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Time for some TRAFFIC!

Fred Malek is quite sure this didn't come from Christie himself:

Fred Malek, a prominent GOP fundraiser who serves as the RGA’s finance chairman and is close to Christie, said in an interview that the bridge incident was “totally bush-league” and that the governor is “way too smart for this.”

“If indeed his staffers initiated this, I am convinced he would not have known about it — and if he had, he would have stopped it,” Malek said. “If true, this is a rookie mistake that has far more risk than reward and would never be considered by a political leader of Chris Christie’s sophistication and character.”
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What was the "rookie mistake" though. Sending it by text message? A smart person would have given the order verbally. Even a phone call probably would be safer.
 
This will take legs only if Christie knew.... But it's still not good. I heard an old woman died because of slow reaction time caused by the traffic... at least it could have played a part... the woman was 91. But couldn't that mean criminal charges for the staffers? And a huge lawsuit for the family.
 
Unabogie said:
So, seems like our round mound of loud sound has gotten himself in some trouble.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/christie-aide-bridge-documents

For the uninitiated, The George Washington Bridge was inexplicably closed down for four days after the mayor of Fort Lee declined to endorse Christie.Traffic was a mess. Some emails have now emerged that shows the Christie people knew it was a mess and did it on purpose.



Wildstein has resigned, but this is bad bad stuff. Does this hurt Christie bad enough to stop him from running in 2016? If not, from winning?
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I just heard what for me is the "smoking gun". The response to the concern about the kids was "They were Buono voters' kids". To my mind that is a deal breaker for anyone aspiring to the presidency. Frankly it smacks of the attitude of a lot of republicans with respect to minorities. One gets the impression that some people are in the business of punishing those who voted for Obama.

When this story was just beginning I asked two of my right wing friends what they thought about this Christie story. Neither one had heard about it but one was very troubled if it were in fact true. I couldn't believe that they were unaware of it, since it had been on MSNBC for days. I suddenly realized that it must be because their only input is Limbaugh and Fox.

I did a search on both and sure enough, not a mention of the story! I have not searched recently. Talk about a bubble of misinformation!
 
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This is the key point: if Christie is/was involved and he owns up to it now, then he can limit the damage and it will go away within a month.

However, if he tries to cover anything up, then the more that stuff leaks out the worse he looks. And, at present, his previous remarks that no one in his inner circle was involved and - surprise! - we now see that they were indeed involved... well, let's just say that doesn't make him look good.

It's not so much the original deed as it is the cover up which gets you into trouble... just ask Nixon.
 
MattusMaximus said:
This is the key point: if Christie is/was involved and he owns up to it now, then he can limit the damage and it will go away within a month.

However, if he tries to cover anything up, then the more that stuff leaks out the worse he looks. And, at present, his previous remarks that no one in his inner circle was involved and - surprise! - we now see that they were indeed involved... well, let's just say that doesn't make him look good.

It's not so much the original deed as it is the cover up which gets you into trouble... just ask Nixon.
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I'll briefly answer here what I said to your post in the other thread: If Christie had anything to do with this, he will be out of office and his political career over. Even if he didn't, I can't imagine him making it past New Hampshire in 2016.
 
hgc said:
I'll briefly answer here what I said to your post in the other thread: If Christie had anything to do with this, he will be out of office and his political career over. Even if he didn't, I can't imagine him making it past New Hampshire in 2016.
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I'm not so sure. This could still be a tempest in a teapot... but (and it's a big but - no fat jokes please) if the press and Christie's political opponents get even a hint that there's some kind of cover up here, it will completely derail his carefully crafted political narrative. At the very least that's a distraction he doesn't need, and once it gains traction it'll be tough for him to shake.

As for the primaries, he's got enough problems with "not being conservative enough"... all some of his primary opponents need to do is run the pictures of him hanging out with President Obama and he's got major trouble with the hardcore right-wingers who vote in GOP primaries.

Of course, if "Bridgegate" continues, that's going to make it even tougher for him. We'll see...
 
hgc said:
I'll briefly answer here what I said to your post in the other thread: If Christie had anything to do with this, he will be out of office and his political career over. Even if he didn't, I can't imagine him making it past New Hampshire in 2016.
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I agree with this. This behavior goes to his ability to fulfill a pledge to the people he serves. If he endangered his constituents for the purpose of punishing those who didn't vote for him, how could anyone trust him ever again?

I'm waiting for the republicans to begin dumping on Obama now for hugging and palling around with a crook during Sandy!:D
 
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Olowkow said:
I agree with this. This behavior goes to his ability to fulfill a pledge to the people he serves. If he endangered his constituents for the purpose of punishing those who didn't vote for him, how could anyone trust him ever again?

I'm waiting for the republicans to begin dumping on Obama now for hugging a crook during Sandy!
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Let them dump on Obama; it's not like he's running again.
 
hgc said:
I'll briefly answer here what I said to your post in the other thread: If Christie had anything to do with this, he will be out of office and his political career over. Even if he didn't, I can't imagine him making it past New Hampshire in 2016.
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Here's some info to ponder. He accepted the resignation of the two people who were behind this, but claims that at that time, 'no one from my office was involved". That means that as they resigned, neither of them told him that they ordered the traffic jam? But look at who else was on this email?

http://www.northjersey.com/news/christie_kelly_bridge_lane_closures_emails.html

Other top Christie associates mentioned in or copied on the email chain — all after the top New York appointee at the authority ordered the lanes reopened — include David Samson, the chairman of the agency; Bill Stepien, Christie’s re-election campaign manager and the newly appointed state GOP chairman; and Michael Drewniak, Christie’s spokesman.
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And none of these people, these TOP people in his inner circle, told him of what they knew as this was blowing up around them?

