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NJ Dems talking impeachment if investigation shows Fatso knew about GWB closures before the closing.
NJ Dems talking impeachment if investigation shows Fatso knew about GWB closures before the closing.
MSNBC Kornacki throws in $1B development on 16 acres where the GWB lands in NJ.
Legs? VERY LONG LEGS!
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
Watch this video from Fox News’ Fox News Sunday, broadcast Jan. 12, 2014.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.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/1...n-a-president/
Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi!
How many humans has Obama killed with drones? Thank you. Obama's foreign policy is Bush on steroids.
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. 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 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 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, 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/2014/0..._content= le
another Dem mayor punished for not encdorsing Fat Bas
Another Mayor Faced Reprisal Over Christie, Files Suggest
In another indication of the hardball Gov. Chris Christie played to win support from Democratic officials, do ents 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 do ents 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 do ents 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 do ents 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...?from=homepage
politicians trashing each other is one thing, politicians trashing 100Ks citizens is totally different.
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 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 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 en lement 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 ans 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/...istie_20140112
Why it’s stupid to ask for Benghazi coverage while Chris Christie’s scandal is ripe
Star-Ledger Editorial Board Monday, January 13, 2014 6:00:00 PM
Somehow, the right’s response to Chris Christie’s still-breaking Bridgegate scandal has devolved into this: Why are you writing about New Jersey 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 and the George Washington Bridge scandal until President Obama and the consular attack in Benghazi get equal time.
The Republicans’ nothing-to-see-here talking points come from on high: Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee (and, like Christie, a Morris County guy) praised Christie’s 111-minute apology news conference last week, suggesting others should follow the governor’s lead: “Now, only if Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton 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 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 and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton!”
What’s clear is that, scandal or not, most of the Republican Party won’t abandon Christie – the only GOP candidate assumed to have the juice to compete for the White House 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.
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 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 nor the New York Times found evidence to support the idea of a concerted executive 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 do ented evidence surfaced that Christie’s top aides ordered the George Washington Bridge closures, 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 and federal investigation.
Meanwhile, new evidence that Christie’s aides tried to cover their tracks is surfacing as thousands of newly released do ents 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 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/2014/01/1...e+Raw+Story%29
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....
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 do ents 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://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2014...during-fiasco/
Fat Bas , 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.
Anniversary of Benghazi, tbh
How to Sue Over the Christie Bridge Scandal and Win
http://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
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?
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 Bas Luca Brasi, he's gonna think this would have been less painful treatment:
Last edited by boutons_deux; 01-14-2014 at 10:18 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.
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.
A fat lying bag 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 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 like this would be kept hidden?
yes, incredible incompetence. If he and his gang were really good, they could close the GWB for 4 days and nobody would notice.
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/th...+%28TPMNews%29
On the agenda Thu and Fri, a veritable Sandy storm of subpoenas.
Chris Christie's Hail Mary Pass: 'I Did Not Have Sex with That Bridge'
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 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-pol...risties-weiner
Bruce Springsteen & Jimmy Fallon
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