived them as not supporting him enough.

At this point, the New Jersey governor has lost any right to the benefit of the doubt.

Above all what today’s revelations demonstrate is that he simply lacked the discipline to be a national figure, to undergo political scrutiny and to respond to political differences with something other than fury. He was a ticking time bomb as a politician. It was only a matter of time before he blew up.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/09/chris-christie-was-a-ticking-time-bomb-it-was-only-a-matter-of-time-before-he-blew-up/

boutons_deux

01-09-2014, 09:23 PM

DUNCANownsKOBE

01-09-2014, 09:29 PM

Rachel M just showed another possible target for the retribution as not the mayor of Fort Lee, but the Dem Senator representing Fort Lee who is also the leader of the Senate Democrats, whom, the night before, 12 Aug 13, a furious Christie. in a surprise press conference, called "animals". just fucking wow.

Every time Maddow talks about Christie she totally eviscerates him :lol, she also never bought the bullshit other people did when he :cryhugged Obama:cry

boutons_deux

01-09-2014, 10:00 PM

http://s3.amazonaws.com/dk-production/images/64513/large/bully.JPG?1389270379

NY Daily News: In the best possible light, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie built a top staff of lying thugs who threatened lives and safety to serve his political ends. If not, Christie is a lying thug himself.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/08/1268212/-GOP-Newspaper-Thug-Christie-is-Finished?detail=email

pgardn

01-09-2014, 10:07 PM

rascal

01-09-2014, 10:22 PM

A fat guy from the North would have never made it with the Republican national party anyways.

Th'Pusher

01-09-2014, 10:23 PM

Use of power to punish political enemies? That is a scandal. He should do the same thing Obama did and deny any knowledge of it.
Um. That's exactly what he's doing.

boutons_deux

01-09-2014, 10:30 PM

"same thing Obama did and deny any knowledge of it."

of what do you speak, my dear AntiChrist?

angrydude

01-09-2014, 10:31 PM

Again, when did he try to make people think his show is a news show?

When he asks people he doesn't like tough hard hitting questions.

ElNono

01-09-2014, 10:53 PM

next POTUS, tbh

ChumpDumper

01-09-2014, 10:58 PM

When he asks people he doesn't like tough hard hitting questions.That isn't news.

pgardn

01-10-2014, 12:15 AM

next POTUS, tbh

I would be inclined to disagree.

DMX7

01-10-2014, 12:26 AM

... trying to make people think that his spoof comedy show is a news program.

If anything, it's the other way around.

DMX7

01-10-2014, 12:29 AM

next POTUS, tbh

Magic 8 Ball says "that's looking doubtful".

Winehole23

01-10-2014, 04:00 AM

Um. That's exactly what he's doing.Darrin occasionally grasps the obvious by accident.

Winehole23

01-10-2014, 04:04 AM

the random, puny attempt at facetiousness sometimes pays off.

boutons_deux

01-10-2014, 07:36 AM

Christie Says, "I Am Not a Bully." Here Are 8 Videos of Him Yelling, Name-Calling, and Belittling People.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/01/chris-christie-bullying-videos

Wall St attracts and cultivates the most wonderful, civilized people. :lol

Winehole23

01-10-2014, 08:56 AM

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/367963/over-two-weeks-ago-christie-claimed-his-staff-gave-him-full-briefing-bridgegate-andrew

boutons_deux

01-10-2014, 09:32 AM

slide to 9:19 for Rachel's background and alternative target of Luca Brasi's vendetta

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/watch/an-alternate-theory-of-the-bridgegate-scandal-111611971764

She kept Luca Brasi GWB on front burner for months, and she was right.

scott

01-10-2014, 09:40 AM

LnGrrrR

01-10-2014, 10:04 AM

boutons_deux

01-10-2014, 10:09 AM

Eh, I don't think this dereails his presidential bid. Honestly, we'll have forgotten it by the time 2016 comes around. People will bring it up, and no one will really care.

Say the N word? Yeah, your campaign is toast.

Cheat on someone? Probably.

Close a bridge and piss off a lot of people and maybe be slightly culpable in the death of a 91 year old? Not really going anywhere.

Obese Wall St greasebag bully won't get out of the primaries. He thanked and hugged The Great Satan N!gg@

AntiChrist

01-10-2014, 11:06 AM

Eh, I don't think this dereails his presidential bid. Honestly, we'll have forgotten it by the time 2016 comes around. People will bring it up, and no one will really care.

Say the N word? Yeah, your campaign is toast.

Cheat on someone? Probably.

Close a bridge and piss off a lot of people and maybe be slightly culpable in the death of a 91 year old? Not really going anywhere.

:rolleyes :rolleyes :rolleyes :rolleyes :rolleyes :rolleyes :rolleyes

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/10/nyregion/woman-says-lane-closings-were-not-to-blame-for-her-mothers-death.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2

boutons_deux

01-10-2014, 11:36 AM

CHRISTIE URGES MEDIA TO FOCUS ON WEIGHT

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie lashed out at the media today, saying that it had "failed to focus on the single most important issue regarding me, which is my weight."

At a press conference in Trenton, Christie yelled at a room full of reporters, accusing them of doing the public a disservice by not devoting all of their coverage of him to the issue of his body mass.

"How much I've weighed in the past, how much I weigh now, and how much I'm eating - that's all you clowns should be writing about," he yelled. "Anything else is just a distraction."

Adopting a threatening tone, Christie told the reporters, "If you know what's good for you, your next story will be about how tubby I am."

The governor made only one reference to the notorious bridge-closing scandal, offering this alibi: "At the time that decision was made, I was busy shouting at a teacher."

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2014/01/christie-urges-media-to-focus-on-weight.html

ChumpDumper

01-10-2014, 01:27 PM

Rampgate doesn't have legs.

boutons_deux

01-10-2014, 01:38 PM

Rampgate doesn't have legs.

It has exposed Luca Brasi in a very bad light, and the investigation is far from over. NY AG's and US Attorneys are all on the case. NJ AG was appointed by Luca, so that's a non-starter conflict of interest.

ChumpDumper

01-10-2014, 01:41 PM

It has exposed Luca Brasi in a very bad light, and the investigation is far from over. NY AG's and US Attorneys are all on the case. NJ AG was appointed by Luca, so that's a non-starter conflict of interest.Keep hope alive!

boutons_deux

01-10-2014, 01:46 PM

Jon Stewart: Yes, Chris Christie did ‘set a tone’ — and it was ‘F-U sharp’http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/10/jon-stewart-yes-chris-christie-did-set-a-tone-and-it-was-f-u-sharp/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

boutons_deux

01-10-2014, 02:58 PM

Christie asked Cuomo to back off investigating Fort Lee. In mid-December. (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/09/1268413/-Andrew-Cuomo-needs-to-put-the-last-nail-in-Christie-s-coffin)

In what seems like ages ago in the Chris Christie Gina Close-a-your-bridgeda scandal saga, the WSJ reported something that looked exceptionally fishy at the time; that Christie had talked with Andrew Cuomo and asked him to get Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, to back off investigating the Fort Lee bridge closure. (http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304477704579254012674389146)

Mr. Christie, a Republican, complained in a private phone call to Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, that Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was pressing too hard to get to the bottom of why the number of toll lanes onto the bridge from Fort Lee, N.J. was cut from three to one in early September, according to this person. The lane closures occurred without notice to local authorities, officials have said, and snarled traffic for a week in the small borough on the Hudson River bluffs.

According to the WSJ story, that phone call was the week of December 12.Yeah. Kind of makes Christies little press "performance piece" this morning look like the firehose of lies that it actually was.

Among the mounting stream of evidence that shows Christie knew damn well what was going on, this one would seem to be the final nail in the coffin.

And it's very easily proven ... if Governor Cuomo has the backbone to be a proper partisan and put his boot on Christie's neck.

He doesn't have to do it personally. Heck, the WSJ would be HAPPY to report the facts if they just got the nod ... they're the ones with the connections to "a person familiar with the matter," which by the sound of it has to be someone in Cuomo's office anyway.

Ball is in your court, Andy. End Christie's political career.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/09/1268413/-Andrew-Cuomo-needs-to-put-the-last-nail-in-Christie-s-coffin?detail=email

LnGrrrR

01-10-2014, 03:33 PM

Darrin, if you noticed (and obviously you didn't, because, hey, you're Darrin), I used the words "maybe" and "slightly". I don't hold it against him (she was 91, after all) but others might.

Nbadan

01-10-2014, 07:12 PM

Got no legs.... :lol

New Bridge Scandal Emails: PA Official Said Christie Team's Lane Closure "Violates Federal Law"
Source: Mother Jones

In a September 13 email released Friday by the New Jersey Assembly panel probing Republican Gov. Chris Christie's George Washington Bridge scandal, Port Authority executive director Patrick Foye wrote that the decision to shut down access lanes to the bridge violated state and federal laws.

"I believe this hasty and ill-advised decision violates Federal Law and the laws of both States," Foye noted, explaining his decision to reopen those lanes to traffic. "I am appalled by the lack of process, failure to inform our customers and Fort Lee and most of all by the dangers created to the public." Foye sent his email after four days of heavy traffic jams caused by the closures to nearly a dozen officials at the Port Authority, including chairman David Samson, a Christie appointee.

-snip-

On Thursday, Christie expressed confidence that Samson played no part in causing the Fort Lee traffic disaster, saying, "I am convinced that he had absolutely no knowledge of this, that this was executed at the operational level and never brought to the attention of the board of commissioners." Yet when Foye ordered the lanes reopened on September 13, David Wildstein, a Christie appointee at the Port Authority official wrote to a Christie staffer, "We are appropriately going nuts. Samson helping us to retaliate."

Another email released on Friday shows an effort to keep the story from going public. On the night of September 13, Foye received an email from Bill Baroni, a Port Authority official appointed by Christie (who resigned in December as the scandal was unfolding). It read, "I am on my way to the office to discuss. There can be no public discourse."

-snip-

Read more: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/01/emails-port-authority-bridge-closure-violate-law-christie

At the press conference Christie was just shocked...shocked I tell you, that his staff was capable of lying to him about their involvement in the GWB scandal. So why was he twisting Cuomo's arm last month in an effort to keep this story quiet? If you don't believe Christie is involved in this, I've got a bridge to....

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week to complain about a Cuomo appointee's handling of a growing controversy over traffic pattern changes on the George Washington Bridge, a person familiar with the matter said.

Mr. Christie, a Republican, complained in a private phone call to Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, that Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was pressing too hard to get to the bottom of why the number of toll lanes onto the bridge from Fort Lee, N.J. was cut from three to one in early September, according to this person. The lane closures occurred without notice to local authorities, officials have said, and snarled traffic for a week in the small borough on the Hudson River bluffs.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304477704579254012674389146

pgardn

01-10-2014, 08:00 PM

What kind of fucks do you hire that pull this lane closure shit.

Its as bad as Barry's Chicago asshole appointments.

They reveled in what they had done.

Nbadan

01-10-2014, 09:17 PM

Chris Christie's Not in the Clear Yet. These Text Messages Show Why
By Andy Kroll and David Corn at Mother Jones

"SNIP......................................

Here's the backstory. The traffic jam happened on the week of September 9 and quickly became a local controversy. Lawmakers began investigating, and on November 25, Bill Baroni, another Christie appointee at the Port Authority, testified before the New Jersey Assembly's transportation, public works, and independent authorities committee. Baroni told lawmakers that the lane closures were part of a study to determine whether Fort Lee should have three dedicated lanes leading onto the George Washington Bridge.

State lawmakers didn't buy Baroni's explanation. "I think that at best this was clumsy and ham-handed," said committee chair John Wisniewski, a Democrat. "At worst, this was political mischief by a political appointee."

Immediately after his testimony, according to documents released this week, Baroni texted David Wildstein asking how Christie administration officials in Trenton, the state capital, had reacted to his testimony:

David Wildstein: You did great
Bill Baroni: Trenton feedback
Bill Baroni: ?
David Wildstein: Good

Bill Baroni: Just good? Shit
David Wildstein: No i have only texted brudget and Nicole they were VERY happy
Bill Baroni: Ok
David Wildstein: Both said you are doing great
David Wildstein: Charlie said you did GREAT

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/01/chris-christie-fort-lee-charlie-mckenna-text-message

boutons_deux

01-10-2014, 09:23 PM

5 Republicans Kicking Christie While He’s Down
http://www.nationalmemo.com/5-republicans-kicking-christie-while-hes-down/

Clipper Nation

01-10-2014, 09:29 PM

I'm a right winger? I voted for Gary Johnson, not Romney.
So you voted for a neocon pretending to be a libertarian instead of just a flat-out neocon :lol

Nbadan

01-10-2014, 09:52 PM

Here's Rudy...right on cue..

"This was very, very refreshing," said Rudy Giuliani of the New Jersey governor's explanation. "We've had a couple of years in Washington with a lot of situations like that IRS thing and Benghazi. We have a president who ... never takes accountability, never fires anybody." Christie, he added, "acted like a chief executive."

Read more: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/01/giuliani-thinks-christie-is-doing-great.html#comments

Yeah, Christie was completely accountable...

:lmao

Jacob1983

01-11-2014, 01:15 AM

Being for gay marriage, abortion, free trade, decriminalization of marijuana, and due process makes you a neocon? Clipnation, do you even know what a neocon is? I mean I know you are too busy praying every night before you go to bed that Christina Paul makes a miraculous speedy recovery but maybe you should do some reading on the neocons.

ElNono

01-11-2014, 01:54 AM

I would be inclined to disagree.

Magic 8 Ball says "that's looking doubtful".

You'll see... He'll need the party to push him through the primaries... but he's the only guy with a chance to beat Hillary

boutons_deux

01-11-2014, 11:49 AM

only guy with a chance to beat Hillary

never had a chance ever, now he's a more-chance-less, perhaps federally indicted greasebag. Kelly has 4 kids, she'll deal and squeal to stay out of prison.

ElNono

01-11-2014, 12:31 PM

At worst, this is Christie's Benghazi... and a lot less people died... it won't matter come 2016...

boutons_deux

01-11-2014, 12:37 PM

At worst, this is Christie's Benghazi... and a lot less people died... it won't matter come 2016...

Beghazi was a Repug fabricated controversy/witch-hunt, as they all are, to smear Hillary, that went impotently flaccid outside of Repugs, tea baggers, and their stupid supporters.

Christie closing GWB for 4 days is real, several 100K GWB users can testify.

boutons_deux

01-11-2014, 12:40 PM

At worst, this is Christie's Benghazi... and a lot less people died... it won't matter come 2016...

New N.J. documents show extensive coverup in Fort Lee traffic shutdownhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-nj-documents-show-extensive-coverup-in-fort-lee-traffic-shutdown/2014/01/10/09af4efc-7a1f-11e3-af7f-13bf0e9965f6_story.html?hpid=z1

Even the Repugs couldn't fabricate a Benghazi coverup so convincing as the GWB coverup.

ElNono

01-11-2014, 12:45 PM

:lol you being the arbiter of what was "invented" or not... it will all be brought up during campaigns... that's how it works... you know it, and I know it...

Christie's biggest obstacle is going through the primaries, but if the party gets behind him like they did with Romney and basically pick him as de-facto candidate, he'll make it...

boutons_deux

01-11-2014, 12:52 PM

CHRISTIE UNAWARE HE WAS THE GOVERNOR

At a hastily called press conference today, Chris Christie revealed that he only became aware that he was the governor of New Jersey in the past seventy-two hours.

“Unbeknownst to me, some people I thought I could trust were secretly working to elect me governor of this state,” a visibly stunned Christie told reporters. “I have acted swiftly and fired them all.”

While asserting that he had terminated all of the people who were involved in the scheme to elect him, he said that, if he finds additional conspirators, “I will deal with them accordingly.”

Christie struggled to explain how he remained in the dark about being governor, a position he has held since 2010: “I guess I’m just not much of a detail person. People think I’m a micromanager. I’m not. If a bunch of people are going behind my back and plotting to make me the governor, that’s not the kind of thing I pick up on.”

