Time for some TRAFFIC!

[tyr_13]

Could be, but it doesn't quite make sense, because they would need to permanently remove or reduce access to the development site to kill the project. They'd be better off throwing up administrative or legal hurdles.

The motive originally theorized does not make sense either. Why would Christie expect someone in the opposition party to endorse him?

Because he's an egotistical jerkass bully who was arrogant enough to believe he could use the force of the governor for further political goals and ego boosting like he had in the past?

 

[Unabogie]

Do you have any list of how much various communities got? So we can see what she got was a pittance.

A mayor of a city like Hoboken is a world of diference from a rape victim.
There are plenty of people who do not like Christie and she could have gotten good coverage if she accused his office of this and then got a very small amount of money.


Her is what she has said before. Was she was lying then?

You keep ignoring her contemporaneous diary. You can compare her public statements all you like, buy she wrote this all down on the day it happened. Doesn't that nullify your argument when it's based on how she spoke publically about it?

As for money, Hoboken got $300k out of a pool of $300M. That's .1% of the total money, and Zimmer asked for $100M.

Here's some info on the breakdowns:

http://nj.gov/comptroller/sandytransparency/

But think of it this way. Christie spent $2M on ads showing he and his family on the beach. That's triple the amount of actual relief money he sent to a town that was 80% flooded. There's no way to spin that.

ETA: My horrible morning math.

 

[DavidJames]

There's no way to spin that.

wanna bet?

 

[newyorkguy]

But if she had gone public don't you think it would have made it hard for Christie to retaliate.

No. I don't.

I don't believe that either. It might've meant Christie would have had to bide his time. Christie is a very powerful guy and a very vindictive Boss. Going public would've been a gamble. There are so many ways he could have retaliated. In ways that might not even be clearly identifiable as retaliation. Except to Christie and the Mayor.

Even if Christie took actions that were clearly identifiable as retaliation, in today's political climate many people would probably accept it as Christie's right to punish an opponent.

 

[Unabogie]

I don't believe that either. It might've meant Christie would have had to bide his time. Christie is a very powerful guy and a very vindictive Boss. Going public would've been a gamble. There are so many ways he could have retaliated. In ways that might not even be clearly identifiable as retaliation. Except to Christie and the Mayor.

Even if Christie took actions that were clearly identifiable as retaliation, in today's political climate many people would probably accept it as Christie's right to punish an opponent.

Or perhaps hand wave it away and demand a smoking gun before even believing it?

 

[newyorkguy]

In today's political climate Christie could probably slam her over the head with a shovel at a ground-breaking event and partisans would argue-

A. Media made it up.
B. Was an accident.
C. So what?
D. She deserved it.
E. Benghazi.

 

[DavidJames]

In today's political climate Christie could probably slam her over the head with a shovel at a ground-breaking event and partisans would argue-

A. Media made it up.
B. Was an accident.
C. So what?
D. She deserved it.
E. Benghazi.

F. Someone in Chicago did it.

 

[Rare Truth]

In today's political climate Christie could probably slam her over the head with a shovel at a ground-breaking event and partisans would argue-

A. Media made it up.
B. Was an accident.
C. So what?
D. She deserved it.
E. Benghazi.

Is it wrong that I'm smiling?

 

[Bob001]

In today's political climate Christie could probably slam her over the head with a shovel at a ground-breaking event and partisans would argue-

A. Media made it up.
B. Was an accident.
C. So what?
D. She deserved it.
E. Benghazi.

F. She did it herself.
G. It never happened (repeat as necessary).

 

[eeyore1954]

You keep ignoring her contemporaneous diary. You can compare her public statements all you like, buy she wrote this all down on the day it happened. Doesn't that nullify your argument when it's based on how she spoke publically about it?

As for money, Hoboken got $300k out of a pool of $300M. That's .1% of the total money, and Zimmer asked for $100M.

Here's some info on the breakdowns:

http://nj.gov/comptroller/sandytransparency/

But think of it this way. Christie spent $2M on ads showing he and his family on the beach. That's triple the amount of actual relief money he sent to a town that was 80% flooded. There's no way to spin that.

ETA: My horrible morning math.

I went to the link and I do not see any backup of the 300,000 of of 300,000,000. It might be there.

I would take public statement over a handwritten diary. An accountant friend always kept an old receipt book so needed receipts could be produced and they would look old. This does not mean she is not telling the truth about the diary.

