Rachel Maddow had a very reasonable theory about this bridge closing.
Update x3 - Bridgegate - NOTHING to do with Mayor of Ft Lee? Motive may be even worse!
Just now Rachel Maddow had a very explosive revelation. The lane closures of the George Washington Bridge in Ft Lee had NOTHING to do with the mayor. Rather it was an attack against the Democratic Senate Minority leader Loretta Weinberg who represents Ft Lee. The same Loretta Weinberg who Chris Christie said a month ago was 'fixated' on this and obviously had 'nothing better to do.'
The reasons and ramifications below the swamp squiggle.
Turns out Loretta Weinberg and the Democrats were blocking some nominees to the State Supreme Court by Christie. The genesis of this was Christie not renominating an African American to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court and instead yanking him off when his 7 year term was up. The first time this was done supposedly in NJ State history.
In response, Democrats told Christie that they would not approve anyone for his seat. Earlier last year a Republican judge and wife of a member of Christie's staff was up for renomination. Instead of allowing her to take questions from the Senate Judiciary committee, which Weinberg is a member of, he yanked her as well. Christie then called an afternoon press conference and what happened after that is where he may well be politically be sunk for good. Christie called the Democrats 'animals' said he would not allow this judge to be subjected to them and said that there would be ramifications and they should have thought of them before opening up their mouths. That was afternoon August 12, 2013. The following morning at 7:34am (correction originally posted 7:46am) word was sent out from his office to create some traffic in Ft Lee.
Seems like shutting down the GWB for 4 days in September could be some serious ramifications.
If there is any scintilla of proof that this order came from higher than Bridget Kelly then Christie will be finished.
7:00 PM PT: Not sure how to embed videos but here's link to TRMS with Rachel Maddow and her alternate theory.
7:59 PM PT: More on Christie's 'relationship' with Loretta Weinberg
Chris Christie urges reporters to 'take the bat' to 76-year-old widow
"I mean can you guys please take the bat out on her for once?" he asked reporters. "The hypocrisy meter has got to tilt on her
Fri Jan 10, 2014 at 9:01 AM PT: Adding a map of Loretta Weinberg's district along with some highlights of the location of the George Washington Bridge, approximate location of toll booths and Interstate 95 which is the highway that goes over the George Washington Bridge. Basically, I-95 dissects the southern portion of Weinberg's District and it feeds several other state roads. You stop the flow of traffic on I-95 and you snarl up a large chunk of her district. That's why this is a much more plausible explanation of why they did it. Political retribution against a small town mayor, who is a Democrat for not endorsing the governor 2 months before the elections when there were countless other mayors who also did not endorse Christie always seemed kind of a stretch. The fact that the order was given to create traffic in Ft Lee not 15 hours after Christie had a press conference in which he called Weinberg and others 'animals' and said that there would be 'ramifications' and that 'they should have thought about them' incriminates him. Even if he didn't give the order and the order was given on his behalf, it is obvious his staff thought it would have been ok and even acceptable. Plus this is NOT the first example of Christie exacting political retribution on those who oppose him. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/09/1268532/-Bridgegate-NOTHING-to-do-with-Mayor-of-Ft-Lee-Motive-may-be-even-worse
Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.). (Haraz N. Ghanbari/AP)
Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), who served as a GOP counterweight during the Obama administration's push for financial regulatory reform, announced Monday that he will not seek reelection next year.
[...]
It is an honor that I never dreamed could have been possible for me and the words ‘thank you’ are far from adequate. But as Ecclesiastes 3 says, to everything there is a season and I feel in my heart that now is the time for me to announce this decision and allow others to have the opportunity to serve.
The talk-radio star explains his epistemology: True conservatives are always right.
Conor Friedersdorf Jan 15 2014, 6:20 AM ET
Something special happened Monday on the Rush Limbaugh radio program. Its host set out to explain why conservatives won't be defending New Jersey Governor Chris Christie during the bridge scandal [ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/01/why-dont-more-americans-care-about-chris-christies-bridgegate-political-science-explains/283080/ ] in the same way that they rallied behind Clarence Thomas during his 1991 nomination to the Supreme Court. And in doing so, Limbaugh provided an unusually frank account of how he and his followers reach snap judgments about what is true and what isn't true. This monologue laid bare the epistemology of talk-radio "conservatism."
