Gov. Chris Christie in hot water over Bridge Scandal

[Linux23]

I guess I need to be an East Coaster to be outraged by this?

I guess I need to be on the West Coast to be saddened if an earthquake strikes California?

/smmfh

Jabba the Christie needs to take BS mob bullying style tactics elsewhere.

 

[werepossum]

I guess I need to be an East Coaster to be outraged by this?

Maybe not outraged, but inconveniencing thousands of people to cause some pain for some third party is about as petty as one can get.

It's like the Ron Paul thing - maybe Christie actually didn't do it, but the people he selected felt comfortable doing it. And at the very, very least Christie seemed a lot more concerned with protecting them than with protecting the people for whom he nominally works.

And maybe Christie actually did do it. Whichever, it's not good. Maybe it's not rape-a-child outrage-worthy, but it's certainly screw-your-wife's-cousin disgust-worthy.

LOL! +1

 

[UberNeuman]

I thought the "right" valued accountability. Here's you chance to step up to the plate....

 

[ModerateRepZero]

It was petty and I find it hard to believe it was anything but a vindictive act.

I also find it hard to believe that Chris Christie was oblivious/kept completely in the dark by his aides...or that the aides operated without expecting Christie's approval or silent blessing. I doubt Christie would have hired such dumb and rogue aides.

 

[davmat787]

I thought the "right" valued accountability. Here's you chance to step up to the plate....

I am saving my rage for a couple weeks when it becomes known that he was in fact fully aware of this along time ago.

 

[sportage]

Christie is a liar but that's like saying Nixon had likability problems. Duh.
This is no wheres near over.
His aid wouldn't talk and pleaded the 5th because his lawyer wants immunity for his client.
Stay tuned. Just getting interesting....

Worth watching the Rachael Maddow 1/9 show, it can be podcast.
She had the mayor on, as well as NJ reporters going way back during Christie's term.
They suggest this lane closing scandal actually has nothing to do with the mayor or his lack of endorsement.
The real issue was about payback for NJ democrats anger over Christie tossing off one Nj court judge, a democrat and the only black judge, and then the legislator democrats blocking Christie's appointee of a right wing replacement.
Christie was really pissed about that and called legislating democrats "DOGS".
Rachel has the video.
Talk about a Christie temper....

Add in the fact where the port authority still has not asked any questions over the lane closures, and Christie's has already started the process to stop and investigation from the attorney generals office. Trying to delay so the statute limitations expires.
Wait... It gets better.

Then we have Christie firing people but not wanting any questions asked.
Like why an office staff would take it onto them self to order this lane closing?
Another aid waiting to be investigated by the AG office.

Like with the Nixon administration, the watergate break-in was only the sideshow.
The real crime were the attempts at covering up nixon's massive criminal acts.
This appears to be the Christie's legacy as well.
Stay tuned.
The lane closing scandal may be only a side show leading to more severe criminal activities.
And still one has to ask, why the port athority has been so silent on the whole matter?

We've only scratched the surface....
I'd be very careful before jumping on the defend Christie band wagon.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Stay tuned.....

 

[dmcowen674]

Get Christie under oath and ask him all about the bridge closings. Let him either tell the truth or plead the fifth.

They should have already filed criminal charges.

At least one person died as a result of this.

We had a President persecuted over a lot less, a blow job.

But that was Democrat and the Republicans jumped all over the chance to make a blow job into the worst possible thing he could have done.

This is a Republican, so what if he disrupted New York City and caused a death.

 

[UberNeuman]

I am saving my rage for a couple weeks when it becomes known that he was in fact fully aware of this along time ago.

Fair enough, sir.

\however, he's not going to admit this...

 

[werepossum]

Fair enough, sir.

\however, he's not going to admit this...

He'd be foolish to admit it. However, that can't stop people from believing it. Or at the least, that he set up an environment where this was seen by multiple staffers as an acceptable thing to do. That might be worse in the end. The thing we love about Christie is that he does play hardball and doesn't pull any punches, so if he did it, it's an ill-conceived, petty, vindictive asshole of a thing to do, but maybe it ends there. (Although one has to wonder why if it was an aberration his staffers would be on board.) If on the other hand Christie had nothing to do with it but maintains an environment where aides would think this is acceptable behavior, then one must assume they have done plenty of similar stuff.