I didn't like him being in those ads either but their purpose was completely different than relief money for damages. That money was spent to help all of the devasted areas in the South Jersey shore to bring in tourist dollars.
Even though personally I did not like the stronger than the storm campaign or song from all that I heard it was highly succesful.

The town was 80% flodded (Hoboken is famous for flooding) but the town did recieve a lot of flood insurance money at least according to the articles.

 

[eeyore1954]

In today's political climate Christie could probably slam her over the head with a shovel at a ground-breaking event and partisans would argue-

A. Media made it up.
B. Was an accident.
C. So what?
D. She deserved it.
E. Benghazi.

You forgot she was a woman and we all know republicans hate them.

 

[Bob001]

Today's updates from the NY Times:

About $1.8 billion in federal money was allocated to New Jersey, including about $290 million for hazard mitigation. State officials could not point to any large sums that they had decided to grant to Hoboken from that $290 million. The only discretionary grants the city has received so far amounted to $342,000, a spokesman for Ms. Zimmer said.

One of those grants was for $142,000 from a program aimed at preventing power failures in future storms. But many towns received much bigger allocations from that program and some towns far from the coast, like Upper Saddle River, received as much as Hoboken did.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/20/nyregion/us-attorney-said-to-meet-with-hoboken-mayor.html

Also, about some of the MSNBC reports:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/20/nyregion/christie-and-msnbc-a-messy-divorce-in-public.html?hp

 

[Spindrift]

You forgot she was a woman and we all know republicans hate them.

If you say so, we'll take your word for it.

 

[MattusMaximus]

Yep, I'd say this presidential campaign is stillborn. The fact that the story has legs beyond the bridgegate bit and lots of really unpresidential video and audio that got dredged up means this one won't get off the ground.

Bad news for the GOP. Christie was their only real shot.

 

[MattusMaximus]

Isn't there an old proverb that says if you go after the King, you best kill him? She's a nobody mayor and he's a national figure who, as we can all clearly see now, engages in serious payback against his political enemies.

Incidentally, this is the same logic that wonders why rape victims or domestic violence victims or molestation victims don't just tell police or their families at the abuse happened. They say the same thing: they just didn't think anyone would believe them and things would just get much worse by telling.

But what she did do was document her conversations and we can look at the results and see that Hoboken got a pittance of the money Christie was doling out, even though that city was one of the hardest hit in the entire country.

Also, where's Christie in all of this? He's remarkably silent for a guy who likes to talk as much as he does.

Not only is Christie silent, it seems his backers at Fox News and in GOP-land are holding their breaths as well. If this turns out to be as bad as it looks, then there are going to be a lot of Republican officials with egg on their faces for publicly defending him.

 

[HotNostril]

Which public? In NJ? In NY? Nationwide?

Incidentally, how many people nationwide even know who he is?

ETA: I linked upthread to a poll by Rasmussen that stated that over half of NJ likely voters thought that Christie knew ahead of time what was going on with the lane closures and is attempting a cover up. That's hardly blase, especially coming from one's home state.

I'm in NJ and I adore Christie.
He gets it done.
He's a smart man that knows how to make it happen. I have zero doubt nothing will be found directly connecting him. He's too smart to have done it and leave a trail.

 

[barehl]

Bad news for the GOP. Christie was their only real shot.

Christie never had any serious hope of winning the presidency. I can go over all the reasons if you like. The only top Republican that I cannot prove is incapable of winning is Jeb Bush. No other top Republican has a hope in hell of winning.

 

[barehl]

I'm in NJ and I adore Christie.
He gets it done.

For himself, yes. However, he has already screwed over the people of NJ.

He's a smart man that knows how to make it happen. I have zero doubt nothing will be found directly connecting him. He's too smart to have done it and leave a trail.

You mean like his first scandal? That one had a nice trail. Claiming that Christie learned from his first big blunder is giving him too much credit. This is Christie we are talking about.

 

[barehl]

Actually the jurisdictional move appears to be off the table now. This seems to have moved to a Federal investigation. Christie is a walking corpse. This of course means that the Republican Governors Association is also now headed by a corpse. Interesting imagery.

 

[barehl]

Hoboken had twice as many severely damaged buildings as the second hardest hit city. Christie now makes a complete ass of himself by claiming that Hoboken wasn't hit as hard as other areas.