[NJ] Christie's office linked to bridge closings

[Jag]

I don't buy that Christie didn't know. Why would the staffer risk her career doing something risky that doesn't score points with the boss? Either he's completely out of touch with his "circle of trust" (nice DeNiro reference there) or he's lying.

"I have nipples Greg, can you milk me?"

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, I can't buy it either. This wasn't a small toll bridge that takes you over Rt. 22 into PA. This was a four-lane closure at the GWB. Not only a traffic nightmare for commuters but residents in the area. If it was something that lasted a day, perhaps. But four days? I refuse to believe he didn't know exactly what was going on. This woman was fired not because of what she did but because she was stupid enough to put in writing through gmail.

[LawBeefaroni]

Not testified to under oath? Not admitted to in a press conference? Then he did not know.

Did. Not. Know.

The end.

Especially since my understanding is that one of the main people is a Christie appointee who was a friend and associate back to high school.

Pretty sure that's the guy who's seeking 5th amendment protection right now.

From what I know of Christie, this is exactly something he would do. Ahem, I mean something he would have done without any knowledge whatsover that it was being done. It's a vindictive attack on an opponent that really has no purpose other than some cock-swinging and reprisal. It wasn't going to make a difference in the election, it was punishment for not supporting him. It has all the bluster, brashness, and pointless inefficiency that I view as his trademarks. I may be wrong but there it is.

[$iljanus]

From what I know of Christie, this is exactly something he would do. Ahem, I mean something he would have done without any knowledge whatsover that it was being done. It's a vindictive attack on an opponent that really has no purpose other than some cock-swinging and reprisal. It wasn't going to make a difference in the election, it was punishment for not supporting him. It has all the bluster, brashness, and pointless inefficiency that I view as his trademarks. I may be wrong but there it is.

Hey, listen LawBeefaroni. Politics ain't beanbag! OK?

[Carpet_pissr]

Unless he gives those he's bringing the hammer down on a ton of cash or better jobs, I have a feeling we'll get a Snowden in one of them.

My first thought as well. I can't imagine if he really was the source of the retribution, that considering the amount of people supposedly involved, at least one of them won't spill the beans.

Especially if you consider character. After reading some of those emails, are the people writing these kinds of things (and doing them) really to be trusted?! (with a dirty secret that would likely make them at least internet famous, if not temporarily wealthy)

[Rip]

Unless he gives those he's bringing the hammer down on a ton of cash or better jobs, I have a feeling we'll get a Snowden in one of them.

My first thought as well. I can't imagine if he really was the source of the retribution, that considering the amount of people supposedly involved, at least one of them won't spill the beans.

Especially if you consider character. After reading some of those emails, are the people writing these kinds of things (and doing them) really to be trusted?! (with a dirty secret that would likely make them at least internet famous, if not temporarily wealthy)

Although holding it and then dropping it during the primaries would be tempting.

[Carpet_pissr]

Unless he gives those he's bringing the hammer down on a ton of cash or better jobs, I have a feeling we'll get a Snowden in one of them.

My first thought as well. I can't imagine if he really was the source of the retribution, that considering the amount of people supposedly involved, at least one of them won't spill the beans.

Especially if you consider character. After reading some of those emails, are the people writing these kinds of things (and doing them) really to be trusted?! (with a dirty secret that would likely make them at least internet famous, if not temporarily wealthy)

Although holding it and then dropping it during the primaries would be tempting.

Of course. Someone as slimy as these emails make them seem would no doubt wait for the most damaging (and best for them personally) moment.

[$iljanus]

Unless he gives those he's bringing the hammer down on a ton of cash or better jobs, I have a feeling we'll get a Snowden in one of them.

My first thought as well. I can't imagine if he really was the source of the retribution, that considering the amount of people supposedly involved, at least one of them won't spill the beans.

Especially if you consider character. After reading some of those emails, are the people writing these kinds of things (and doing them) really to be trusted?! (with a dirty secret that would likely make them at least internet famous, if not temporarily wealthy)

Expect a small uptick in traffic related deaths or blimp accidents in the Garden State...