Reflecting on his reaction to the news that he is the governor of New Jersey, Christie said he felt “angry, embarrassed, and humiliated, but mainly just sad.”

“It’s sad that this was allowed to happen,” he said. “It’s a sad situation for me and for New Jersey.”

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2014/01/christie-unaware-he-was-the-governor.html

The Reckoning

01-11-2014, 02:05 PM

who gives a fuck?

boutons_deux

01-11-2014, 02:11 PM

:lol you being the arbiter of what was "invented" or not...

straw man.

NYT sent reporters to Libya, interviewed a bunch of people, while 0.1%er Issa sat on his comfortably taxpayer funded ass and held numerous Benghazi hearings, cherry picked/suppressed reports to fabricate his proof.

see the article in the NYT this week.

Benghazi is as dead as it ever has been as real issue, only the Issa zombie scandal survives.

Benghazi was caused by the youtube video mocking Muslims, not by al Queda. iow, America is its own worst enemy. "Why Do They Hate Us" because America hates them.

Sure, Repugs will bring up their fake Benghazi scandal, that ACA is a horrible disaster, and all kinds of other campaign lies, but like Barry as Kenyan fist bumping Muslim manchurian candidate, all the Repug lies and slander won't get them in the WH.

boutons_deux

01-11-2014, 02:32 PM

the lying, criminal greasebag is both presidential and telegenic

http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/christie.jpg

The bottom line is the Christie revenge scandal is deepening and not about to go away soon. Some of that is because Christie has a deep reputation of being a political bully in his state and his opponents are not going to easily let him off the hook. The New York Times has covered many incidents (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/25/nyregion/accounts-of-petty-retribution-reinforce-christies-bullying-image.html) where Christie has strong-armed opponents, including this week’s report (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/nyregion/in-calm-of-a-nature-reserve-feeling-and-fearing-christies-influence.html?action=click&contentCollection=N.Y.%20%2F%20Region&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article) of a state environmental official who was told he might face legal consequences if he opposed a pipeline in one of the state’s most pristine areas.

Beyond New Jersey’s border, national political reporters are well aware that Christie has been the leading Republican candidate in 2016 presidential polling. Both he and Hillary Clinton are their party’s leading candidates, and Christie also is the 2014 chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association. All of this means this scandal isn’t disappearing quietly into the night—if anything, it’s going to get louder and louder.

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/chris-christie-revenge-scandal-deepens-day-after-brash-governor-apologizes?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark (http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/chris-christie-revenge-scandal-deepens-day-after-brash-governor-apologizes?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark)

his opponents, both Repug and Dem, plus all the victims of his bullying will bring him down.

pgardn

01-11-2014, 09:16 PM

You'll see... He'll need the party to push him through the primaries... but he's the only guy with a chance to beat Hillary

I would agree. I just don't think the Republicans see this. It's still so early. Plenty of time for tripping.

scott

01-12-2014, 12:11 AM

Anyone mentioned Bengazi yet? This bridge thing just highlights what a disaster Obama is.

ElNono

01-12-2014, 12:38 AM

Anyone mentioned Bengazi yet? This bridge thing just highlights what a disaster Obama is.

I did :lol

boutons_deux

01-12-2014, 08:56 AM

Anyone mentioned Bengazi yet? This bridge thing just highlights what a disaster Obama is.

Thanks, Obama!

boutons_deux

01-12-2014, 11:22 AM

A couple of female hecklers in the crowd shouted something about jobs “going down” and Christie responded, “You know, something may be going down tonight, but it ain’t going to be jobs, sweetheart”

http://www.salon.com/2012/01/09/did_chris_christie_make_a_crude_sexist_joke/

boutons_deux

01-12-2014, 11:42 AM

5 Reasons Chris Christie Might Be Lying

1. Too much detail regarding unimportant issues. According to Meyer, a subject will often offer specific details that have nothing to do with the question of his guilt as a way of validating his claim of innocence. It’s as if the specificity will add credibility to what he’s about to tell you. However, when you listen closely, you’ll observe that the abundance of details does not lead to relevant information.

2. Evading questions. During the question-and-answer period Christie stuck to his talking points: Apologize. Appear cooperative. Promise to do better next time. He also avoided answering this question from a reporter: “So, I’m just asking, what do you ask yourself about — they either thought this is what the boss wanted, or they, as a group, they were willing to go rogue and do this and then try to cover it up.

3. Lack of genuine emotion. Christie is a force of nature. He is breathtakingly self-confident and passionate about what he believes in. He’s expressive with his hands, his face and his body. A Google image search reveals Christie using his hands in almost every speech, hugging people and laughing heartily. Christie is not a stuffed shirt. His baseline behavior is that of a warm, sincere, powerful leader, quick to anger, but also quick to love.

But in Thursday’s speech, Christie kept his arms on the podium, his face expressionless and his words measured, despite the fact that he kept repeating how heartbroken he was. “I don’t think I’ve gotten to the angry stage yet, but I’m sure I’ll get there,” he said, as if he knew it was strange not to appear angry.
The fact that this behavior is so out of character for him is significant.

4. Leaks. These can be the most damning of all. A leak is a facial expression or physical gesture that sneaks out without the liar’s knowledge. These telltale signs can be facial expressions or physical gestures that are out of sync. For example, a subject angry at an accusation slams his fist on the table, but his face betrays the slightest smile for just an instant. A leak could also be an errant phrase tacked on to the end of a statement that then changes its entire meaning. “I don’t micromanage first,” Christie said at the end of an explanation regarding his management style:
I am — there’s this — there’s this, you know, kind of reputation out there of me being a micromanager. I’m not. I mean, I think if you talk to my staff, what they would tell you is that I delegate enormous authority to my staff and enormous authority to my Cabinet. And I tell them, come to me with the policy decisions that need to be made, with some high-level personnel decisions that need to be made. But I do not manage in that kind of micro way, first.

Later he assures the press corps that he will always tell them the truth, as he sees it. It’s the “as I see it,” that weakens the phrase. But the fact that he feels the need to say it at all is somewhat suspect. According to Meyer, if anyone is telling you they are telling you the truth, that person probably is not.

5. Contradictions. Twice during the press conference Christie changed his story. At the start of his speech he clearly explained that four weeks ago he took his staff into his office and told them that if they had anything to do with the bridge lane closures they had one hour to tell either chief of staff Kevin O’Dowd or chief counsel Charlie McKenna. Later in the conference, aggressively leaning over the podium, Christie said that four weeks ago he took his staff into his office and told them that they should tell him, Mr. O’Dowd and Mr. McKenna right then and there if they were involved with the bridge debacle.

http://www.alternet.org/print/tea-party-and-right/5-reasons-chris-christie-might-be-lying

pgardn

01-12-2014, 11:50 AM

Anyone mentioned Bengazi yet? This bridge thing just highlights what a disaster Obama is.

Bengazi could end up being small potatoes, just like the bridge. Knowingly ruining the functioning of US infrastructure is not the same as incompetence. In fact it is competent revenge using the public as fodder, could be incredibly malignant imo.

And Christie hired these fucks. Just like Obama with Holder and Rahman Emanuel. Or a number of other types without a conscience.

mouse

01-12-2014, 12:17 PM

Bengazi could end up being small potatoes, just like the bridge. Knowingly ruining the functioning of US infrastructure is not the same as incompetence. In fact it is competent revenge using the public as fodder, could be incredibly malignant imo.

And Christie hired these fucks. Just like Obama with Holder and Rahman Emanuel. Or a number of other types without a conscience.

Now that's what I call ..

http://www.schoolofthinking.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/tit%2Bfor%2Btat.jpg

mouse

01-12-2014, 12:22 PM

boutons_deux

01-12-2014, 12:32 PM

Anyone mentioned Bengazi yet? This bridge thing just highlights what a disaster Obama is.
Did somebody say "Benghazi" ? :lol

Host calls out Reince Priebus for ‘deflection’ after Benghazi rant over Christie scandal

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/12/host-calls-out-reince-priebus-for-deflection-after-benghazi-rant-over-christie-scandal/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Repugs and their brain-dead, zombie talking points! :lol

ChumpDumper

01-12-2014, 01:10 PM

Is this really all the left-wing hate machine has on Christie?

Might as well stick to fat jokes.

boutons_deux

01-12-2014, 01:32 PM

Is this really all the left-wing hate machine has on Christie?

Might as well stick to fat jokes.

Being a repulsively, risibly obese greasebag is the least of Christie's problems.

He's not "Christian" enough (although some "Christian" ignorants probably think his surname is proof enough that he's a Bible-thumper), he thanked and hugged the Great Muslim N!gg@ Satan, not extremist right enough for the teabaggin base, and the GWB scandal will screw him up with NJ voters, probably not be re-elected governor. iow, he's in very deep doodoo (except with his Wall St/USCoC buddies).

ChumpDumper

01-12-2014, 03:03 PM

Being a repulsively, risibly obese greasebag is the least of Christie's problems.

He's not "Christian" enough (although some "Christian" ignorants probably think his surname is proof enough that he's a Bible-thumper), he thanked and hugged the Great Muslim N!gg@ Satan, not extremist right enough for the teabaggin base, and the GWB scandal will screw him up with NJ voters, probably not be re-elected governor. iow, he's in very deep doodoo (except with his Wall St/USCoC buddies).Well, you're certainly as afraid of him as Republicans are of Clinton.

boutons_deux

01-12-2014, 03:43 PM

Well, you're certainly as afraid of him as Republicans are of Clinton.

bullshit, the only things formidable about this pathological narcissist are his 70" waistline and his egomania.

As a political threat? IT'S OVA!

RickyBobby is definitely loving CC's self-immolation.

Here's RickyBobby ripping off TX taxpayers being scammed for his political trips.

Rick Perry's security detail tab reaches $2.8 million

The travel cost of Gov. Rick Perry (http://www.mysanantonio.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news%2Fpolitics&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Rick+Perry%22)'s security detail for out-of-state trips has risen to $2.8 million, covering the period from his 2010 re-election through late last year.

The latest $120,933 quarterly tab for out-of-state trips includes Perry's travel to Israel, England, California, Colorado, South Carolina, Louisiana, New Jersey, Mississippi and Washington, D.C.

Perry, who is mulling another run for president, is accompanied by his detail when he makes trips for political events, state business or vacations.

Taxpayers typically don't foot the bill for Perry's direct travel costs, but they do pay for the Texas Department of Public Safety (http://www.mysanantonio.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news%2Fpolitics&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Texas+Department+of+Public+Safety%22) security detail.

Perry has rebuffed the idea of covering the security detail's costs for political trips, as some have urged, saying he is governor wherever he goes.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/politics/article/Rick-Perry-s-security-detail-tab-reaches-2-8-5132526.php

Neither Perry or Ayn Rand Paul are electable.

ChumpDumper

01-12-2014, 03:54 PM

Then there is no need for you to post about them.

boutons_deux

01-12-2014, 05:24 PM

Then there is no need for you to post about them.
:lol

boutons_deux

01-12-2014, 09:11 PM

NJ Dems talking impeachment if investigation shows Fatso knew about GWB closures before the closing.

boutons_deux

01-12-2014, 09:15 PM

MSNBC Kornacki throws in $1B development on 16 acres where the GWB lands in NJ.

Legs? VERY LONG LEGS! :lol

Nbadan

01-12-2014, 11:03 PM

arl Rove: Bridge scandal proves Christie is ‘what we want’ in a president
Source: Raw Story

By David Edwards
Sunday, January 12, 2014 10:14 EST

Republican strategist Karl Rove asserted on Sunday that New Jersey’s Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) handling of the George Washington Bridge Scandal showed he had the right qualities to be president of the United States.

During a panel segment on Fox News Sunday, host John Roberts pointed out that many Republicans were praising Christie for firing one of his top aides after a newspaper exposed his administration’s role in closing part of the busiest bridge in the world as part of political retribution plot, but President Barack Obama had not fired anyone over the health care reform law.

“I think he did himself a lot of good,” Rove said of Christie’s reaction to the scandal. “I think he did himself some good by contrasting with the normal, routine way of handing these things, which is to be evasive, to sort of trim on the edges.”

“You’ll notice we haven’t been hearing a lot from the Clinton camp about this,” he added. “Contrast both with Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary Clinton’s handling of Benghazi.”

Later in the segment, Roberts asked the panel: “Where was this media coverage on Benghazi, the NSA or the IRS?”

Columnist George Will admitted that “this was not a phony scandal” because Christie’s administration had used the machinery of government to “screw our enemies.”

“There are reasons why conservatives had disagreements with Chris Christie, I don’t think that the tea party is going to seize upon Fort Lee and the George Washington Bridge as their defining difference with Christie,” Rove opined. “In fact, I think his handling of this, being straightforward, taking action — saying, ‘I’m responsible’ — firing the people probably gives him some street cred with some tea party Republicans, who say that’s what we want in a leader, somebody who steps up and takes responsibility.”

The Washington Post‘s Bob Woodward noted that the media needed to uncover-the mindset of Christie’s staff because the decision to close the bridge “came out of that office.”

“So did Benghazi, and so did IRS… come out of appointees of President Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton!” Rove shot back. “The amount of attention paid this week to Chris Christie makes the coverage of Benghazi at the same time and the coverage of the IRS pale in significance.”

Watch this video from Fox News’ Fox News Sunday, broadcast Jan. 12, 2014.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/12/karl-rove-bridge-scandal-proves-christie-is-what-we-want-in-a-president/

Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zDW7B9P_Iic/UY2om-_DbYI/AAAAAAAA0Vc/CPvFj0930Ac/s1600/benghazi.png

Jacob1983

01-13-2014, 01:38 AM

How many humans has Obama killed with drones? Thank you. Obama's foreign policy is Bush on steroids.

boutons_deux

01-13-2014, 10:56 AM

Chris Christie Facing Federal Investigation Over Sandy Funds

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is facing a federal investigation into whether the governor used Hurricane Sandy relief money to produce tourism ads starring himself and his family, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) told CNN Sunday. (http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/13/politics/christie-feds-investigating-sandy-ads/index.html) The New Jersey lawmaker said the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development conducted a preliminary investigation, and concluded that a full investigation is warranted.

The investigation comes as the New Jersey governor is facing a separate federal probe (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/09/chris-christie-criminal-charges_n_4568207.html) into revelations that his top aides engineered the temporary shutdown of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge as political retribution.

Pallone wrote a letter (http://pallone.house.gov/press-release/pallone-calls-investigation-christie%E2%80%99s-misuse-disaster-aid-political-gain) to the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in August, asking why a firm with a more expensive pitch won the project to make a New Jersey tourism campaign with Hurricane Sandy relief funds. The winning firm's bid was $4.7 million, while a comparable firm cost $2.5 million. The more expensive idea included the Chrisities, while the cheaper pitch did not.

In a slickly produced ad released in May (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaHQNSGlfTs), Christie appeared towards the end and proclaimed that New Jersey was "stronger than the storm."

The ad came as Christie was running for reelection as a Republican in an overwhelmingly Democratic state. However, due to his personal popularity (thanks in no small part to his handling of the Sandy recovery), Christie trounced Democrat Barbara Buono and led in the polls throughout the campaign.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/13/chris-christie-investigation_n_4588132.html?ir=Politics&utm_campaign=011314&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-politics&utm_content=Title

boutons_deux

01-13-2014, 02:16 PM

another Dem mayor punished for not encdorsing Fat Bastard

Another Mayor Faced Reprisal Over Christie, Files Suggest
In another indication of the hardball Gov. Chris Christie (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/25/nyregion/accounts-of-petty-retribution-reinforce-christies-bullying-image.html) played to win support from Democratic officials, documents released Monday show that the governor’s administration aggressively courted the mayor of Jersey City, then abruptly cut ties after he informed them that he would not endorse the governor for his re-election.

The release of the documents comes as the Christie administration tries to control the political damage of revelations last week that aides to the governor in his office and campaign worked with his appointees at the Port Authority to shut down lanes on the George Washington Bridge as an act of political retribution against the mayor of Fort Lee. That mayor, also a Democrat, had declined a request to support the governor’s re-election.