For Christie this is a pig without lips. Every way he turns (that I can see anyway) he loses. Loki is right that this is likely not fatal, but it's a pretty big hit.

 

[Doppel]

1) I've generally been favorable on Christie

2) Anybody involved in this should face criminal charges. I dearly hope they do, him included if he was involved

3) He may weather this storm, but if it's found out he lied he certainly won't. Even if he didn't lie it could make his presidential run untenable

4) I'm somewhat inclined to believe him, simply because there was no gain in it for him that I see. If he had something to politically gain I'd be more liable to believe he did it, but he's a smart guy and this seemed a case of revenge/puerile vindictiveness. What political calculation was behind it? I don't see a reasonable motivation for him.

5) It's sad of course that despite this being a genuine scandal it's likely to cost more people their careers than a debacle such as Iraq (notwithstanding the careers of those who no longer live). This is basically because it seems a simple issue, though. It's easy to digest and understand. That's why small scandals like this are much better than big ones. When you make a lie big enough it becomes hard to grapple with and distill.

6) If Christie is both smart and innocent he will say he favors criminal charges immediately brought. This would show he's serious about seeing people punished.

 

[walkur]

I just noticed this getting picked up by foreign news sites, whatever the end result, he already has the image of a vindictive bully...

 

[Nintendesert]

Maybe not outraged, but inconveniencing thousands of people to cause some pain for some third party is about as petty as one can get.

It's like the Ron Paul thing - maybe Christie actually didn't do it, but the people he selected felt comfortable doing it. And at the very, very least Christie seemed a lot more concerned with protecting them than with protecting the people for whom he nominally works.

And maybe Christie actually did do it. Whichever, it's not good. Maybe it's not rape-a-child outrage-worthy, but it's certainly screw-your-wife's-cousin disgust-worthy.


LOL! +1

I can see the outrage at Christie if this is tied back to him. But all I see is the leader of an executive branch claiming he didn't know what pettiness his subordinates were up to. :whiste:

 

[Matt1970]

Worth watching the Rachael Maddow 1/9 show, it can be podcast.

Well there's your problem. It is never worth watching Rachael Maddow.

 

[Nintendesert]

Well there's your problem. It is never worth watching Rachael Maddow.

She's pretty sexy though.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

I like the way Christie is handling this. His press conference lasted 107 minutes until he exhausted all questions from the press. Reporters were actually complaining the press conference lasted too long! I personally hope the Federal investigation clears him.

 

[FerrelGeek]

Christie could make all this go away by doing 2 simple things:

- Put a D after his name
- Promise not to run against Hillary in 2016

I'm no fan of Christie, btw. I doubt he knew about this, but I agree with others that he appointed people with full knowledge that they'd be capable of doing something like this with just a wink and a nod from him. He's basically doing what Obama has done with his appointments. Christie has at least made a show of firing someone over this.

To me, all this does is point out how higher ups in both parties really feel about people, i.e., they don't give a flying fart about them. We put despots in office and then we whine when the behave like despots.

 

[nageov3t]

I tend to believe him when he says that he had no direct knowledge... just because, Fort Lee? really? who gives a shit about that town. no one would know it existed if it weren't for getting stuck there in traffic.

it's something I can see a bored aide getting their panties in a twist about, but I can't imagine Christie cared or expected the endorsements of any of the mayors in the biggest democratic strongholds in the state.

I disagree with him on the politics, but Christie at least seems smarter than doing something this stupid, especially given that Fort Lee is right next to Englewood Cliffs, home of the MSNBC headquarters -- which might explain why that network is covering this story so incessantly (more than even local news... Bridgegate was barely a blip on local stations this morning, while MSNBC had wall-to-wall panels talking about it nonstop)

 

[HomerJS]

Christie could make all this go away by doing 2 simple things:

- Put a D after his name
- Promise not to run against Hillary in 2016

I'm no fan of Christie, btw. I doubt he knew about this, but I agree with others that he appointed people with full knowledge that they'd be capable of doing something like this with just a wink and a nod from him. He's basically doing what Obama has done with his appointments. Christie has at least made a show of firing someone over this.