[Holman]

Well, apparently it's not the first time.

People now are remembering the case of Alan Rosenthal, a Rutgers professor of Political Science who served on a NJ legislative redistricting commission. When he acted as a tiebreaker and sided with Democrats, Christie issued a very specific line-item veto to defund university programs with which he was involved.

No doubt Rosenthal would be on everyone's interview list this week if he hadn't died (cancer, not thuggery) last year.

[El Guapo]

Yeah, I would totally trust Christie with the NSA surveillance state. That would make me feel great.

[Rip]

Yeah, I would totally trust Christie with the NSA surveillance state. That would make me feel great.

That would make one less El Guapo we have to deal with.

[Smoove_B]

And so begin the lawsuits.

The class-action complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, says six people who live in Fort Lee and nearby towns were "deprived of life, liberty and property for several hours" due to roadblocks thrown up near the bridge from Sept. 9 to Sept. 13, attorney Rosemarie Arnold said.

Hilarious.

The plaintiffs seek unspecified damages on the grounds the roadblocks violated their constitutional rights to due process and freedom of movement.

I'm surprised they didn't add that their feelings were very hurt and their shoes fell off.

[Defiant]

While I think he may not have known about this at the start, I don't buy that he didn't know about this until Wednesday. Two of his appointees resigned last month and he only had a hint of something going wrong now? No, what happened was that it was finally linked to his administration.

Also, his reaction to the incident was suspicious in it's lack of bleeped words.

[Sectoid]

I don't normally post in R&P, but this was too good to pass up.


I find it disturbing that the Governor had no idea what his staff is doing. I don't expect him to know everything every second that would be unrealistic. It seems his play every time is to deny everything.

[Exodor]

“‘If you do your job right, your staff reflects the personality of the governor,’ Christie said as he introduced his appointees at the State House. ‘I believe, for better or for worse, this staff will reflect my personal style of leadership and decision-making.’”

[redrun]

Unless he gives those he's bringing the hammer down on a ton of cash or better jobs, I have a feeling we'll get a Snowden in one of them.

My first thought as well. I can't imagine if he really was the source of the retribution, that considering the amount of people supposedly involved, at least one of them won't spill the beans.

Especially if you consider character. After reading some of those emails, are the people writing these kinds of things (and doing them) really to be trusted?! (with a dirty secret that would likely make them at least internet famous, if not temporarily wealthy)

Although holding it and then dropping it during the primaries would be tempting.

Of course. Someone as slimy as these emails make them seem would no doubt wait for the most damaging (and best for them personally) moment.

Why? For revenge? When the other option goes something like this...

<Persons X/Y/Z take the bullet today>, get good lawyers, serve minimal terms at worst.

A year or two from now Gov (or, hopefully, President) Christie; while talking with someone who does a large amount of business with the state/nation:

"You know, I feel really bad about that. I should have kept a more careful oversight on them. What they did was very wrong, but it's ruined their lives, and that is a punishment that they didn't deserve. I owe them for all the work they did in the past that helped me get to where I am (subtext: and for keeping their mouths shut at the right time). They are smart, hard-working people and I certainly hope that some company will be able to see past their mistake and use their skills (subtext: and contacts.... like with me) to give them a job at an appropriate pay class ( subtext: more than they'd have made in government work at least)."

Is this correct? I don't know. However, I still wonder why Compuware was ready to offer Kwame a soft cushion when he left mayorship of Detroit. It could have been that Compuware realized the best thing for Detroit was for him to have a soft cushion, and out of care for the city they put their names in the newspapers as the company that hired him right in the middle of the scandal.

[Jag]

New docs being reviewed now



"Christie lied, people died"

[LawBeefaroni]

New docs being reviewed now



"Christie lied, people died"

Why do I feel like if those messages were face-to-face, instead of via email, they would have ended with a high-five?

[Moliere]

if he hadn't died (cancer, not thuggery) last year.