According to documents obtained through a freedom of information request, the courtship between Mr. Christie and the Jersey City mayor, Steven Fulop, began with a call from the governor the evening of May 14, after Mr. Fulop won the election. The next morning, Mr. Christie’s campaign manager for his re-election, Bill Stepien, texted Mr. Fulop to say that the Christie administration would do as much as Mr. Fulop wanted to get help from the administration.

Working with Bridget Anne Kelly – an aide to Mr. Christie who was fired last week after the release of documents showing she gave the signal to shut down lanes on the George Washington Bridge – Mr. Fulop then set up a day’s worth of meetings on July 23.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/nyregion/christie-cut-ties-with-mayor-after-being-denied-endorsement-documents-show.html?from=homepage

politicians trashing each other is one thing, politicians trashing 100Ks citizens is totally different.

Jacob1983

01-13-2014, 06:58 PM

Why do you liberals care? Christie wouldn't have won in 2016 anyway.

boutons_deux

01-13-2014, 08:00 PM

Why do you liberals care? Christie wouldn't have won in 2016 anyway.

As ex-Wall street crook, he's the financial/corporate sector's darling, just as Bishop Gecko was in 2012.

The Trouble With Chris Christie

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been Wall Street’s anointed son for the presidency. He is backed by the most ruthless and corrupt figures in New Jersey politics, including the New Jersey multimillionaire and hard-line Democratic boss George Norcross III. Among his other supporters are many hedge fund managers and corporate executives and some of the nation’s most retrograde billionaires, including the Koch brothers. The brewing scandal over the closing of traffic lanes (http://gawker.com/what-the-hell-is-this-chris-christie-bridge-scandal-an-1499317392) on the George Washington Bridge apparently in retaliation for the Fort Lee mayor’s refusal to support the governor’s 2013 re-election is a window into how federal agencies and the security and surveillance apparatus would be routinely employed in a Christie presidency to punish anyone who challenged this tiny cabal’s grip on power.

Christie is the caricature of a Third World despot. He has a vicious temper, a propensity to bully and belittle those weaker than himself, an insatiable thirst for revenge against real or perceived enemies, and little respect for the law and, as recent events have made clear, for the truth. He is gripped by a bottomless hedonism that includes a demand for private jets, huge entourages, exclusive hotels and lavish meals. Wall Street and the security and surveillance apparatus want a real son of a bitch in power, someone with the moral compass of Al Capone, in order to ruthlessly silence and crush those of us who are working to overthrow the corporate state. They have had enough of what they perceive to be Barack Obama’s softness. Christie fits the profile and he is drooling for the opportunity.

Activists, Democratic and Republican rivals for power, liberals, reformers and environmentalists will, if Christie becomes president, see the vast forces of the security state surge into overdrive to stymie and reverse reform, gut our tepid financial and environmental regulations, further enrich the corporate elite who are pillaging the country, and savagely shut down all dissent. The corporate state’s repression, now on the brink of totalitarianism, would with the help of Christie, his corporate backers and his tea party loyalists become a full-blown corporate fascism.

Wall Street was unable to mask Mitt Romney’s cloying sense of entitlement and elitism, along with his Mr. Rogers blandness. But Wall Street sees in the profane, union-busting New Jersey governor the perfect Trojan horse for unfettered corporate power. Christie, eyeing a bid for the presidency in the 2016 election, has been promised massive financial backing by the Koch brothers; hedge fund titans such as Stanley Druckenmiller, Kenneth C. Griffin, Daniel S. Loeb, Paul E. Singer, Paul Tudor Jones II and David Tepper; financiers such as Charles Schwab and Stephen A. Schwarzman; real estate magnate Mort Zuckerman; former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso; former AIG head Maurice “Hank” Greenberg; former Morgan Stanley CEO John J. Mack; former GE Chairman Jack Welch; and Home Depot founder Kenneth Langone. David Koch has called Christie “a true political hero” and said he is “inspired by this man.” Rupert Murdoch, whose ethics seem to align with Christie’s, is similarly besotted with the governor.

Christie is pitched to the public, as was George W. Bush, as a regular guy, someone who speaks bluntly and candidly, someone you would want to have a beer with. But this is public relations crap. He is and has long been a hatchet man for corporate firms and big banks. He began his career as a corporate lobbyist in Trenton, N.J., working for clients such as the Securities Industry Association. He has done their bidding ever since. His wife, Mary Pat Christie, is a bond trader who has worked at JPMorgan Chase, Fleet Securities and Cantor Fitzgerald and is currently a managing director at Angelo Gordon, an investment firm in New York.

If Christie implodes politically, Wall Street will no doubt find another candidate to be its lackey. The system of corporate power, not the individual at the helm, is fundamentally the problem for democracy. But this does not mean we should not fear the excesses that surely would occur under a Christie presidency. Christie and those who want him to occupy the Oval Office have little regard for the impediments of law and do not know the meaning of the word “restraint.”

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_trouble_with_chris_christie_20140112

boutons_deux

01-14-2014, 12:35 PM

Why it’s stupid to ask for Benghazi coverage while Chris Christie’s scandal is ripe

Star-Ledger Editorial Board (http://connect.nj.com/user/njosledit/index.html) Monday, January 13, 2014 6:00:00 PM

Somehow, the right’s response to Chris Christie’s still-breaking Bridgegate (http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/people_debate_gwb_scandal_christies_involvement_on _social_media.html) scandal has devolved into this: Why are you writing about New Jersey (http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2014/01/gwb_scandal_will_hurt_chris_ch.html) traffic jams, because Benghazi!

In letters to newspapers and online comments, in phone calls to their favorite conservative radio and TV pundits, conservatives are in a state of collective denial: They refuse to acknowledge there’s anything to Gov. Chris Christie (http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/chris_christie_is_pathetic_declares_ny_tabloid_see _front_pages_of_gwb_controversy.html) and the George Washington Bridge (http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2014/01/gwb_scandal_will_hurt_chris_ch.html) scandal until President Obama and the consular attack in Benghazi (http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/haley_barbour_defends_christie_in_bridge_scandal_l ashes_out_at_liberal_media.html) get equal time.

The Republicans’ nothing-to-see-here talking points come from on high: Reince Priebus, chairman (http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/haley_barbour_defends_christie_in_bridge_scandal_l ashes_out_at_liberal_media.html) of the Republican National Committee (and, like Christie (http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/01/as_us_attorney_examines_gwb_scandal_lawyers_and_po ls_weigh_in_on_possible_outcomes.html), a Morris County guy) praised Christie’s 111-minute apology news conference last week (http://nypost.com/2014/01/12/top-republicans-defend-chris-christie-after-bridgegate/), suggesting others should follow the governor’s lead: “Now, only if Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton (http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/12/poll_will_the_george_washington_bridge_controversy _hurt_gov_chris_christies_presidential_chances_in. html) would give us 111 seconds of that, would we find out some things we want to find out about Obamacare, Benghazi, the IRS.”

On "Fox News Sunday," Karl Rove responded (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/12/karl-rove-bridge-scandal-proves-christie-is-what-we-want-in-a-president/) to Bob Woodward’s comment that the Bridgegate scandal was significant because it originated in Christie’s office: “So did Benghazi, and so did IRS … come out of appointees of President Obama (http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2014/01/gwb_scandal_will_hurt_chris_ch.html) and Secretary of State (http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/nj_politics_roundup_christie_bridge_scandal_stretc hes_on_state_police_leader_sued.html) Hillary Clinton!”

What’s clear is that, scandal or not, most of the Republican Party won’t abandon Christie – the only GOP (http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/chris_christie_is_pathetic_declares_ny_tabloid_see _front_pages_of_gwb_controversy.html) candidate assumed to have the juice to compete for the White House (http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2014/01/gwb_scandal_will_hurt_chris_ch.html) in 2016. Just the opposite: They’re circling the wagons and shoveling Benghazi and other old news at the public to divert attention from headlines coming out of New Jersey (http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/01/chris_christie_bridge_scandal_top_trending_stories _this_morning.html).
What’s the difference? Here are three reasons the unrelated Bridgegate and Benghazi stories aren’t getting equal time – and shouldn’t.

Intent: America’s press corps has looked at Benghazi, the IRS (http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/haley_barbour_defends_christie_in_bridge_scandal_l ashes_out_at_liberal_media.html) scandal and the other Obama-related scandals tossed around last weekend. In each case, the facts dampened the early cries of conspiracy and cover-up. In Benghazi, neither congressional investigators (http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/benghazi-investigation-libya-issa-94386.html) nor the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/benghazi/#/?chapt=0) found evidence to support the idea of a concerted executive (http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/12/subpoenas_christie_correspondence_gwb_closures.htm l) branch failure or cover-up. In the IRS fiasco, an investigation found both conservative and liberal political groups were subject to review – and everyone got what they wanted, anyway.
The Bridgegate story blew up last week precisely when documented evidence surfaced that Christie’s top aides ordered the George Washington Bridge closures (http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/emails_tie_top_christie_aide_to_gwb_closures.html) , presumably for political revenge against Fort Lee’s mayor, and that the dangerous traffic jams that resulted were premeditated.

Coverage: It’s hard to argue that Benghazi, the IRS scandal or Obamacare’s glitchy website weren’t covered in full. Each story was subject to intense coverage when it broke – just as Bridgegate is breaking now. To expect coverage of old stories to increase because of an uncomfortable new story is silly.
Just as silly are suggestions that New Jersey media, including The Star-Ledger, are spending too much time covering a breaking story of corruption in the governor’s office. Because Benghazi?

Cover-ups: Each scandal resuscitated by the right last week began with cover-up allegations that have faded under the bright lights of media coverage (http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/01/twitters_take_on_chris_christie_bridge_scandal_was _negative_analysis_shows.html) and federal investigation.

Meanwhile, new evidence that Christie’s aides tried to cover their tracks is surfacing as thousands of newly released documents and e-mails are made public. None of the evidence suggests the governor was involved at that level, but there are a lot of questions about the GWB lane (http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/01/bridge-gate_a_look_back_at_the_george_washington_bridge_l ane_closure_controversy.html) closures that still haven’t been answered.

Bridgegate isn’t Watergate yet, but the comparison has been made. But it’s not Benghazi, either – no matter how desperately the right wing would like everyone to believe it is.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/14/why-its-stupid-to-ask-for-benghazi-coverage-while-chris-christies-scandal-is-ripe/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Clipper Nation

01-14-2014, 12:55 PM

Being for gay marriage, abortion, free trade, decriminalization of marijuana, and due process makes you a neocon?
Being for interventionism, the death penalty, and thinking the Fed can merely be "reined in" does make you a neocon, tbh.... Gary Johnson is at best a wannabe libertarian....

boutons_deux

01-14-2014, 01:09 PM

WSJ:

Gov. Chris Christie was with the official who arranged the closure of local lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 11, 2013 — the third day of the closures, and well after they had triggered outrage from local officials beset by heavy traffic.

It isn’t known what, if anything, Mr. Christie discussed with David Wildstein that day, when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey official was among the delegation of Mr. Christie’s representatives who welcomed him to the site of the World Trade Center for the commemoration of the 12th anniversary of the terrorist attacks there.

Mr. Christie’s office didn’t respond to questions about what he and Mr. Wildstein discussed. Mr. Wildstein did not respond to a request for comment.

Also present with Mr. Christie that day were Bill Baroni, the authority’s deputy executive director, who was helping Mr. Wildstein manage the fallout from the closures among local officials, subpoenaed documents show. Also there was David Samson, the Port Authority chairman and close Christie ally, who has said he didn’t learn of the lane closures and traffic in Fort Lee, N.J., until an email from a New York port official ordered the lane closures reversed. Messrs. Samson and Baroni didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Christie addressed Mr. Wildstein in a news conference last week, saying he had not encountered him “in a long time.”

“I have had no contact with David Wildstein in a long time, a long time, well before the election,” which was held Nov. 5, Mr. Christie said last week. “You know, I could probably count on one hand the number of conversations I’ve had with David since he worked at the Port Authority. I did not interact with David.”

When exactly Mr. Christie learned of the traffic problems is an unsettled question likely to figure in investigations of the matter. Mr. Christie said in December that he learned only after the Journal published an internal email from the Port Authority’s top New York official reversing the closures. That email and the accompanying news article appeared Oct. 1 (http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304373104579109860563887326).

http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2014/01/14/christie-official-who-arranged-bridge-closures-together-during-fiasco/

Fat Bastard, aka Luca Brasi, denied dealing with his capo Wildstein, has been caught in a lie, very probably only one many in his operatic performance to be uncovered as suboenas, investigations continue, and esp if, eg, Kelly sings.

scott

01-14-2014, 01:52 PM

[SIZE=3][FONT=arial]WSJ:

[COLOR=#000000]Gov. Chris Christie was with the official who arranged the closure of local lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 11, 2013 — the third day of the closures, and well after they had triggered outrage from local officials beset by heavy traffic.

Anniversary of Benghazi, tbh

boutons_deux

01-14-2014, 05:46 PM

How to Sue Over the Christie Bridge Scandal and Winhttp://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/01/chris_christie_s_bridge_scandal_the_lawsuits_it_wi ll_spawn_and_why_some.html

pgardn

01-14-2014, 07:54 PM

So Christie is fat.

Is it still ok to refer to Hillary's calve/ankle as beer keg like since no one has been able to figure out where her ankles actually begin? Is it Boutons? Is it okay to shoot a Republican on a cell phone in a theater?

Nbadan

01-14-2014, 08:42 PM

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v102/ronsheridan/IknownothingChrisChristie_zps6c9be386.jpg

boutons_deux

01-14-2014, 09:37 PM

Maddow is totally destroying ALL of Luca Brasi's tiny credibility.

and by the time the NJ assembly, and the Feds get done with Fat Bastard Luca Brasi, he's gonna think this would have been less painful treatment:

http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110304194020/godfather/images/thumb/0/0f/Vlcsnap-2010-06-30-21h21m34s220.png/250px-Vlcsnap-2010-06-30-21h21m34s220.png

boutons_deux

01-14-2014, 10:17 PM

all you wannabe TV lawyers probably know this, but I heard on Lawrence O'Donnell the you can't plead the 5th in CIVIL case, only in a criminal case. Wildstein took the 5th last week.

This almost as fun as watching the daily madness spewed from all over the Repug/tea bagger/Fox/right-wing hate media daily. :lol

mouse

01-14-2014, 10:39 PM

bullshit, the only things formidable about this pathological narcissist are his 70" waistline and his egomania.

:lmao

angrydude

01-15-2014, 02:24 AM

First let me say, of course he knew about it and I'd love nothing more than to see him kicked out of office in disgrace.

Second, yes the fatass governor of new jersey is a corrupt, vindictive liar, and generally a horrible person. Wow, who didn't see that one coming? The only tragedy is that this sort of behavior from egomaniac politicians doesn't get exposed more often.

The only surprising thing is he got caught.

Jacob1983

01-15-2014, 03:06 AM

A fat lying douchebag Republican is the giant wet dream that the Democrats just orgasm over so of course they're thrilled. I will again say why didn't this donut lover do this shit in private and off the record meaning that no information was sent on the phone or in emails? I mean this guy is the governor of one of the most populated states in America, did he really think shit like this would be kept hidden?

boutons_deux

01-15-2014, 06:15 AM

The only surprising thing is he got caught.

yes, incredible incompetence. If he and his gang were really good, they could close the GWB for 4 days and nobody would notice.

boutons_deux

01-15-2014, 02:28 PM

The Real Chris Christie Scandal

If Christie survives the current scandal - by shifting blame to his staff and political cronies - pundits and voters will have a chance to take a closer look at Christie's record in office. If so, they'll find that Christie has more in common with Tea Party Republicans than with his state's long tradition of GOP moderates, such as former Senator Clifford Case and former Governors Christine Todd Whitman and Tom Kean.

Christie is a hard-line anti-government, social, and big-business conservative in the same mold as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. The major difference is that Christie had to contend with a Democratic state legislature, which has acted as a constraint on his right-wing initiatives. For example, New Jersey's Senate President Stephen Sweeney said that Christie "got lucky" because the hurricane Sandy distracted voters from the bad economy. Christie "prayed a lot and a storm came," Sweeney observed.