ETA: And this is funny as hell. Apparently Christie had a media event scheduled for today but cancelled it and then sent our his loud denunciation via EMAIL.

Best Twitter response?

Maybe we could coax Christie out for a statement by dangling a teacher?
-- @SamSeder
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It's hard to recover from being a bully AND a coward.
 
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Unabogie said:
Here's some info to ponder. He accepted the resignation of the two people who were behind this, but claims that at that time, 'no one from my office was involved". That means that as they resigned, neither of them told him that they ordered the traffic jam? But look at who else was on this email?

http://www.northjersey.com/news/christie_kelly_bridge_lane_closures_emails.html

And none of these people, these TOP people in his inner circle, told him of what they knew as this was blowing up around them?

ETA: And this is funny as hell. Apparently Christie had a media event scheduled for today but cancelled it and then sent our his loud denunciation via EMAIL.

Best Twitter response?

It's hard to recover from being a bully AND a coward.
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Curious.

It seems that Christie is claiming that people in his inner circle were lying to him, so he's throwing them under the bus.

If he's telling the truth, then he's absolutely doing the right thing.

However, if he's trying to cover up and make some of his aides the fall guys for this, then it'll come back at him. Big time. At the very least, I'm sure some of those formerly within his inner circle would be willing to dish some dirt on him out of shear spite.

:popcorn1
 
Unabogie said:
Here's some info to ponder. He accepted the resignation of the two people who were behind this, but claims that at that time, 'no one from my office was involved". That means that as they resigned, neither of them told him that they ordered the traffic jam? But look at who else was on this email?

http://www.northjersey.com/news/christie_kelly_bridge_lane_closures_emails.html

And none of these people, these TOP people in his inner circle, told him of what they knew as this was blowing up around them?

ETA: And this is funny as hell. Apparently Christie had a media event scheduled for today but cancelled it and then sent our his loud denunciation via EMAIL.

Best Twitter response?

It's hard to recover from being a bully AND a coward.
Click to expand...


There is so much here that Christie has to answer for, it's dizzying.

- He mocked reporters for asking him about it, saying sarcastically that he himself was out there with the traffic cones.
- He claimed (along with the perpetrators) that this was a traffic study. This is after it was already in the public record that the most direct perpetrator (Wildstein) has explicitly instructed Port Authority underlings to NOT inform Fort Lee officials that lanes would be closed (contrary to usual procedure) and that department of the PA that does traffic studies knew nothing about the lane closures.
- When his other political appointee to the PA, Wildstein's direct superior, abruptly resigned, Christie said he had long planned that official's departure.

At best, he's been lying and spinning like crazy.
 
The irony is that as U.S. attorney for N.J., Christie had 130 convictions for corruption among politicians. He knows better.

Christie received praise for his record of convictions in public corruption cases. His office convicted or won guilty pleas from 130 public officials, both Republican and Democratic, at the state, county and local levels.
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Nope, this isn't going away anytime soon. The media is going to pick at this scab until someone bleeds.
 
MattusMaximus said:
Nope, this isn't going away anytime soon. The media is going to pick at this scab until someone bleeds.
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I hate to be so disagreeable today, but.... This is not about a media scrum.

Abuse of power really happened here. Investigations will ensue. People may possibly be prosecuted.
 
hgc said:
There is so much here that Christie has to answer for, it's dizzying.

- He mocked reporters for asking him about it, saying sarcastically that he himself was out there with the traffic cones.
- He claimed (along with the perpetrators) that this was a traffic study. This is after it was already in the public record that the most direct perpetrator (Wildstein) has explicitly instructed Port Authority underlings to NOT inform Fort Lee officials that lanes would be closed (contrary to usual procedure) and that department of the PA that does traffic studies knew nothing about the lane closures.
- When his other political appointee to the PA, Wildstein's direct superior, abruptly resigned, Christie said he had long planned that official's departure.

At best, he's been lying and spinning like crazy.
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Olowkow said:
The irony is that as U.S. attorney for N.J., Christie had 130 convictions for corruption among politicians. He knows better.
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MattusMaximus said:
Nope, this isn't going away anytime soon. The media is going to pick at this scab until someone bleeds.
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And here's what's coming next. Allegedly, he's got a long history of retaliating against people who don't carry his water politically. Up until now, he could just wave that off as people being his political enemies. Even NewsMax is piling on.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Christie-Bridgegate-foes-New-Jersey/2013/12/24/id/543733

But now, every allegation will fit the narrative: "Chris Christie uses his power to get back at people who don't please him". Every new accusation has the air of plausibility, even if its total ********. This scandal has tainted him as a bully. And a bully who ********** with people trying to do their work as first responders and ordinary folk trying to get to work. And once you're tainted, you have to do a lot of work to get clean. What does a person do in this instance to clear his name, if people are going to come out of the woodwork to claim that he did the same thing to them?
 
One thing I find interesting about this whole thing is that a Democratic mayor was targeted for not endorsing a Republic governor for reelection (assuming that was the reason). It highlights the fact that Christie has cultivated and garnered a large base of support among Democratic politicians and power brokers in the state. He apparently was so successful in this that someone would think to punish a particular Dem for not joining in.

Will the non-Christie Dems in NJ now hound the his Dem enablers from influence within the state party?
 
hgc said:
I hate to be so disagreeable today, but.... This is not about a media scrum.



Abuse of power really happened here. Investigations will ensue. People may possibly be prosecuted.
Click to expand...


And the media loves a political scandal.
 
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