I wouldn't put it past Christie to give the guy cancer.

[Jag]

As the company lawyer, I am sometimes tasked with going through people's email. It can be very entertaining.

[Arcanis]

I find it disturbing that the executive had no idea what his staff is doing. I don't expect him to know everything every second that would be unrealistic. It seems his play every time is to deny everything.

Fixed as this crosses party, locality, and even gov/corp lines.

[Alefroth]

I find it disturbing that the executive had no idea what his staff is doing. I don't expect him to know everything every second that would be unrealistic. It seems his play every time is to deny everything.

Fixed as this crosses party, locality, and even gov/corp lines.

Changing what people say seems like a disrespectful way of making your point.

[Rip]

I find it disturbing that the executive had no idea what his staff is doing. I don't expect him to know everything every second that would be unrealistic. It seems his play every time is to deny everything.

Fixed as this crosses party, locality, and even gov/corp lines.

Changing what people say seems like a disrespectful way of making your point.

Disrespectfully making your point is an R&P tradition.

[Arcanis]

I find it disturbing that the executive had no idea what his staff is doing. I don't expect him to know everything every second that would be unrealistic. It seems his play every time is to deny everything.

Fixed as this crosses party, locality, and even gov/corp lines.

Changing what people say seems like a disrespectful way of making your point.

Seriously? Quoting with a small change for comedy or point is a common thing around here. Hence the "Fixed" part. Either way it wasn't intended as disrespect just a show of the fact that it is far more wide spread than this one incident.

[Zarathud]

Modifying a word or two provides entertainment in the word altered and the choice of a substitute word. It has been referred to as:
mortoned (after user rrmorton)
Fixed
FTFY (fixed that for you)

Done well, it provides a cutting counterpoint to the discussion. Or it can be quite lame.

[AjD]

Salon just posted an interesting piece on "liespotting" Christie's two-hour press conference, where they consult an expert on lies and deception to analyze what Christie said.

Apparently, liars offer lots of details that have nothing to do with the question of guilt. The craftiest liars will appear to add helpful information - but this info doesn't actually contain relevant details. Instead, it's an effort to divert attention from concealed truths. One juicy bit:

When explaining how he learned of the breach in his office regarding the bridge lane closures, Christie said that he finished his workout at 8:50 and received a call from his director of communication at 8:55. Then he said,

“I found this out at 8:50 yesterday morning. By 9:00 this morning, Bridget Kelly was fired. By 7:00 yesterday evening, Bill Stepien was asked to leave my organization.”

This may sound credible, but it begs the follow-up question, where’s the inquiry? Why fire your deputy chief of staff without talking to her further to find out who else might have been involved and what her motive might have been. As a former attorney, Christie knows that establishing motive is critical to securing a conviction of guilt, and if she’s the linchpin, why isn’t he speaking to her to find the others involved? Instead, when asked why Kelly lied to him, he said,

“I have not had any conversation with Bridget Kelly since the email came out. And so she was not given the opportunity to explain to me why she lied because it was so obvious that she had. And I’m, quite frankly, not interested in the explanation at the moment.”

Notably, Christie indicated nine separate times throughout the conference that he was interviewing his staff and would continue to interview them. He details conversations with people he said are not involved. But why spend so much time talking to innocent people? If you want to find the guilty, talk to those you know are guilty. At one point, he said,

"And so now, having been proven wrong, of course we’ll work cooperatively with the investigations. And you know, I’m going through an examination, as I mentioned to you, right now. That’s what I’m doing. I’m going through an examination and talking to the individual people who work for me, not only to discover if there’s any other information we need find, but also to ask them: How did this happen? How did, you know, how did this, you know, occur to us?"

Here again, he’s giving the appearance of being cooperative by offering details, but those details lead to no real information except to tell us how serious he is about interviewing. In fact, though the conference lasted almost two hours, Christie said very little.

Anyway. It does strike me as curious that Christie would say he's not interested in talking to the person most directly implicated in this. Kind of fishy.