Indeed, Christie's public image got a make-over after Hurricane Sandy destroyed much of New Jersey's coast, and Christie was seen touring the area with President Obama and warmly praising the president for his help in providing federal funds for post-Sandy recovery. Conservatives within the GOP found his embrace of Obama distasteful, but many media pundits used that incident to cast Christie as a bipartisan pragmatist primarily interested in making life better for ordinary Jerseyans. This was exactly the image that Christie wanted and it served him well, helping him win a landslide victory in November and strengthening his claim as a contender for the GOP presidential nomination as a centrist Republican in a blue state.

But Christie's policies since taking office in 2010 have been a disaster for a majority of New Jersey's families.

Wounding the economy: New Jersey has the nation's seventh highest unemployment rate and the second highest percentage of mortgage loans in foreclosure. New Jersey's credit rating has dropped on Christie's watch. Even when compared with neighboring states, New Jersey is an economic basket case, with many families struggling to make ends meet.

Hurting the poor and middle class: Christie reduced the earned-income tax credit, a popular program that helps lift the working poor out of poverty - in other words, he raised taxes on the poor. Christie vetoed a minimum wage hike that the legislative had passed, calling it "stupid" and "truly ridiculous." So the legislature put the issue before the voters, who supported it in November by a 61 percent margin, larger than Christie's own victory. Meanwhile, Christie allowed property taxes to skyrocket by about 20 percent, falling hardest of the state's middle class homeowners.

Enriching the rich and big business: While stiffing New Jersey's poor and its middle class, Christie has handed big corporations more than $2 billion in tax breaks that has had little impact on job creation. For example, the state gave Prudential Insurance a quarter-billion simply to move its headquarters a few blocks in Newark. While New Jersey desperately needs to invest in infrastructure and education, Christie three times vetoed an income tax hike for New Jersey's millionaires. He warned that it would trigger a massive exodus of rich people even though research reveals that it would have no such impact.

Wasting tax money to boost his political career: Christie siphoned off millions in federal relief funds intended for Hurricane Sandy victims in order to pay for television ads that promoted himself, prompting a call for a federal investigation. After U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg died in June, Christie opted to hold a special election to fill the seat in October rather than in November, when Christie was up for re-election. This entirely political calculation - Christie wanted to avoid a large voter turnout by Democrats in November - cost New Jersey taxpayers some $25 million.

Opposing women's equality and rights: By cutting $7.4 billion targeted for Planned Parenthood, Christie shut down six family planning clinics that provide cancer screenings, contraception, and other essential women's health services. He vetoed a bill to prevent gender wage discrimination in public contracts, calling it "senseless bureaucracy."

Opposing same-sex marriage: Christie vetoed a bill to give equal rights to gay couples; it took a court ruling to legalize same-sex marriage in New Jersey.

Damaging the environment: Christie defeated a push by 180 environmental organizations to let New Jerseyans vote on a ballot measure to increase parks, and other open spaces. He also pulled the state out of a regional agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent by 2018. He plans to divert $40 million from a recent settlement with Passaic River polluters intended to restore the blighted waterway to balance the state budget.

Opposing affordable health care: New Jerseyans trying to enroll for Obamacare face difficulties not encountered by New York residents because unlike Governor Cuomo, Christie refused to create a state health insurance exchange. This left millions of federal dollars on the table aimed at educating families about how to sign up for the program.

Attacking public education and public employees: Like Wisconsin's Gov. Walker, he has used the state's public employee unions as a political punching bag. He cut health and pension benefits for public sector workers, including cops and teachers. Christie has called the state's teachers union "political thugs" and has attacked individual teachers when they question him at public events - for example, challenging his support for private school vouchers and charter schools, which diverts funds away from public schools. In his first year as governor, Christie slashed $1.2 billion from the state's public schools - cuts that the state Supreme Court said violated students' rights. He killed a DREAM Act bill that would provide in-state tuition at state colleges for the children of immigrants who graduate from New Jersey high schools. Meanwhile, he cut funding for higher education by 15 percent.

Opposing affordable housing: Despite a severe shortage of low and moderate-income housing, Christie tried to divert funds earmarked for affordable housing until the courts blocked him from doing so.

Compromising civil rights and criminal justice: Christie declined to renominate Associate Justice John E. Wallace Jr, the only African-American on the New Jersey Supreme Court, and left vacant over 50 seats on New Jersey courts, effectively denying the right to a fair and speedy trial. Christie pushed out the State's Public Defender, the only high-ranking African-American policy official in his administration.

If, by shifting blame to his top staff and cronies, Christie can persuade voters that he had no direct involvement in the bridgegate scandal, he may still survive to run for president. If so, it won't be too late for the media do its job and scrutinize Christie's track record as governor. What they'll discover is that Christie is a reckless right-winger with a huge mean streak.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/the-real-chris-christie-scandal?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

On the agenda Thu and Fri, a veritable Sandy shitstorm of subpoenas.

boutons_deux

01-15-2014, 04:35 PM

Chris Christie's Hail Mary Pass: 'I Did Not Have Sex with That Bridge' :lol :lol

http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/christie_nj.jpg :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

That was Chris Christie’s Hail Mary play at his press conference last week. He looked us in the eye, he told us he’d done nothing wrong and he prayed it would turn out better for him with George Washington than it did for Bill Clinton with Ms. Lewinsky.

We are good at being lied to. I was not alone in wanting to believe that President Clinton was being straight with us. I was not an outlier when I swallowed Colin Powell’s WMD story at the UN. Despite his hair, I even fell for (http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/on_having_your_political_heart_broken_the_edwards_ scandal_20080730/) John Edwards. (Don’t get me started on Lance Armstrong.) But my most embarrassing week of wishful thinking was when I tried to stay open-minded about Anthony Weiner.

We are now at the “I’ve been hacked” stage of the Christie scandal.

Last week he told us he was heartbroken, heartbroken to find that retribution was going on in his establishment, and that he’d fired the rogues responsible for it. Here’s the challenge to anyone who thinks Christie is telling the truth: You must find it credible that an outrageously slimy and publicly harmful act of vengeance was carried out by the inmost circle of a legendarily hands-on executive, but they never told him about it. And if you believe that, you also need to explain why he was in the dark about their scheme.

I can come up with only two scenarios for that. Either they didn’t think it was such a big deal that he needed to know about it, or they worked really hard to keep it from him.

...

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/christies-weiner

Nbadan

01-16-2014, 03:26 AM

Bruce Springsteen & Jimmy Fallon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHV0LLvhXM#t=78

boutons_deux

01-16-2014, 05:01 PM

Rush Limbaugh: If Christie was a true conservative, whether he lied 'wouldn't matter' (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/15/1269863/-Rush-Limbaugh-If-Christie-was-a-true-conservative-whether-he-lied-wouldn-t-nbsp-matter)

"It's just every Republican who has entered the fray defending Christie has to put a caveat out there 'if he's telling the truth.' Now, if there were a fervent ideological foundation, if there was a substantive reason of believing in Governor Christie, then whether he lied wouldn't matter. They'd be out there defending him left and right just to make sure the Democrats don't get away with this."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/15/1269863/-Rush-Limbaugh-If-Christie-was-a-true-conservative-whether-he-lied-wouldn-t-nbsp-matter?detail=email

boutons_deux

01-16-2014, 05:04 PM

Christie Plummets 10 Points in Match-Up Against Hillary (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/15/1269918/-Christie-Plummets-10-Points-in-Match-Up-Against-Hillary)

While Chris Christie’s numbers have stayed held firm amidst recent controversies, the New Jersey governor has lost ground in a potential 2016 match-up against prospective Democratic contender Hillary Clinton. The latest NBC News/Marist poll shows Christie trailing Clinton by 13 points in a presidential contest. That’s a ten-point drop: Last month, Christie trailed the former secretary of state by just 3 percentage points in the same poll.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/15/1269918/-Christie-Plummets-10-Points-in-Match-Up-Against-Hillary?detail=email

boutons_deux

01-18-2014, 09:35 AM

Rachel Maddow catches Chris Christie’s staff cheering on appointee who lied to lawmakers

Maddow played audio from the agency’s former deputy executive director, Bill Baroni, telling members of the state legislature in November that the Port Authority was monitoring the effects of the lane closures and that they did not impact emergency medical services in the area, even though documents show Baroni had been notified at the time that this was not the case. (http://www.northjersey.com/fortlee/GWB_lane_closures_delayed_EMS_response_in_Fort_Lee .html)

Shortly after testifying, Baroni was told via text message by another Port Authority appointee, David Wildstein, that deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly — who ordered Wildstein to orchestrate the closures — and another person, possibly Christie campaign finance chief Nicole Davidman Drewniak, “were VERY happy” with his performance.

“The documents we have so far indicate that not just Governor Christie’s office, in the form of Bridget Kelly, applauded and said, ‘We’re really happy with that false testimony,’ even though Bridget Kelly was in a position to know it was false testimony while she was applauding,” Maddow said. “But now we also know that a person who appears to be a staffer from the governor’s re-election campaign, ‘Nicole,’ said the same thing.”

“As sprawling as this scandal and this investigation have become, [investigators] are much more tightly focused than we knew on the governor himself and his immediate staff,” Maddow said. “This is not a far-flung investigation into ‘how politics is done in New Jersey,’ which is some of the way it’s been covered in the national press. At least so far, from what we can tell about the scope of the investigation, this is about Chris Christie.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/18/rachel-maddow-catches-chris-christies-staff-cheering-on-appointee-who-lied-to-lawmakers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Splits

01-18-2014, 11:14 AM

Dude is a gonner after this morning's Hoboken report: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/mayor-christie-camp-held-sandy-money-hostage

Christie camp held Sandy relief money hostage, mayor alleges

01/18/14 08:30 AM—UPDATED 01/18/14 11:08 AM
By Steve Kornacki
Two senior members of Gov. Chris Christie’s administration warned a New Jersey mayor earlier this year that her town would be starved of hurricane relief money unless she approved a lucrative redevelopment plan favored by the governor, according to the mayor and emails and personal notes she shared with msnbc.

The mayor, Dawn Zimmer, hasn’t approved the project, but she did request $127 million in hurricane relief for her city of Hoboken – 80% of which was underwater after Sandy hit in October 2012. What she got was $142,000 to defray the cost of a single back-up generator plus an additional $200,000 in recovery grants.

boutons_deux

01-18-2014, 02:16 PM

Attorney Says Christie Ally Has 'A Story To Tell' If Granted Immunity

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/wildstein-story-to-tell-immunity?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

boutons_deux

01-18-2014, 02:21 PM

Hoboken Mayor: Christie Team Shook Us Down for Sandy Relief

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/hoboken-mayor-christie-team-shook-us-down-for-sandy-relief

boutons_deux

01-19-2014, 09:26 AM

A long read, but fascinating in the complexity of NY/NJ/Port Authority/wealthy (financial) power plays, esp how Christie blocked the much needed ARC tunnel by lying about its costs to NJ so he could use PA funds for political schemes.

How Christie's Men Turned the Port Authority into a Political Piggy Bank

http://www.wnyc.org/story/how-christies-men-turned-port-authority-political-piggy-bank/#

=============

Report Disputes Christie’s Basis for Halting Tunnel

Gov. Chris Christie (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/christopher_j_christie/index.html?inline=nyt-per) of New Jersey exaggerated when he declared that unforeseen costs to the state were forcing him to cancel the new train tunnel (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/t/transhudson_passenger_rail_tunnel/index.html) planned to relieve congested routes across the Hudson River, according to a long-awaited report by independent Congressional investigators.

The report by the Government Accountability Office (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/g/government_accountability_office/index.html?inline=nyt-org), to be released this week, found that while Mr. Christie said that state transportation officials had revised cost estimates for the tunnel to at least $11 billion and potentially more than $14 billion, the range of estimates had in fact remained unchanged in the two years before he announced in 2010 that he was shutting down the project. And state transportation officials, the report says, had said the cost would be no more than $10 billion.

Mr. Christie also misstated New Jersey’s share of the costs: he said the state would pay 70 percent of the project; the report found that New Jersey was paying 14.4 percent.
And while the governor said that an agreement with the federal government would require the state to pay all cost overruns, the report found that there was no final agreement, and that the federal government had made several offers to share those costs.

Canceling the tunnel, then the largest public works project in the nation, helped shape Mr. Christie’s profile as a rising Republican star, an enforcer of fiscal discipline in a country drunk on debt. But the report is likely to revive criticism that his decision, which he said was about “hard choices” in tough economic times, was more about avoiding the need to raise the state’s gasoline tax, which would have violated a campaign promise. The governor subsequently steered $4 billion earmarked for the tunnel to the state’s near-bankrupt transportation trust fund, traditionally financed by the gasoline tax.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/10/nyregion/report-disputes-christies-reason-for-halting-tunnel-project-in-2010.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

So cancelling ARC is loved by conservatives who hate public works/government helping its citizens, hate debt, and hate raising (gasoline) taxes, while ARC cancellation screws NJ residents to plump up egregriously plump Christie's conservative cred.

boutons_deux

01-20-2014, 06:28 AM

U.S. prosecutors interview Hoboken mayor over Christie allegations

The Democratic mayor of a town severely flooded by Superstorm Sandy said Sunday that she was told an ultimatum tying recovery funds to her support for a prime real estate project came directly from Republican Gov. Chris Christie, a claim a Christie spokesman called “categorically false.”

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer said she met with federal prosecutors in Newark for several hours Sunday at their request and turned over a journal and other documents.

“I will provide any requested information and testify under oath about the facts of what happened when the Lieutenant Governor came to Hoboken and told me that Sandy aid would be contingent on moving forward with a private development project,” she said in a statement Sunday night.

Earlier Sunday, Zimmer told CNN's “State of the Union with Candy Crowley” that the message pushing a commercial development by the New York-based Rockefeller Group was delivered by Kim Guadagno, Christie's lieutenant governor, when she and Guadagno were at an event in Hoboken in May to celebrate the opening of a new supermarket.

“The lieutenant governor pulled me aside and said, essentially, `You've got to move forward with the Rockefeller project. This project is really important to the governor.’ And she said that she had been with him on Friday night and that this was a direct message from the governor,” Zimmer recalled Guadagno saying.

Christie spokesman Colin Reed issued a statement Sunday saying, “Mayor Zimmer's categorization about her conversation in Hoboken is categorically false.”

On Saturday, Zimmer said Guadagno and a top community development official separately told her that recovery funds would flow to her city if she expedited the project.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/1780/article/p2p-78965227/

Legs? :lol

boutons_deux

01-20-2014, 06:32 AM

For Christie and MSNBC, a Messy Divorce Plays Out in Public View

It was a match made in moderately minded Northeast Corridor heaven.

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey needed a TV network that would burnish his bipartisan bona fides and showcase his gleefully contrarian style. MSNBC craved a Republican who cut against the party grain and lit up the screen with his everyman-ish, Springsteen-loving spontaneity.

An on-air romance blossomed, forged over chummy strolls along the Jersey Shore and heart-to-hearts in the studio about everything from overeating to education, embodying the aisle-crossing aspirations of this partisan era.

Now, the improbable relationship between a governor with his eyes on the White House and a network determined to break into the top tier, up to now so beneficial to both, has curdled in a spectacularly public fashion.

Mr. Christie is confronting the worst crisis of his career, stemming from his aides’ role in shutting down approach lanes to the George Washington Bridge. The governor’s predicament is a ratings bonanza for MSNBC, whose left-leaning viewers are eating up every development in the sordid scandal.

Over the weekend, Mr. Christie, who has appeared on MSNBC many times since taking office, angrily denounced it as a “partisan network” that is “almost gleeful in their efforts attacking” him. Christie aides have called it a “feeding frenzy.”

“There is a difference between treating this matter seriously and seeking out the truth and irresponsibly using hearsay and conjecture without confirming the facts,” Colin Reed, a spokesman for Mr. Christie, said on Sunday. Feelings are frayed on both sides. Mika Brzezinski, a co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” who makes no secret of her affection for Mr. Christie, seemed taken aback by the governor’s harsh critique.