To me, all this does is point out how higher ups in both parties really feel about people, i.e., they don't give a flying fart about them. We put despots in office and then we whine when the behave like despots.

Christie always made sure to maintain deniability. That's why when Wildstein resigned he didn't ask why.

 

[Phokus]

It was petty and I find it hard to believe it was anything but a vindictive act.

I also find it hard to believe that Chris Christie was oblivious/kept completely in the dark by his aides...or that the aides operated without expecting Christie's approval or silent blessing. I doubt Christie would have hired such dumb and rogue aides.

Yup, and even if it WAS true that Chris Christie didn't order or didn't know about it (highly unlikely), it's his fault because 1) These were crony appointments - some of these people were his high school friends and 2) He fostered a culture of bullying. He actually has an aide that carries a video camera around so that they can film him screaming at people like teachers so he can youtube it and conservatives can get their jollies. He's a bully plain and simple.

 

[berzerker60]

I tend to believe him when he says that he had no direct knowledge... just because, Fort Lee? really? who gives a shit about that town. no one would know it existed if it weren't for getting stuck there in traffic.

it's something I can see a bored aide getting their panties in a twist about, but I can't imagine Christie cared or expected the endorsements of any of the mayors in the biggest democratic strongholds in the state.

I disagree with him on the politics, but Christie at least seems smarter than doing something this stupid, especially given that Fort Lee is right next to Englewood Cliffs, home of the MSNBC headquarters -- which might explain why that network is covering this story so incessantly (more than even local news... Bridgegate was barely a blip on local stations this morning, while MSNBC had wall-to-wall panels talking about it nonstop)

There's an alternate theory that it was to punish the state Senator from Fort Lee, who had the nerve to stop some of Chrisie's judicial appointments just days before the bridge closure was ordered.

As for being 'smarter than that,' smart people do tremendously, unbelievably stupid things all the time. Nixon bugged and harassed the opposition in a campaign he was going to win in a landslide regardless. Clinton got a BJ from an intern in the White House. Dick Cheney / Scooter Libby revealed a CIA agent's identity because her husband said mean things about him in the paper. John Edwards got some photographer pregnant while running for president alongside his wife who was dying of cancer. Politicians have sent wiener pics from their own phones, used aliases to sext over twitter while planning a NYC mayoral run, run off to Argentina on a state-paid jet to see a mistress while saying you're walking the Appalachian Trail.

 

[HomerJS]

The same people defending Christie would call for Obamas impeachment if his DCOS called the IRS and said "time for audits"

Any they would have a good point.

 

[Nintendesert]

The same people defending Christie would call for Obamas impeachment if his DCOS called the IRS and said "time for audits"

Any they would have a good point.

According to this thread, it doesn't matter. Since Obama appointed them he's ultimately responsible for their actions, just like Christie. 😉

 

[HTFOff]

 

[LostPassword]

guess you guys never been to jersey. thats how shit works. because it's a small town like fort Lee he could get away with it.
plead the 5th? of course his aide gonna get compensated for that.
mayor accepts apology? dude got fucked over last time for not helping. you better believe fort Lee is getting something.
old world politics.

 

[berzerker60]

According to this thread, it doesn't matter. Since Obama appointed them he's ultimately responsible for their actions, just like Christie. 😉

If the Port Authority people had decided to shut down the traffic, but there was no evidence that Chrisie's office was involved, this wouldn't be a major story. The guy would be fired and that's that. The difference is that Chrisie's Deputy Chief of Staff directly ordered it (in a suspiciously causal and pre-planned way) and laughed about it afterwards. Where is the similar email chain from Obama's Deputy Chief of Staff ordering the IRS audits against Tea Partiers again, now that we've had months of investigations and hearings (that actually just showed the IRS audited OWS too, though the chair of the Republican investigations hid that fact to allow the outrage to continue)?

There's always a vague truth that "the buck stops here" and both Obama and Chrisie deserve some flak for what happens under their watch, but there's a huge difference between someone down the line doing something bad and your deputy ordering someone down the line to do something bad.