[Holman]

Yeah. Christie's whole story is "She lied to me and I punished her immediately," as if seeing him dispense swift superhero justice were what people most wanted to see. His defensiveness and blatant self-pity have kept him from getting ahead of the story.

He's looking pretty bad as an executive. Either he orchestrated the hit and a cover-up that's unraveling, or else he had no idea what his hand-picked top operatives were doing in his name.

[malchior]

Anyway. It does strike me as curious that Christie would say he's not interested in talking to the person most directly implicated in this. Kind of fishy.

It goes way beyond fishy to me. I voted for the guy but I don't trust him a bit right now. I can't believe a man who spent *years* as a US attorney never went an inch beneath the skin of a brewing scandal. He never wondered about the motives of the people who did this? He didn't have any interest in talking to the person who literally put his political life on the line to get some semblance of an explanation? It just boggles my mind. It makes no sense and makes me beyond suspicious.

I watched that entire press conference and while he sounded forthcoming it was amazing how little actual substance was actually there. He basically said I fired the people responsible -- which he can't know because he hasn't looked at it in depth at all -- and will apologize. And he is apologizing with incomplete knowledge. That isn't too wise -- his apology is going to look real stupid if more evidence comes out. Honestly I think it was a desperate move to try to put out the fire a little and hope it just goes away. Like any good liar he hoped to put on his best face and talk his way out of it. Maybe it'll work but he better hope no more evidence shakes out.

[Arcanis]

Anyway. It does strike me as curious that Christie would say he's not interested in talking to the person most directly implicated in this. Kind of fishy.

It goes way beyond fishy to me. I voted for the guy but I don't trust him a bit right now. I can't believe a man who spent *years* as a US attorney never went an inch beneath the skin of a brewing scandal. He never wondered about the motives of the people who did this? He didn't have any interest in talking to the person who literally put his political life on the line to get some semblance of an explanation? It just boggles my mind. It makes no sense and makes me beyond suspicious.

I watched that entire press conference and while he sounded forthcoming it was amazing how little actual substance was actually there. He basically said I fired the people responsible -- which he can't know because he hasn't looked at it in depth at all -- and will apologize. And he is apologizing with incomplete knowledge. That isn't too wise -- his apology is going to look real stupid if more evidence comes out. Honestly I think it was a desperate move to try to put out the fire a little and hope it just goes away. Like any good liar he hoped to put on his best face and talk his way out of it. Maybe it'll work but he better hope no more evidence shakes out.

He is a politician, you shouldn't trust him. I can however see him outright firing someone like it was described, especially if he has the kind of temper described earlier. Had he been smart about it he would have suspended everyone he knew was involved, done an investigation and then fired them all.

[Defiant]

Looks like there was a traffic study.

[Markstrink]

Looks like there was a traffic study.

Funny.

[AWS260]

Looks like there was a traffic study.

Funny.

Sadly, that looks more professional than the actual traffic study, which looks like it was thrown together in about half an hour after someone realized they would have to back up the "traffic study" BS they were saying in public.

[Smoove_B]

Now this I could believe -- possibly related to $1 billion development deal:

But according to the theory, in August when the "go" order was given to Port Authority official David Wildstein to create traffic problems in Fort Lee, financing for a portion of the project had not yet been secured. Much of the value of the property relies on its proximity to the bridge and the ease of entry, using the now infamous dedicated local lanes out of the borough.

By diverting - or threatening to divert- those lanes, the value of the property and the burgeoning development would plummet.

[LawBeefaroni]

Now this I could believe -- possibly related to $1 billion development deal:

But according to the theory, in August when the "go" order was given to Port Authority official David Wildstein to create traffic problems in Fort Lee, financing for a portion of the project had not yet been secured. Much of the value of the property relies on its proximity to the bridge and the ease of entry, using the now infamous dedicated local lanes out of the borough.

By diverting - or threatening to divert- those lanes, the value of the property and the burgeoning development would plummet.

Hah, love it when a political patronage scandal is the cover story for real estate market manipulation. That's downright Chicagoesque if it turns out to be true.