“I was a little surprised when he took a jab at us,” she said in an interview on Sunday.

“I don’t think it’s legitimate to say this is a partisan attack,” she added. “I think this is a very real story, with legs.”

MSNBC executives and hosts said the tale of power, revenge and traffic had riveted its audience, and they made no apologies for their near-saturation coverage.

“There is an appetite to know what really happened.”

For the week of Jan. 6, when the story began to gain national attention, Rachel Maddow, who had pursued the story for more than a month, scored a rare weekly win, beating the perennial ratings leader Fox News among the coveted 25 to 54 viewer category.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/20/nyregion/christie-and-msnbc-a-messy-divorce-in-public.html?from=homepage

boutons_deux

01-20-2014, 11:37 AM

MAYORS BULLIED BY CHRISTIE FORM SUPPORT GROUP

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/chris-christie-crowd-580.jpg

NEWARK (The Borowitz Report (http://bit.ly/NhEEu0))—A support group for mayors bullied by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie held its first meeting today at the Prudential Center arena, in Newark.

Organizers of the gathering pronounced themselves pleased with the turnout, as bullied officeholders from all over the state filled the eighteen-thousand-seat venue.

The support group was the brainchild of Carol Foyler, the bullied mayor of Sea Ridge, New Jersey.

“All of these mayors have their own painful stories to share,” Mayor Foyler said. “We wanted to give them a safe space to do that.”

The event was interrupted fifteen minutes in, however, when power to the Prudential Center was abruptly cut off, plunging the arena into darkness.

A spokesman from Gov. Christie’s office said that the sudden power outage was part of a routine electricity study.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2014/01/mayors-bullied-by-christie-form-support-group.html?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=borowitz&mbid=nl_Borowitz%20(19)

Jacob1983

01-20-2014, 09:20 PM

Get over it. He won't be president so simma down now.

SnakeBoy

01-21-2014, 12:44 AM

I couldn't care less about this non story but Christie lost any chance of having my support when he reviewed his weight loss options and opted for the lap band. That alone should disqualify him from the oval office.

Jacob1983

01-21-2014, 01:29 AM

WTF? He had stomach surgery? Aren't you supposed to lose a considerable amount of weight when you have that done?

SnakeBoy

01-21-2014, 08:58 AM

WTF? He had stomach surgery? Aren't you supposed to lose a considerable amount of weight when you have that done?

Lap bands generally don't give good results for someone his size. People that opt for a lap band only do so because they are reversible and they want to reserve the right to go back to stuffing their faces. Just shows indecisiveness and poor decision making imo. Dude needs gastric bypass.

SnakeBoy

01-21-2014, 08:58 AM

boutons_deux

01-21-2014, 09:15 AM

Get over it. He won't be president so simma down now.

Benghazi forever, but shutting down GWB is already over? :lol

boutons_deux

01-22-2014, 05:39 PM

Evidence Is Building to Support Hoboken Mayor’s Christie Sandy Aid Allegations

Murphy’s insight into the politics of the area, specifically the long charge the Rockefeller Group has been waging against the wishes of some of the town’s citizens, merits a close read. He also revealed that there may be more than a diary to back up Zimmer’s claims, (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/hoboken-mayor-christie-team-shook-us-down-for-sandy-relief) as she says that another Christie appointee made the offer that Sandy Aid money would flow if she would move forward with the Rockefeller project while miked, with audio technicians able to hear. She recorded their conversation in her diary:

In a diary entry made the next day, May 17, Zimmer wrote that Constable (Richard Constable, a former assistant U.S. Attorney who worked in Chris Christie’s office when Christie was U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, and who was subsequently named commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs) said, “I hear you are against the Rockefeller project.” The mayor said she was not. “Oh really?” Constable asked in reply. “Everyone in the State House believes you are against it – the buzz is that you are against it.”

According to Zimmer, he added: “If you move that forward, the money would start flowing to you.”

If you’re counting, that’s two people from the Christie administration who dangled the Sandy Aid as a reward for going along with the Rockerfeller development plans, according to the Hoboken Mayor.

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/01/22/chris-christie-cozy-developer-center-hoboken-mayors-accusations.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29

boutons_deux

01-22-2014, 05:40 PM

Fat Bastard, Karl Rove's chosen horse for 2016, was made head of RGA to heighten (widen?) his profile. Now tea party asshole Cucci is calling for Fat Bastard to resign from RGA.

mouse

01-22-2014, 10:36 PM

mouse

01-22-2014, 10:37 PM

Get over it. He won't be president so simma down now.

:lmao

boutons_deux

01-23-2014, 05:10 PM

Prosecutors Demand Documents From Christie Campaign And NJ GOPFederal prosecutors in New Jersey have demanded to see documents from Gov. Chris Christie's (R) re-election campaign and the state Republican Party in the investigation into the bridge scandal.

Mark Sheridan, an attorney with the law firm of Patton Boggs, told TPM on Thursday he is representing both groups that were subpoenaed and they intend to comply with the subpoenas. According to Sheridan, the subpoenas "all relate to the closure of lanes on the George Washington Bridge" and are returnable Feb. 5.

Rebekah Carmichael, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, told TPM, "Our office can neither confirm nor deny any specific investigative actions." Sheridan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Christie's re-election campaign has also been subpoenaed (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/assembly-vote-joint-committee) by a committee in the state legislature that is investigating the closures and other "concerns about abuse of government power."

Documents subpoenaed by the state Assembly committee last month indicating Christie's former campaign manager, Bill Stepien, may have been involved in the closures. Christie subsequently asked Stepien to remove his name from the running (https://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/christie-asks-former-campaign-manager-to-step-down-from-top-advising-role) to be chair of the state Republican Party.

Some Democrats have alleged the closures were ordered by Christie's allies to retaliate against a mayor who declined to endorse him. On Saturday, the mayor of Hoboken, N.J. claimed Christie administration officials threatened to withhold Hurricane Sandy aid from her city unless she approved a real estate project.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/us-attorney-subpoena-christie-njgop?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

boutons_deux

01-24-2014, 03:13 PM

To Roger Stone, Bridgegate ‘Cover-Up’ Is Another Watergate — And He Would Know

Very few Republican operatives knew the Nixon gang as intimately as Roger Stone, the legendary trickster whose back is adorned with an enormous Tricky Dick tattoo. And very few know New Jersey politics as well as Stone, who toiled among the party faithful in many campaigns since 1980, when he first ran the Garden State for Ronald Reagan.

So when he suggests that “Bridgegate” is Watergate – from the imponderable stupidity of the original crime to the profound peril of the ongoing cover-up – attention should be paid. Especially on the day when the U.S. Attorney’s office investigating the Port Authority’s decision to close three lanes of traffic on the world’s busiest bridge issues subpoenas to the Christie campaign and the New Jersey Republican Party.

Speaking with The National Memo on Thursday afternoon, Stone said: “This is about hubris, this is about an arrogance and right out of the dark side of Nixon’s playbook. It’s what ultimately brought Nixon down. There was no reason to break into the Watergate, there was no reason to spy on your enemies. His foreign policy was popular, the economy was good, and he was getting re-elected. Just like there was no reason to close these lanes on the George Washington Bridge – although just like with the break-in of Watergate, we still don’t really know why they did that.” He doesn’t buy the theory that the Christie aides were punishing the mayor of Fort Lee for refusing to endorse the Republican governor — and thinks it more likely that they were trying to harm State Senator Loretta Weinberg, a determined Christie antagonist whose district includes Fort Lee.

To Stone, the governor’s explanations rang false from the beginning – and reminded him of the verbal traps Nixon set for himself. /usr/sbin/, took the initiative to close the bridge lanes.

“The mentality that existed around Nixon – that Teutonic, buttoned-down, we-give-you-orders, you-carry-them-out – that mentality exists inside this administration…It just doesn’t seem plausible to me that this Kelly woman, who seems perfectly pleasant, stepped up to her computer and said, ‘Time for traffic problems in Fort Lee.’ Someone told her to do that.” Stone says the dubious effort to blame her and a few others is the telltale sign of “a cover-up.”

Stone doesn’t know Kelly personally, but he has known David Wildstein, the Port Authority official who resigned after his role in the bridge closings was revealed, for 35 years. “He’s the G. Gordon Liddy of this tale,” he said, referring to the maniacal Watergate conspirator who secretly concocted plots to firebomb and even murder Nixon’s political adversaries. “He’s the 100 percent soldier, the kamikaze. This guy has thrown so many bombs I’m surprised he’s got hands left.”

( he has some comparisons, person by person, of Tricky Dick's shit bag staff and Fat Bastard's shit bag staff. )

http://www.nationalmemo.com/to-roger-stone-bridgegate-coverup-is-another-watergate-and-he-would-know/

boutons_deux

01-26-2014, 12:56 PM

Rachel Maddow: The ‘mammoth slush fund’ where Chris Christie’s friends found jobs

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow broke down the curious reversal of fortune for New Jersey Port Authority chair David Samson since the man who installed him in the position, Gov. Chris Christie (R), took office in 2010, and the intersection of his possible involvement in both the threats against the mayor of Hoboken and the lane closure scandal concerning the George Washington Bridge.

Maddow cited a WNYC-FM report (http://www.wnyc.org/story/top-christie-mans-business-thrived-he-chaired-port-authority/) pointing out that Samson’s law firm, Wolff and Samson, went from doing $40,000 worth of business a year to more than $1 million a year after being named to the Port Authority. ( only $40K? can't be right )
But the firm also represents the development group behind a development project in Hoboken that allegedly prompted Christie’s Lieutenant Governor, Kim Guadano (R) to threaten Mayor Dawn Zimmer (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/18/bombshell-hoboken-mayor-zimmer-alleges-christie-goons-held-sandy-relief-funds-hostage/) to expedite it or risk losing relief funds in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Samson appeared to be one of scores of Christie allies appointed to work at the Port Authority; a lawsuit filed by a former employee alleged (http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2014/01/27/140127taco_talk_kolbert) that Christie’s administration installed 80 people at the agency, where the average salary exceeds $140,000.

Uncovering corruption there, Maddow said, “[is] not like busting up a card game on the corner. It’s like busting up Las Vegas. The Port Authority is rich, and it behaves like it.”

Richer, in fact, than the combined budgets of nine states — Montana, South Dakota, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Delaware, New Mexico, Vermont, Mississippi, and Wyoming; the Port Authority’s budget runs about $7 billion a year.

Wildstein was in a position to do that, she stated, that was created specifically for him in May 2010, without a job description or even the need for a resume.

“There was nothing in his personnel file,” Maddow said. “But he did get the job. They did create it for him. Which, according to [investigators'] account, is slightly-above average for that mammoth slush fund — I mean, agency.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/25/rachel-maddow-the-mammoth-slush-fund-where-chris-christies-friends-found-jobs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

mouse

01-26-2014, 04:27 PM

Bruce Springsteen & Jimmy Fallon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHV0LLvhXM#t=78

:lmao

mouse

01-26-2014, 04:28 PM

Jacob1983

01-27-2014, 02:13 AM

Move on. Fat man will not be president so why continue to bitch about it?

boutons_deux

01-27-2014, 07:13 AM

Move on. Fat man will not be president so why continue to bitch about it?

He's still the Repug choice for front runner. Kock Bros and the puppet Rove and his orgs are for Christie. and Bishop Gecko was praising Christie at the Repug mucky muck meeting.

but Fat Bastard's candidacy is not the point now. The point is pursuing his gang, his sycophants, and very probably him for the GWB fiasco.

boutons_deux

01-29-2014, 03:41 PM

More Damning Signs of Chris Christie's Corruption

A Bergen Record report uncovered (http://www.northjersey.com/news/Governors_brother_invested_in_houses_near_new_PATH _station_in_Harrison.html) a series of potentially questionable real estate deals conducted by Chris Christie’s brother, Todd Christie (whom you may recall from his defensive Facebook posts (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/todd-christie-bridge-facebook)). The deals in question concerned a handful of properties that are within walking distance of the Harrison, New Jersey PATH station, which just so happens to be in line for a $256 million renovation funded by the Port Authority.

A Tuesday Star-Ledger report raised some serious questions (http://www.salon.com/2014/01/28/did_christie_use_sandy_funds_to_secure_a_democrati c_mayors_endorsement/) about how Christie has been using the $1.8 billion in federal government funds he was given by Congress to repair damage wrought by Superstorm Sandy. While these funds are explicitly to be used only for storm repair, the Star-Ledger found that as much as $6 million from the fund was doled out for a development project in the town of Belleville that was in the works long before Sandy hit. Incidentally, the Democratic mayor of Belleville, who strongly supported said development project, went on to endorse Christie’s reelection less than two weeks after the Sandy funds were given.

A Wednesday New York Times report took a harder look (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/nyregion/for-christie-politics-team-kept-a-focus-on-two-bids.html?hp&_r=0) at Christie’s political operation and found more than a couple people who were deeply skeptical of Christie’s claims of complete ignorance over the closure of lanes at the George Washington Bridge. According to the Times, Christie’s team used a sophisticated and thorough system to track and categorize New Jersey mayors whom they wanted to endorse the Republican incumbent. More importantly, the Times discovered that Christie’s political operation was hardly walled-off from his governing, and painted a picture of Christie as a details-oriented and hands-on executive.

Passing somewhat under the radar, another New York Times report from earlier this weekshared the story (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/nyregion/a-lieutenant-governor-an-artist-and-a-portrait-of-a-smear.html) of Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno’s “smear” campaign against artist and government contractor Daniel Aubrey. Guadagno, you’ll recall, is the woman Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer has accused of transmitting Christie’s message that Hoboken would not receive the level of Superstorm Sandy recovery funds it required until Zimmer agreed to approve a private development deal the governor favored.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney appeared on Fox News (http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/mitt-romney-chris-christie-s-not-a-bully-he-s-like-lbj-20140128) on Tuesday and defended Christie from charges of being a bully. He argued Christie wasn’t a bully so much as a strong leader. As a historical comparison, Romney likened Christie’s governing style to that of President Lyndon Baines Johnson. For those who don’t know (which apparently includes Romney) LBJ is famous for, among other things, being a world-historical bully (http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2010/02/bullying-lbj-style/).

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/more-damning-signs-chris-christies-corruption?akid=11456.187590.96AXXr&rd=1&src=newsletter952778&t=3

boutons_deux

01-29-2014, 10:40 PM

Chris Christie’s former lawyer will lead ethics agency investigating his staff :lolhttp://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/29/chris-christies-former-lawyer-will-lead-ethics-agency-investigating-his-staff/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

pgardn

01-29-2014, 10:46 PM

Chris Christie’s former lawyer will lead ethics agency investigating his staff :lol

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/29/chris-christies-former-lawyer-will-lead-ethics-agency-investigating-his-staff/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Holder Obama stuff there eh?

boutons_deux

01-30-2014, 02:07 PM

Holder Obama stuff there eh?

that's the NJ STATE ethics agency, not NY/NJ US Attorneys

boutons_deux

01-30-2014, 02:14 PM

How Pressure Mounted for Development in Hoboken

The Christie administration has denied ever linking the Rockefeller project to hurricane relief, an accusation that is now under federal investigation.

But whatever the outcome of the inquiries, the emails and interviews make clear that the development-wary mayor was coming under increasing and repeated pressure from politically connected lawyers working for Rockefeller Group and from the Christie administration.

The company had laid out about $100 million to buy up property in a forsaken section of town littered with bus lots and long-dormant factories, property that was zoned for low-slung industrial buildings but blessed with a stunning view of Manhattan. Though the plans have never been made public, in discussions with local officials they described a project that would dwarf anything that Hoboken had ever seen.

Following a well-worn playbook, they hired lawyers and lobbyists with connections to the leadership of both parties. State officials, beginning with the administration of Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat, have come through for the company with money and support. Just last June, the state’s mass transit agency reached a nonbinding agreement with the company for the construction of a light rail station near its property.

Rockefeller Group had every reason to expect that local officials would come through, too. For years, Hoboken was known as development-friendly, a financially stressed city happy to move beyond the old image of a dockworkers’ ghetto immortalized by Elia Kazan in “On the Waterfront.”

But Hoboken took a sharp turn when it elected Ms. Zimmer mayor in 2009. She had entered local politics primarily because she thought Hoboken needed more parks. She joined the City Council during the second term of David Roberts, who as mayor welcomed development and encouraged the construction of the 25-story W Hotel that is still Hoboken’s tallest building.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/30/nyregion/powerful-allies-pushed-a-project-in-new-jersey.html?hp&_r=0&referrer=

boutons_deux

01-31-2014, 12:41 PM

Christie Office Strikes Pay Deal With Defense Attorney In Bridge Scandal Probes

http://nationalmemo.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Chris-Christie-4.jpg Hands up! Now lie down! I am lying down! I said lie down! I am lying down. oh, ok, you're still 4 feet high. :lol

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s office has agreed to pay a high-powered attorney $650 per hour to represent it in a series of investigations into the George Washington Bridge lane closures.

That’s more than a 40 percent discount off attorney Randy Mastro’s normal rate, he wrote in a letter to state officials, and 20 percent less than the average amount charged by attorneys at the New York office of his firm, Gibson Dunn.

The terms of Mastro’s agreement were laid out in documents released by the governor’s office late Thursday in response to a public records request. A retention letter states that Mastro will help Christie’s office in several ways — including producing documents in connection with an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The reference to producing documents for the U.S. Attorney’s Office is the clearest indication that Christie’s office either has received, or anticipates receiving, a subpoena from federal prosecutors looking into whether a crime was committed.

The biggest political crisis of Christie’s political career has also provided work for some of the biggest names in the region’s legal circles. Much of the cost is likely to be borne by taxpayers,

http://www.nationalmemo.com/christie-office-strikes-pay-deal-defense-attorney-bridge-scandal-probes/

boutons_deux

02-01-2014, 07:36 AM

Governor Christie 'Bridgegate' scandal flares up with new letter

A former New Jersey official on Friday claimed Governor Chris Christie knew about politically motivated traffic jams as they happened, re-igniting a political scandal that has taken a toll on the prominent Republican.

The letter from a former official at the agency that oversees the busiest U.S. bridge sparked a quick response from Christie, who again denied wrongdoing, and prompted a top New Jersey newspaper to suggest the governor could face impeachment.

David Wildstein, who resigned his Port Authority post late last year, said in a letter that he had proof of the "inaccuracy" of some of Christie's statements about the so-called "Bridgegate" scandal, which polls show has already started to weigh on Christie's potential 2016 White House bid.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/01/us-usa-politics-christie-idUSBREA0U1TQ20140201?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews

Wildstein fishing for immunity from prosecution in return for spilling his abundant guts.

boutons_deux

02-01-2014, 07:53 AM

CHRISTIE ASKS FOR PUBLIC’S PATIENCE WHILE HE COMES UP WITH NEW STORY

TRENTON — Responding to fresh charges that he knew about the controversial lane closures on the George Washington Bridge last fall, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie today asked for the public’s patience while he makes up a new story.

“Today you have heard some allegations that are shocking and explosive,” he told reporters at a hastily called press conference. “All I ask is that the people of the great state of New Jersey give me sufficient time to invent a new story that explains my way out of this.”

Governor Christie said that he had spent the past few hours in closed-door meetings trying to come up with a new narrative that absolves him of any guilt in the bridge scandal, but while he was definitely denying the allegations, “so far, we don’t have a winner.”

“We’ve been tossing around everything from my not remembering events correctly to my having a bad reaction to medication,” he said. “We even floated the idea of my being under too much pressure and having to ‘blow off steam.’ As I said, we don’t have a winner yet. But I want to reassure the people of New Jersey that I am working very hard on this.”

The Governor said he understood that “things don’t look very good for me right now,” but he urged the public against rushing to judgment, adding, “I will get back to you with a well-crafted and plausible story as soon as possible.”

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2014/01/christie-asks-for-publics-patience-while-he-comes-up-with-new-story.html#entry-more

scott

02-01-2014, 10:09 AM

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BfZX0f7CUAAHXj5.jpg:large

boutons_deux

02-02-2014, 02:56 PM

Bill Kristol says GOP has solved Christie’s scandal with two words: ‘Jeb Bush’http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/02/bill-kristol-says-gop-has-solved-christies-scandal-with-two-words-jeb-bush/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

bubba Jeb's Ma said he cain't run no more.

but

do it! Americans are waiting impatiently for yet another Shrub Presidency.

He is married to a Hispanic and he is fat, so he could pick up some Hispanic votes

Billy Kristol is ALWAYS wrong. :lol

pgardn

02-02-2014, 03:36 PM

that's the NJ STATE ethics agency, not NY/NJ US Attorneys

Obama keeping Holder on is worse.

boutons_deux

02-02-2014, 03:38 PM

Giuliani, Ryan and Jindal all defend Chris Christie on Sunday morning talk showshttp://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/02/giuliani-ryan-and-jindal-all-defend-chris-christie-on-sunday-morning-talk-shows/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

boutons_deux

02-02-2014, 04:29 PM

It is hard for me to believe that the governor of an American state could author such a piece of risible juvenilia, except it is even harder for me to believe a paid communications professional could have been behind this. The “argument” Christie (or possibly one very very close longtime advisor) is making here is that David Wildstein is a bad guy.

Why?

Because as a “a 16-year-old kid” he filed a lawsuit over a school board election

and

was “publicly accused by his high school social studies teacher of deceptive behavior.”

Because he was, according to Christie, a “tumultuous” person (not the correct usage of that word, Governor, but whatever).

Because he was “a political animal” who had “a controversial tenure” as the mayor of Livingston.

Because he “made moves that were not productive.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/well-that-escalated-quickly

Fat Bastard really trashed Wildstein's credibility! :lol

Wildstein sounds exactly the kind of lifelong shitbag that Fat Bastard adores to have as sycophant.

boutons_deux

02-04-2014, 06:39 AM

Jon Stewart mocks media’s kid gloves on Chris Christie: ‘Where’s your rush to judgment?’

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/04/jon-stewart-mocks-medias-kid-gloves-on-chris-christie-wheres-your-rush-to-judgement/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

boutons_deux

02-04-2014, 12:05 PM

Chris Christie Blew Up His Ambitions Based on the Faulty Notion That the GOP Cares About Bipartisanship

The most confounding piece of the Chris Christie debacle is the dubious political strategy (http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303618904579169991120970438) at the root of all it all. Christie and his goon squads, and their mafia-style tactics, were employed for the purpose of trying to get Democrats to endorse him on the premise that it would strengthen his brand in the 2016 GOP primary. He wanted to showcase his broad appeal on the political spectrum — his electability, in other words.

Apparently the Christie political team has not been following the arc of the modern Republican Party, at least in the America that lies outside of the New York metro area. The conservative wing of the GOP, aka primary voters, have little interest in candidates who trumpet their moderateness or bipartisan appeal. These are voters who are likely to believe that Obama was born in Kenya and is a Muslim; that climate change is a hoax; that John Boehner is a liberal sellout; and that if John McCain and Mitt Romney had only acted like true right-wingers, they would have become president. And they don’t like anyone who thinks otherwise.

To prepare himself for a 2016 primary, Christie should have instead been trying to mask his Northeast-moderate body odor that repulses right-wingers in the interior states. One poll (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/11/nyregion/conservative-republicans-recoil-at-the-notion-that-christie-is-the-partys-savior.html?_r=0) had already shown clearly that a sizable chunk of national GOP voters would not vote for him, and saw him as a noxious Republican in name only, to be mistrusted.

As for the polling that had him leading the 2016 field, recall that Rudy Giuliani had the same lead two years before the 2008 primary. He and his political team (from which Christie later hired his own advisers) were certain (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/us/politics/30giuliani.html) that the early data heralded a coronation. Giuliani later discovered that as someone from Manhattan with a moderate smell, he had no chance at all of winning a single battleground primary in states such as Nevada, Iowa, South Carolina or even New Hampshire. The early polling, that he and his team had swallowed like bait, had been merely a reflection of name recognition. He ended up spending all of his resources in Florida, hoping to get support from Northeast transplants. When even they rejected him, he was quickly finished off.

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/chris-christie-blew-his-ambitions-based-faulty-notion-gop-cares-about?akid=11472.187590._BSQrZ&rd=1&src=newsletter954406&t=11

Winehole23

02-04-2014, 01:11 PM

the furore over the putative scandal may tend to burnish Chris Christie's cred as a conservative scapegoat of the gotcha, liberal media. might make him even more attractive to voters who prefer overbearing macho assholes.

boutons_deux

02-04-2014, 01:59 PM

the Repug extreme right-wing base was never excited about Fat Bastard (except negatively when Fat BAstarrd hugged the Great Muslim Satan Socialist N!gg@), and now so-called independents must be scurrying away.

Winehole23

02-04-2014, 02:49 PM

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/02/rep_rob_andrews_to_retire_report_says.html

boutons_deux

02-09-2014, 10:58 AM

Rachel Maddow: Why is Chris Christie changing his story on GWB closures?

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow blasted New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Thursday for his recent claim that he sent members of his administration to look into the infamous lane closures at the George Washington Bridge, a statement he made just over a month after repeatedly saying he did no such thing.

“Why the new story?” Maddow demanded. “Why didn’t he ever mention this before?

And did his chief counsel and chief of staff go to the Port Authority right after the bridge closures happened on the governor’s direct orders to get to the bottom of what happened? And if so, what did they do when they got there? And why did the governor never bring this up before, when he was asked what he was doing to get to the bottom of the situation?”

On Monday, Christie said during a radio interview that, upon hearing about the lane closures in October 2013, he dispatched Chief of Staff Kevin O’Dowd and chief counsel Charles McKenna to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to look into the matter.

However, Maddow showed clips from a December 2013 press conference during which he dismissed reporters’ inquiries as attempts to undermine him, and repeatedly denied looking into the matter.

“You guys all wanna keep chasing it around, chase it around,” Christie told reporters last year. “It’s your business. But, I’m not running around doing [an] independent investigation.”

Christie also said at that time that he did not ask for more details about the bridge closures, stating, “I’m not a prosecutor anymore,” and took the since-debunked testimony to state lawmakers by Port Authority appointee Bill Baroni at face value because he didn’t “assume people are lying.”

Maddow also mentioned that the increasing amount of questions surrounding Christie’s administration — over both the lane closures and the possibility that Hurricane Sandy relief funds were mis-managed — have begun to take their toll on his tenure as chair of the Republican Governors’ Association. During his fundraising trip to Texas today, not only did Christie seclude himself from both the press and the public, but both current Gov. Rick Perry (R) and GOP hopeful Greg Abbott declined to join him.

“If Governor Christie is looking for the way this scandal ends, this one is not going to end until it makes sense,” Maddow said. “Until the governor’s explanations for what happened and why and who did it make sense.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/07/rachel-maddow-why-is-chris-christie-changing-his-story-on-gwb-closures/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

RM doesn't sleep with men, but she sure is fucking Fat Bastard in every orifice.

Fat Bastard is on a multi-state fund-raising tour as head of RGA, but state Repug mucky mucks REFUSE to appear with him. :lol

boutons_deux

02-10-2014, 05:32 PM

"And yet, Politico reports, "Christie's aides did not run the document ... by the governor before they sent it out, according to two people familiar with the matter. Instead, someone tucked the high school lines into a daily briefing email to the governor's supporters, and blasted it out earlier than planned. Another round of unflattering news coverage ensued." Why are Christie's people so intent on continuing to make him look bad? If only the governor could get his rogue staff under control enough to ask."

"But the anti-Wildstein memo reads as a hasty oppo-research dump against a man who just recently had been a Christie loyalist and ally. In an effort to find damning material on Wildstein, the Christie memo collated a few nasty quotes from political opponents over the years (Wildstein, in the words of these opponents, had been a "political animal" who "frightened people") and some testimony about his "tumultuous" persona and self-promoting tendencies, and then, strangely, threw in the note that "[Wildstein] was publicly accused by his high-school social-studies teacher of deceptive behavior." All of this seemed like pretty tame stuff. More importantly, every incident on the Christie team's list fell into one of two categories: Either Christie himself knew about it before he appointed Wildstein to be his man at the Port Authority, or Wildstein had done it on Christie's behalf.

The memo mentioned that Wildstein had been an pseudonymous gadfly blogger named Wally Edge, as if this were a damning revelation — but it turned out that Christie himself, as U.S. Attorney, had been one of Wally Edge's most frequent sources.

The whole memo was "goofy," in the judgment of Slate.It was goofy. But it also revealed a paradox. In its efforts to make David Wildstein the plausible source of the whole Bridgegate episode (the Christie memo at one point, almost in passing, suggested the entire plot had been "David Wildstein's scheme"), Christie's advisors had to present evidence that Wildstein was an ambitious and aggressive political infighter.

But nearly all the evidence of Wildstein's deviousness that Christie's aides could supply had either been implicitly endorsed by the governor's office (in its nomination of Wildstein) or explicitly approved by its senior figures.

The more Christie's camp tried to prove that Wildstein was a nefarious actor and a lone ranger, the more it sounded like he had done his job in exactly the way the governor wanted, and the more he came to seem like a Christie mini-me."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/07/1275922/-Governor-Chris-Christie-betrayed-by-his-staff-yet-again?detail=email

boutons_deux

02-11-2014, 05:14 PM

Christie bridge scandal: Recipients of 18 new subpoenas revealed

The state legislative committee investigating the George Washington Bridge scanda (http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/timeline_of_the_port_authoritys_george_washington_ bridge_lane_closure_controversy.html#incart_big-photo)l will issue 18 new subpoenas, including to Gov. Chris Christie's office, his inner circle and officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, The Star-Ledger has learned.

Recipients include the State Police aviation unit, which oversees Christie's helicopter travel, four new members of Christie's office, and his failed state Supreme Court nominee, Phillip Kwon, who now works as deputy general counsel at the Port Authority.

Some of the recipients were also subpoenaed in past rounds, including the governor's office, his re-election campaign and Bill Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority who resigned last year as the scandal unfolded.

The names were included on a document titled, "Recommended additional subpoena recipients," which was circulated to committee members. The document was obtained by The Star-Ledger, and a source close to the investigation confirmed the list matched those who will be issued subpoenas.

The source was not authorized to discuss the investigation and declined comment.

A co-chairman of the committee, John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), confirmed after the committee's meeting today that more than a dozen additional subpoenas would be issued, but he declined to say exactly how many or to name the recipients.

He said they would begin being issued tonight or Tuesday morning.

The full list of those to be subpoenaed is:

Chris Christie for Governor, the governor's re-election campaign
Christie's office
Regina Egea, director of the authorities unit, governor's office
Nicole Crifo, senior counsel to the authorities unit, governor's office
Jeanne Ashmore, director of constituent relations, governor's office
Rosemary Iannacone, director of operations, governor's office
Barbara Panebianco, executive assistant to Bridget Anne Kelly, governor's office
Custodian of records, State Police aviation unit
William "Pat" Schuber, commissioner at the Port Authority
Bill Baroni, former deputy executive director at the Port Authority
Custodian of records, Port Authority
Steve Coleman, deputy director of media relations, Port Authority
Phillip Kwon, deputy general counsel, Port Authority
John Ma, chief of staff to Executive Director Patrick Foye, Port Authority
Matthew Bell, special assistant to former Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni, Port Authority
Gretchen DiMarco, assistant to Baroni, Port Authority
Arielle Schwarz, special assistant to former Director of Interstate Capital Projects David Wildstein, Port Authority
Mark Muriello, assistant director of Tunnels, Bridges & Terminals, Port Authority

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/02/christie_bridge_scandal_nj_committee_issues_more_s ubpoenas.html

Winehole23

02-13-2014, 02:15 PM

long form political bio here: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116601/chris-christies-rise-and-fall

boutons_deux

02-13-2014, 03:24 PM

long form political bio here: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116601/chris-christies-rise-and-fall

wide form:

http://www.newrepublic.com/sites/default/files/u184683/article_inset_macgillis_1.jpg

boutons_deux

02-17-2014, 03:12 PM

Another Christie Buddy Had Knowledge Of Bridgegate Traffic Jam

A Port Authority police officer — a childhood friend of Chris Christie —toured the chaos in Fort Lee with David Wildstein.