And this is just weird:

[MSNBC Host Steve] Kornacki who interestingly worked for David Wildstein, the man at the center of the controversy, when Wildstein was the editor of PoliticsNJ.com writing under the pen name Wally Edge, came up with the theory along with another former PoliticsNJ alumnus , Brian Murphy.

[Defiant]

Looks like another potential scandal may have been found

Two members of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's administration warned a mayor that her town would not receive Superstorm Sandy relief funds unless she approved a redevelopment plan Christie favored, the mayor of Hoboken said on Saturday.

The claim by Mayor Dawn Zimmer comes as Christie, a Republican seen as a likely presidential candidate in 2016, faces investigations into a traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge that was apparently politically motivated.

Christie has denied any involvement in the so-called "Bridgegate" scandal and a spokesman was reported as saying Zimmer's claims were false.

[Isgrimnur]

So much for him being the 2016 golden child:

More Americans now view Christie negatively than positively, by a margin of 29 percent to 22 percent. That's a sharp reversal from a similar poll three months ago, when 33 percent viewed him positively and 17 percent viewed him negatively.

Worse, Christie is no longer viewed favorably by Democrats, women, or independent voters. All three groups viewed him favorably just a few months ago. Even among Republicans, Christie is only viewed favorably by a lukewarm 32 percent to 20 percent.

Christie was never loved by the Republican base, but it's clear his crossover appeal has now deteriorated significantly.

Building the brand took a long while. I don't think he's going to have enough time to reverse the trend before primary season.

[LawBeefaroni]

The claim by Mayor Dawn Zimmer

Everyone from Long Island thought this was the mayor:

Building the brand took a long while. I don't think he's going to have enough time to reverse the trend before primary season.

Yeah, while you can muddle through and still make a career out of that sort of thing in local and state politics, being so sloppy doesn't fly too well at the national level.

[Defiant]

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/20 ... _foul.html

The state Legislature launched a joint investigative committee Monday with extensive power to dig into the George Washington Bridge scandal and the inner workings of Gov. Chris Christie’s administration.

After the new committee’s meeting yesterday, Democrats noted state Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Essex), a close Christie ally and the only Senate Republican on the panel, appears to be mentioned in an email Wildstein submitted under subpoena.

Wisniewski Monday said on Nov. 25, Bill Baroni, a former Christie appointee at the Port Authority, testified to the Assembly transportation committee about the lane closures and gave statistics about motorists. Shortly after the hearing, Wisniewski said, O’Toole sent out a news release with many of the same statistics Baroni cited.

O’Toole previously told The Star-Ledger he did not discuss the Assembly investigation with Wildstein and that "as a legislator, we interact with the Port Authority about legislative concerns." He did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

Wisniewski said he will consult Schar about O’Toole’s membership on the panel.

"If my name was on some of those, I would probably delay being asked to be appointed to the investigative committee until any questions around that particular email were addressed and clarified," Greenwald said, adding that he thinks O’Toole would be an asset to the committee.

Awkward

[AWS260]

The claim by Mayor Dawn Zimmer

Everyone from Long Island thought this was the mayor:

I knew it was a mistake for Christie to hire Pedro Martinez as his campaign manager.

[Smoove_B]

The hits just keep on coming -- Christie used Sandy funds for senior complex in town where mayor endorsed him...

Gov. Chris Christie helped channel $6 million in federal Hurricane Sandy recovery dollars to a project conceived years before the storm struck, in an Essex County town that was not particularly hard hit, records show.

The funding, pushed for personally by the Republican governor, was announced less than two weeks before the town’s Democratic mayor formally endorsed him for reelection.

...

Christie administration officials say the project will help those displaced from the storm from other towns, and was approved partly because it was already planned and would quickly fill that need. But statements from the governor and officials from Essex County and Belleville at the project’s unveiling barely mentioned storm recovery, focusing almost exclusively on how the 137-unit housing project would help keep Belleville’s seniors in town.