MSNBC reported (http://www.msnbc.com/steve-kornacki/christie-port-authority-fort-lee-wildstein) that documents have emerged showing that a Port Authority police officer, who grew up with Governor Christie, drove with David Wildstein, another friend and former official linked to the scandal, to the access lanes near the bridge to survey the traffic jam. In addition, the Port Authority officer, named Thomas Michaels, sent text messages to Wildstein updating him on the impact of the lane closures on Fort Lee, New

Jersey. He told Wildstein, then a Christie appointee at the Port Authority, that he had ideas to “make this better.”

The revelation “is an important new detail because it places another person with long-time ties to the governor, this time in the Port Authority Police Department, at the scene witnessing the traffic surge that has since come to engulf Christie’s administration in legal inquires,” MSNBC reports.

In response to the new revelations, the executive director of the Port Authority has ordered the inspector general to investigate the police officers who were at the bridge during the lane closures.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/christie-friend-had-knowledge-traffic-jam?akid=11516.187590.Qy3bZB&rd=1&src=newsletter959713&t=20

CosmicCowboy

02-18-2014, 08:07 AM

Wow...Boutons is really upset about this traffic jam.

AntiChrist

02-18-2014, 11:50 AM

Lol, even Bill Maher is tired of hearing about "bridgegate"

MSNBC-YA
It's Valentine's Day, and I cannot go on any longer living a lie. MSNBC...we need to talk.

Whatever we had is not working any more. You're obviously interested in another man: Chris Christie. You're obsessed with him. So I wanted you to hear it from me first. I'm going to start seeing other news organizations. I'll miss what we had. It was a rocket ship ride. We were both passionate flaming liberals and we didn't care what the world thought of us. It was a glorious time. We finished each other's Sarah Palin jokes. But now we never talk about any of the things we used to talk about: global warming, gun control, poverty... All because Chris Christie came along and put you under his spell.

Look at yourself. You're turning into Fox News. Bridgegate has become your Benghazi, and this isn't easy to say, but you and I are no longer on the same news cycle. Sure, you read me the results of a recent Gallup poll, but you never really ask me how I'm feeling. It's not you, it's... Chris Christie.

You've stopped leaning forward. Look, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little lanes of traffic don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. You're a young news channel. You'll meet other viewers. It's for the best. You can focus on your career. And we can still be friends. We'll always have Obamacare.
Here's looking at you, kid.

boutons_deux

03-11-2014, 02:26 PM

Even Before Fort Lee Lane Closings, Port Authority Was a Christie Tool

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/nyregion/even-before-fort-lee-lane-closings-port-authority-was-a-christie-tool.html?from=homepage

boutons_deux

03-24-2014, 04:11 PM

whew, Christie affair OVER!

Chris Christie Clears Chris Christie of Any Wrongdoing

With his office suddenly engulfed in scandal over lane closings at the George Washington Bridge, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey two months ago summoned a pair of top defense lawyers from an elite law firm to the State House and asked them to undertake an extensive review of what had gone wrong.

Now, after 70 interviews and at least $1 million in legal fees to be paid by state taxpayers, that review is set to be released, and according to people with firsthand knowledge of the inquiry, it has uncovered no evidence that the governor was involved in the plotting or directing of the lane closings.

It will be viewed with intense skepticism, not only because it was commissioned by the governor but also because the firm conducting it, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, has close ties to the Christie administration and the firm’s lawyers were unable to interview three principal players in the shutdowns, including Bridget Anne Kelly, the governor’s former deputy chief of staff.

Yet even though this "investigation" smells more like Christie graft than anything else, his team is talking it up as a clean bill of health,

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/chris-christie-clears-chris-christie-any-wrongdoing?akid=11637.187590.giDf6_&rd=1&src=newsletter974179&t=12

Wall St votes for the corrupt Wall St grease bag for President!

boutons_deux

03-30-2014, 12:10 PM

Christie’s creepy misogyny: Behold his despicable “blame Bridget” strategy

http://media.salon.com/2014/03/bridget_kelly-620x412.jpg

Randy Mastro’s report put the blame squarely on two fired staffers, David Wildstein and deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly. But its treatment of Kelly was mind-blowingly mean, describing her as “emotional,” “erratic” and as a liar; confirming Trenton gossip that she was “personally involved” with chief of staff Bill Stepien, and that Stepien apparently dumped her; alleging that she asked an aide to delete an incriminating email when the investigation began, thus implicating her not only in the plot’s execution but its coverup.

It even recommended that Christie abolish the department Kelly headed and fold it into another office. Mastro stopped just short of suggesting the state torch Kelly’s office and salt the earth it once stood on. That may be what Christie plans to announce at his press conference this afternoon.

Christie’s lawyers’ treatment of Kelly was so shoddy that Stepien, formerly the governor’s former right-hand man, was forced to release a statement denouncing the report’s “gratuitous reference” to his “brief” relationship with Kelly as “a regrettable distraction.”

Blaming the woman goes back to Eve, so it shouldn’t be particularly surprising. But I still find this story bizarre: Why is Christie so determined not only to blame his former allies, but to shame them? He himself called Kelly “stupid” in his two-hour pity-party last January, while he depicted Wildstein as a high-school loser to his student-athlete-president demigod. Now his lawyers have used Stepien to smear Kelly – and that’s pissed off not only Stepien but Kelly’s friends, who took to the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/nyregion/irate-friends-see-sexism-in-report-on-former-christie-aide.html?smid=tw-share) to denounce the report’s heaping dose of sexism in its depiction of Christie’s once fiercely loyal aide.

Mastro’s report maligns Kelly’s competence from the beginning, noting that she was promoted to Stepien’s old job “though she lacked Stepien’s expertise and background.” It even resorts to inaccuracies to heap blame on Kelly, the New York Times reports, accusing her of canceling meetings with Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop after he declined to endorse Christie, when documents show others in the administration canceled the meetings.

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/28/christies_creepy_misogyny_behold_his_despicable_%E 2%80%9Cblame_bridget%E2%80%9D_strategy/

DarrinS

03-30-2014, 12:22 PM

Bridgegate is THE political controversy of our lifetimes.

boutons_deux

03-30-2014, 12:30 PM

Bridgegate is THE political controversy of our lifetimes.

yep, Darrin's always astoundingly correct.

The "lifetime" runs from from the bridge closing until the Repug 2016 Pres primaries.

Fat Bastard is the Wall St shitbag that the Wall St shitbags want as shitbag President.

THAT's why it's an important controversy: the self-destruction of Fat Bastard.

TSA

03-30-2014, 12:52 PM

yep, Darrin's always astoundingly correct.

The "lifetime" runs from from the bridge closing until the Repug 2016 Pres primaries.

Fat Bastard is the Wall St shitbag that the Wall St shitbags want as shitbag President.

THAT's why it's an important controversy: the self-destruction of Fat Bastard.
Good afternoon pussy.

boutons_deux

04-08-2014, 04:13 PM

Fat Bastard roasted like a pig on spit! :lol

Here's Joy Behar's Brutal Roast Of Chris Christie

The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza opened his latest piece (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/04/14/140414fa_fact_lizza) with details from a roast earlier this month in Newark, N.J., where Chris Christie endured an onslaught of zingers.

Most of the speakers directed their punchlines at Christie, with comedian and former co-host of "The View" Joy Behar landing some devastating one-liners about the New Jersey governor's weight and the ongoing George Washington Bridge scandal.

Lizza described the painfully awkward moment that ensued:

Joy Behar, the former co-host of “The View,” was even more pointed. “When I first heard that he was accused of blocking off three lanes on the bridge,

I said, ‘What the hell is he doing, standing in the middle of the bridge?” :lol

After another barb, Christie interrupted her. “This is a Byrne roast,” he said. He stood up and tried to grab her notes.

The audience laughed awkwardly.

“Stop bullying me,” Behar said as he sat down.

Christie said something out of earshot and Behar responded, “Why don’t you get up here at the microphone instead of being such a coward?”

Christie stood up again and moved in front of the lectern as Behar retreated.  “At least I don’t get paid for this,” he said.

Christie sat down and Behar continued, though she was noticeably rattled.

“I really don’t know about the Presidency,” she said. “Let me put it to you this way, in a way that you’d appreciate: You’re toast.” :lol

Lizza was kind enough to post video of Behar's routine.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/joy-behar-chris-christie-roast

boutons_deux

04-08-2014, 04:37 PM

"Christie is toast, federal prosecutors have their teeth in ... and they ain't letting go," (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/07/1290419/--Christie-is-toast-federal-prosecutors-have-their-teeth-in-and-they-ain-t-letting-go-Smith)

http://images.politico.com/global/2014/04/07/140407_smith_christie_gty.jpg

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/04/chris-christie-is-toast-105443_Page2.html#.U0RsFqhdWkc

Wall St's favorite greasbag is kaput.

totally weird, and hopeless, Wombat Hair Randian Paul will be screwed with all his past quotes and weirdness.

So who's gonna be the Repug 2016 candidate?

TSA

04-08-2014, 05:34 PM

oh herrrrrrrooooo brutons dreux

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/04/08/300596997/calif-lawmaker-leland-yee-pleads-not-guilty-to-corruption

California state Sen. Leland Yee, a prominent Democratic lawmaker who pushed for more gun control, pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption and conspiracy to traffic guns during an appearance in federal court on Tuesday.

The Sacramento Bee reports that Yee is facing up to 125 years in prison. The paper adds:

"Keith Jackson, a former Yee consultant and one of 29 defendants in the case, also pleaded not guilty at a joint arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero.

"Another major subject in the federal probe, Raymond "Shrimpboy" Chow, was allowed to postpone his plea after his new attorney, Tony Serra, asked for more time.

"Prosecutors assert that Jackson introduced Yee to several undercover agents posing as people seeking political favors in exchange for donations to Yee's campaigns for San Francisco mayor in 2011 and secretary of state in 2014."

"I've been covering San Francisco politics for 30 years, this is one of the oddest ones I've ever seen," Redmond said.

Redmond said, according the charging documents, Yee was caught on tape cooking up a scheme which would import weapons — including automatic ones and even shoulder-launched rockets — from the Philippines to the United States.

Yee has since been suspended from the state Senate. The AP adds that his name and that of two other suspended lawmakers have been erased from the California State Senate website.

boutons_deux

04-14-2014, 04:37 PM

Christiegate: Christie Rigged NJ Ethics Agency, Ousting Director for Probing Christie Staffmember (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/13/1291794/-Christiegate-Christie-Rigged-NJ-Ethics-Agency-Ousting-Director-for-Probing-Christie-Staffmember)

From the Star-Ledger:

A complaint filed with the State Ethics Commission alleged that a member of Gov. Chris Christie’s staff used her state email account to influence her county health department to handle some feral felines on her property in Bordentown. A minor matter, it seemed.By the time it was over, the executive director of the ethics commission was out of a job at the request of the governor’s office, replaced by one of Christie’s own lawyers, who was later given a judgeship by the governor.

Now, three former commission officials, breaking four years of silence, are accusing the governor’s office of unprecedented interference with an agency set up to be free of political influence. Christie, they say, pushed the agency commissioners to replace the executive director — at a time when she was investigating a member of his own staff — thus crossing a line no other governor had before.
...
By Christmas, Wiechnik was told she would be removed as director.

Andrew Berns, the chairman of the ethics commission, summoned Wiechnik to a meeting in Trenton and told her she had to step down. Schluter said Berns explained the move to him by saying "the governor wants his own person."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/13/1291794/-Christiegate-Christie-Rigged-NJ-Ethics-Agency-Ousting-Director-for-Probing-Christie-Staffmember?detail=email

Christie does his own Saturday Night Massacre.

boutons_deux

04-21-2014, 12:38 PM

A bridge too far? Scandal of the Pulaski Skyway may end Christie's presidential ambitions (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/20/1293335/-A-bridge-to-far-Scandal-of-the-Pulaski-Skyway-may-end-Christie-s-presidential-ambitions-says-Mullen)

CHRIS CHRISTIE’S BRIDGE TO OBLIVION?

In 2010, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie singlehandedly killed a planned $8.7 billion commuter train tunnel under the Hudson River that virtually everyone else believed would ensure the future health of the New York region’s economy. Christie argued that it was just too damned expensive for the frugal times in which he governed, an argument that held little water then and has now sprung a ginormous leak.

This is because it turns out that Christie planned all along to use New Jersey’s share of tunnel construction dough to bail out the state’s highway and bridge system, which under his “leadership” had been driven deeply into debt.

This “chop shop option,” as one columnist aptly termed it (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/nyregion/need-for-pulaski-skyway-repairs-is-obvious-but-honesty-about-financing-is-not.html?ref=gotham&_r=0), is paying for, among other things, the $1 billion reconstruction of the Pulaski Skyway, the heavily traveled main connector for the Holland Tunnel and an 82-year-old bucket of rust in such bad shape that nets have been installed to catch falling debris.

There was just one problem with Christie’s secret scheme: The unspent tunnel money is under the control of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, much in the news these days because the governor with a huge waistline and even bigger Republican presidential ambitions has used it as a patronage trough and personal piggy bank. (Then there are the infamous George Washington Bridge lane closures ordered by his administration — with the blessing of the man himself, in my view — as political retribution. This government-sponsored public safety crisis, when examined close up, was nothing less than a case of domestic terrorism, as shocking as that may seem.)

But I digress. By law, the authority can only fund roads leading to the GW Bridge and Lincoln Tunnel, but Christie got around that inconvenience by browbeating the authority’s lawyers into asserting that the Pulaski Skyway is an “access road” to the Lincoln Tunnel, which is about as far from the truth as Trenton is from Kiev.

This is not to say that the governor had other options.

The logical one would have been to raise New Jersey’s gas tax, which is the second lowest in the nation. Even a one-penny increase would raise about $50 million. You can do the rest of the math — and repair a lot of broken bridges and roads.

But Christie, a bully without peer, knows only one way to get things done. No, make that two: By lying and being underhanded.

Come to think of it, he would make a perfect Republican presidential nominee, but on top of all the other problems he has foisted on himself, the Pulaski Skyway deception will make his nomination a bridge too far.

http://themoderatevoice.com/193516/the-end-of-chris-christies-national-ambitions-other-musings-in-this-season-of-our-discontent/

Spurminator

04-21-2014, 08:18 PM

Bridgegate:boutons = Bengazi:FNC

boutons_deux

04-22-2014, 05:15 AM

You Lie

you boy Fat Bastard is finished, Wall St's useful greasebag ain't gonna get the WH.

boutons_deux

04-22-2014, 04:25 PM

Chris Christie’s $300m pension proposal broke state anti-corruption laws (And now the intended recipient threatens to sue Pando) (http://pando.com/2014/04/18/chris-christies-300m-pension-proposal-broke-state-anti-corruption-laws-and-now-the-intended-recipient-threatens-to-sue-pando/)

A PandoDaily investigation has discovered evidence that Gov. Chris Christie’s pending deal to award a $300 million pension management contract to a controversial hedge fund is in violation of state anti-corruption laws.

New Jersey state pay-to-play statutes prohibit state contractors from directly or indirectly financially supporting the election campaigns of state officials. Those statutes also explicitly prohibit the use of outside groups or family members to circumvent that ban.

Additionally, separate Department of Treasury rules appear to prohibit public pension contracts from being awarded to investment firms whose employees have made significant financial contributions to political entities organized to operate in New Jersey state elections. Those laws also bar investment firms doing business with the state from making contributions “for the purpose of influencing any election for State office.”

Yet, late last month, the New Jersey State Investment Council moved (http://www.nj.gov/treasury/doinvest/pdf/AlternativeInvestments/HedgeFund/ChathamAssetHighYieldSeparateAccount.pdf) to award a controversial $300 million investment contract to Chatham Asset Management, despite the fact that Chatham’s principal, and a woman living at his address and sharing his surname, donated more than $50,000 to a Republican election group that oversaw major portions of Gov. Christie’s 2013 re-election operation. The proposed investment is already highly controversial given the hedge fund also reportedly (http://www.app.com/article/20140318/NJOPINION01/303180061/Revel-Chatham-investment) owns a stake in the Atlantic City casino, Revel.

Craig Holman of the watchdog group Public Citizen, which originally lobbied for the pay-to-play statute, said that the $300m offer “appears to be not an indirect violation, but a direct violation of the law.”

New Jersey lawmakers seem to agree. “The optics are clearly horrible and the intent of the law is that this not happen,” said New Jersey Assemblyman John Wisniewski, the co-leader of the New Jersey Legislative Select Committee on Investigation. “There is a violation of the pay to play laws where someone donates funds to the RNC that are later used in New Jersey, and then that person receives a contract – in this case, a management of a large amount of money in return.”

A spokesperson for Chatham Management appeared determined to distance the firm from the proposed (and already widely reported) deal, telling Pando: “Chatham Asset Management is not currently, nor has previously, managed funds for the State of New Jersey.”

Incredibly, they then threatened to sue me, and Pando, if we reported that they had agreed to accept the proposed deal, saying: “Please be advised that if you choose to run a factually incorrect story, we reserve all legal rights we may have against you and your employer.”

http://pando.com/2014/04/18/chris-christies-300m-pension-proposal-broke-state-anti-corruption-laws-and-now-the-intended-recipient-threatens-to-sue-pando/

boutons_deux

06-21-2014, 12:06 PM

EXCLUSIVE: PROSECUTOR IS CLOSING IN ON GOV. CHRISTIE

“It’s over, it’s done, and I’m moving on.” -- Chris Christie, reassuring potential donors in Utah on June 14th (http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/209401-christie-moving-on-from-bridge-scandal-its-done)

Back on planet Reality, meanwhile, Paul Fishman, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, wades through the sewage of Christie’s stewardship. Two sources with intimate knowledge of the case say Fishman’s pace is quickening -- he has empaneled a second grand jury, and the U.S. Justice Department has sent assistant prosecutors and FBI agents to work the case.

“What’s taking the most time,” according to one source, “is separating what's viable from all the bad stuff they’re finding that may not be viable.”

Fishman’s challenge is to nail down specific criminal charges on several fronts --

the diversion of Port Authority money to fund New Jersey road and bridge projects;

the four-day rush-hour closures of George Washington Bridge lanes in Ft. Lee;

and a web of real-estate deals spun by David Samson, long a Christie crony, when he chaired the PA’s Board of Commissioners as Christie’s appointee.

(One such deal, a stalled office-tower development in Hoboken, New Jersey, is central to a claim that Christie’s lieutenant governor told the town’s mayor that the state would withhold Hurricane Sandy relief aid from Hoboken if the mayor didn’t sign off on the development project.)

Whatever Christie says or does -- and whatever potential donors or Jimmy Fallon and his viewers think -- the question that truly matters is whether Fishman’s pursuit leads to the governor himself. Christie’s Port appointees -- not only Samson, but former PA Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni and his oddball sidekick David Wildstein -- all face near-certain indictment and are being pressed to hand up Christie, as is the governor’s former chief counsel, Charlie McKenna.

Wildstein, portrayed as the mastermind behind Ft. Lee’s traffic problems, has made proffers to Fishman’s investigators -- hoping to trade information to the prosecutor in exchange for gentler legal treatment -- but Fishman has cut no deals with anyone so far, and the looming indictments have encouraged Christie’s PA appointees to sing. “Don’t underestimate what Wildstein has on Christie,” says one source. “And Wildstein and Baroni have both turned on Samson. If Samson doesn't give Fishman Christie, Samson is toast.”

Federal charges in the bridge closures potentially include both intentional interference in interstate commerce and -- in the cover-up that ensued -- obstruction of justice.

The use of Port Authority money, raised by issuing bonds, to pay for non-PA projects will likely result in charges of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit same;

the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is also investigating on this front, along with the Manhattan District Attorney, who’s seeking evidence to support state charges of falsifying business records and official misconduct.

Charges derived from David Samson’s numerous conflicts of interest while serving as a PA official could, in Hoboken’s case, include federal charges of extortion under the Hobbs Act, and New York state charges of official misconduct and corruption.

The clearest, quickest road to Christie, both sources agree, runs through David Samson, a former Attorney General of New Jersey who’s 74 years old and reportedly suffers from Parkinson’s disease. So: Will Samson flip?

“They’ve got him cold,” says one source. “He got sloppy, arrogant, and greedy. Samson will want a deal. This way, he’d get one or two years. He’d have a future on the other side. He won’t want to die in jail.”

Fishman’s timetable is unclear -- he has yet to send out target letters even to the lower-hanging fruit: Wildstein and Baroni, and Bridget Kelly and Bill Stepien, Christie’s former Deputy Chief of Staff and his former campaign manager, each deeply implicated in the Fort Lee/GWB debacle.

One source expects Fishman to return some indictments as soon as next month. Both sources say that all of those four certainly will be indicted -- and both further note that Fishman, an Obama appointee, hopes to see the entire matter resolved before this President’s term expires.

“But Fishman is really focused on Christie,” says one source. “Ultimately, he believes he'll get to the governor.

Big-ticket donors are gamblers; in politics, there are no certainties. The safest bet that is obvious: there’s no future for Chris Christie in the White House. The Big House is a safer bet, by far.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/christie-investigation

Wild Cobra

06-21-2014, 12:08 PM

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/christie-investigation

Interesting...

WWW dot Esquire dot com slash blog.

boutons_deux

06-21-2014, 12:25 PM

Interesting...

WWW dot Esquire dot com slash blog.

:lol Yep, absolutely NOTHING in any blog can ever be trusted. Every single "fact" is bullshit

spurraider21

12-05-2014, 06:30 PM

huh

boutons_deux

12-05-2014, 06:39 PM

legislative panel cleared the Wall St grease bag.

spurraider21

12-05-2014, 07:24 PM

i dont like christie at all. but lol at the hysteria

boutons_deux

05-01-2015, 10:12 AM

Ally of Chris Christie Expected to Plead Guilty in George Washington Bridge Lane-Closing Case

former Port Authority official and ally of Gov. Chris Christie (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/christopher_j_christie/index.html?inline=nyt-per) of New Jersey is expected to plead guilty on Friday to the first charges stemming from the 16-month federal investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane closings scandal.

The United States attorney for New Jersey, Paul J. Fishman, announced early on Friday that there would be a “proceeding of interest in a criminal matter” related to the closings at 11 a.m. in front of Judge Susan D. Wigenton in United States District Court in Newark. Mr. Fishman will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. to discuss the investigation, breaking his long silence over the inquiry.

David Wildstein, a high school classmate of Mr. Christie’s who ordered the closing of several access lanes to the bridge in September 2013, was expected to plead guilty before Judge Wigenton, according to people familiar with the case. The United States attorney’s office declined to comment on those or other details beyond the news conference.

Mr. Fishman is expected to announce other indictments in the case, but it was not clear who would be among those indictments.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/05/02/nyregion/christie-ally-expected-to-plead-guilty-in-george-washington-bridge-lane-closing-case.html

I suppose Wildstein has turned, and incriminating Christie and/or team.

boutons_deux

05-22-2015, 04:00 PM

Chris Christie Wows Roast Crowd With Expletive-Filled Media Rant

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) gave a speech on Wednesday full of vulgarities directed at reporters over the George Washington Bridge scandal, New Jersey's finances, and his travel history.

"We don't give a shit about this or any of you," Christie told a crowd of 350 people at the Hamilton banquet hall on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg Politics.

The event was an annual event in New Jersey which features a roast of the sitting New Jersey governor. Elected officials, journalists, and lobbyists attend the event.

The New Jersey governor said one journalist should "open your eyes" and "clean the shit out of your ears."

"This is a guy who says he doesn't know what I'm doing every day," Christie said of another journalist according to the Bloomberg report.

"Then just get the fuck away from me if you don't know what I'm doing."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/chris-christie-roast-vulgar-journalists

boutons_deux

05-23-2015, 08:06 AM

after explaining his plan to manage the growth of entitlements, the New Jersey governor said he knows that Social Security is a “third rail of American politics,” but that's why he's meddling with it.

“I just grabbed it and hugged it, everybody, because that’s what leadership is.”

Every Republican candidate has a strong suit he thinks will get him to the presidency.

Sen. Marco Rubio says he represents the future,

Sen. Ted Cruz says he’s the purest conservative,

Sen. Rand Paul is Mr. Liberty, former Gov.

Rick Perry is running on his Texas record, and

former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is positioning himself to be the general election candidate.

Christie’s route to relevance will be based on the show he puts on for voters.

“I didn't run for governor of New Jersey to be elected prom king,” said Christie in New Hampshire last month.

“I’m not looking to be the most popular guy in the world. I’m looking to be the most respected one.”

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/05/chris_christie_is_trying_to_woo_voters_with_blunt_ talk_the_new_jersey_governor.html

Tough talk from a big sack of grease.

boutons_deux

05-28-2015, 05:46 AM

New Jersey Faces a Transportation Funding Crisis, With No Clear Solution

Bridges across the state are falling apart. Roads are rife with potholes. Frustrated New Jersey Transit (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/new_jersey_transit/index.html?inline=nyt-org) riders are facing another fare increase.

As many commuters bemoan the mounting delays and disruptions, state officials say New Jersey is confronting a transportation funding crisis with no easy way out. Voters are so fed up, support is growing for a revenue option long viewed as politically untenable: raising the state’s gas tax, which is the second lowest in the country.

Whatever happens with the gas tax, many New Jerseyans soon will be paying more to get to work.

New Jersey Transit has proposed raising fares by about 9 percent for its 915,000 daily riders, and an increase of some amount is all but certain.

Federal and state subsidies as a share of the agency’s annual budget have been falling, and that has left it increasingly reliant on fares to cover costs, even as many passengers say service is slipping.

Gov. Chris Christie (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/christopher_j_christie/index.html?inline=nyt-per), a Republican, has said little in recent months about roads and transit even as his own transportation commissioner, Jamie Fox, has forcefully called for revenue for the state’s depleted transportation trust fund. Despite the governor’s relative silence, the troubles of the state’s transportation agencies have emerged as a grinding issue for him, including the scandal involving his appointees to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/p/port_authority_of_new_york_and_new_jersey/index.html?inline=nyt-org) and the growing backlash over his decision to halt construction of a new rail tunnel (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/10/nyregion/report-disputes-christies-reason-for-halting-tunnel-project-in-2010.html) under the Hudson River.

Officials across the country are wrestling with how to pay for big transportation projects in an era of less federal funding. Nowhere is the problem more pronounced than in the transit-dependent Northeast.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/29/nyregion/new-jersey-faces-a-transportation-funding-crisis-with-no-clear-solution.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

"Less federal funding" in an era since 2010 of Repug control of the House purse strings.

Repugs fuck America, as dictated by Kock Bros/VRWC/ALEX/etc.

MultiTroll

05-28-2015, 09:51 AM

boutons_deux

05-28-2015, 10:02 AM

Will this alone sink fat phuk?

won't sink, fat floats.

Christie doesn't have a chance at winning the primary, and I bet he's out of office after the next NJ gov election.

boutons_deux

06-04-2015, 11:48 AM

Uh-Oh. Is Christie's Bridgegate Whitewash Coming Back to Haunt Him?

Bridget Anne Kelly's lawyer wants to see the interview notes for the Christie administration report which exonerated Gov Christie and inculpated Kelly.

But it seems like the outside firm Christie hired with state money to do the report might have destroyed the records, which would be a big no-no.

Brian Murphy has the story (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/just-when-christie-thinks-hes-outta-bridgegate-it-pulls-him-back-in).

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/uhoh-is-christies-bridgegate-whitewash-coming-back-to-haunt-him?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

boutons_deux

09-24-2015, 01:41 PM

Just in case New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie suddenly thinks he can slip through the 2016 opening left by Scott Walker's exit, bridgegate matters are still giving him a gut check. Attorneys for the two federal defendants in the 2013 week-long lane closure investigation—Christie staffers Bridget Ann Kelly and Bill Baroni—filed papers that would force a hand over of the documentation created by Christie's internal investigation into the fiasco. You might recall that the $5 million investigation—known as the Mastro Report for Randy Mastro, the partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher that created it—basically cleared Chris Christie of responsibility for the epic traffic jam at George Washington Bridge. Brian Murphy recaps (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/chris-christie-bridgegate-critchley-filing?utm_content=buffer33791&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer):

But instead of producing the kind of Government Accountability Office-style report you might expect from a top-flight law firm using public funds to pursue a public investigation, the Mastro Report is transparently partial toward Christie. It lays blame for the Bridge operation at the feet of David Wildstein and Bridget Ann Kelly by painting them as rogue employees. Meanwhile, Gibson Dunn’s attorneys didn’t interview Port Authority chairman David Samson and seemed to avoid pursuing threads that might have implicated Christie in some way. What’s more, Mastro’s team didn’t provide transcripts or notes to support their adjective-heavy narrative – one in which the word “simply” is used sixteen times and “crazy” appears eight times.

The law firm claims that it didn't keep any additional records related to the 75 interviews it conducted with people working with and for Christie for the final report. Wow, that's a head scratcher.

They also claim they came up with some process by which their lawyers summarized each interview electronically, edited them, and then released those "interview memoranda" publicly. But attorneys for the defendants aren't buying it.

U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton agreed to the defense’s request for a subpoena to force Gibson Dunn hand over MS Word documents and other electronic files and metadata.Since then, the firm has put up a fight to keep that metadata from the defendants.

Bottom line: Bridgegate is far from over.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/23/1424172/-Subpoena-in-bridgegate-reminds-us-that-Chris-Christie-s-headaches-are-far-from-over?detail=email

Whitewash of FatBastard by corrupt law firm

TeyshaBlue

09-24-2015, 05:13 PM

pity post.
lol Bridgegate

lol outrage

boutons_deux

10-25-2015, 07:47 AM

Christie's 'investigators': we didn't take notes because we knew the public would ask for them (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/10/25/1437394/-Christie-s-investigators-we-didn-t-take-notes-because-we-knew-the-public-would-ask-for-them)

After Bridgegate (sigh) threatened to harm New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's ambitions of getting out of his podunk state for good and into the White House, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took the initiative of hiring, at taxpayer expense, a top-notch law firm to look into all these charges against Chris Christie and whether they had merit.

After billing the taxpayers over ten million dollars, Christie's appointed lawyer declared that Chris Christie was innocent of the accusations

that he knew what his own staff was doing as they rejiggered traffic on the George Washington Bridge in order to create massive, and potentially dangerous, traffic jams

various groups—most notably, Christie's own accused staffers—have been asking for the notes and other papers compiled by Christie's law firm while they were conducting that taxpayer-funded "investigation." Tough luck, says the law firm, we didn't take any notes. We were winging it! That's how ten million dollar investigations roll, baby!

According to them, it's because they knew Christie's enemies might come looking for them and so they deliberately didn't write things down (http://www.wnyc.org/story/christie-bridgegate-lawyer-we-didnt-take-notes-because-intense-media-interest/).

Now Mastro is offering a new explanation. His team didn't take notes because we were watching. In a letter dated October 9 to U.S. District Court Judge Susan Wigenton, Mastro wrote of his firm's "experience with extremely sensitive investigations and matters."

He went on to say that his team had "in mind the additional reality that a legislative committee investigation and related -- and often intense -- news media inquiries were ongoing."Assemblyman John Wisniewski, co-chair of that legislative committee, boiled it down.

"They didn't create that material so as not to turn it over," he said in a phone interview.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/10/25/1437394/-Christie-s-investigators-we-didn-t-take-notes-because-we-knew-the-public-would-ask-for-them?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

Repugs wanna trust this man with the Presidency.