The backstory is straightforward enough: George H.W. Bush nominated Thomas to the Supreme Court; Democrats opposed the nomination; Anita Hill came forward to allege that she'd been sexually harassed by the nominee; he denied the charges, and he accused the Senate of subjecting him to a "high-tech lynching." Liberals and conservatives are still at odds over who was telling the truth.*
When the controversy began, Limbaugh reminisces, he didn't know who the nominee was. "I didn't know Clarence Thomas," he recalled. "I had never met Clarence Thomas. I had to read about Clarence Thomas to find out who he was."
Nonetheless, "I began the biggest, full-throated defense of Clarence Thomas that there was, and I didn't know him. I'd never met him. I had to read and find out who he was and, you know, about his life, the things he'd done, where he'd worked, gone to school. Yet I didn't feel I was taking a risk at all in a full-throated, never-ending, full-fledged not only defense of Clarence Thomas, but an attack, a returned attack on Anita Hill and the Democrats. Now, how was I able to do this with such confidence, not having met the man, not having known the man?"
I'd begun to wonder that myself. Fortunately, Limbaugh goes on to explain himself, but first he underscores the degree to which he took Thomas's side immediately:
I was doing an appearance on Saturday when the Anita Hill stuff really hit, and all of the outrageous allegations, the "pubic hair on the Coke can" and all the sexual harassment stuff, and I can't tell you how livid I was. I spent the entire almost two hours on stage that night (it was a Saturday) talking about this, and how sick it made me and how angry it made me. The reason that I—and I have been fully vindicated, by the way—was able to defend Clarence Thomas with total confidence against this, is that I knew he didn't do it.
But how? Having heard, amidst a live performance, about specific sexual-harassment allegations involving two people he knew almost nothing about, alleged to have taken place some years before in a private setting, how did Limbaugh instantly discern who was being truthful and feel "total confidence" in doing so?
I didn't think I was risking anything. I really didn't. If I'd had the slightest doubt of his innocence, I woulda never opened my mouth. If I thought that there was just a tiny thread of possibility that what Anita Hill was saying and what the Democrat witnesses were saying was true, I woulda stayed silent. But I didn't. I went to the equivalent of the mountaintops and started shouting. Now, why? Character, conservatism, and my knowledge of the left.
He knew that Thomas was a conservative, and that his political adversaries were leftists. And that's all it took to "know" that Thomas was innocent. Evidently, no true conservative would ever sexually harass anyone, and no leftists would tell the truth about being sexually harassed by a conservative.
Limbaugh offered all this to make a point about Christie and the dearth of people defending him:
Christie may well be worth defending, is my point. I don't know. He may well be worth a Clarence Thomas-type defense, but notice that nobody is coming forth with one. They've all got that caveat. "He's home free IF he's not lying." This is not a comment about Governor Christie, so please don't misunderstand or be confused. I'm trying to illustrate (What's the word?) the emptiness of the Republican ... I'm trying to make the point that over there in the RINO Club, the Republican establishment, the wildebeests [ http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2014/01/09/rinos_stampede_away_from_christie ], whatever, there's not an ideology. There's not a belief system. There's not a foundation on which to base a defense, as I had with Clarence Thomas—and, by the way, he's not alone.
Got that? Were Christie and his supporters all true conservatives, they would be assured that Christie is in the right. Whereas as non-conservatives, the only way to ascertain the truth is a dispassionate analysis, qualified with hedges such as, If he's lying about everything, then he isn't blameless after all. Christie may well be innocent, Limbaugh argues, but no one can know for sure because he isn't a conservative.
Then he introduces another wrinkle:
It's just every Republican who has entered the fray defending Christie has to put a caveat out there "if he's telling the truth." Now, if there were a fervent ideological foundation, if there was a substantive reason of believing in Governor Christie, then whether he lied wouldn't matter. They'd be out there defending him left and right just to make sure the Democrats don't get away with this. And I'll admit that was part of the reason that I jumped into Clarence Thomas. There was no way they were gonna get away with this if I had the ability to have a little bit of something to do with it. There's no way. I wasn't gonna sit there and put up with this. I'd done enough to find out he was a fine man and know this was a witch hunt. They were out to seek and destroy.
But if Christie lied, then his accusers wouldn't be "getting away with" anything, would they? Their attacks would be accurate. Unless, Limbaugh seems to be saying, Christie was a true conservative, in which case the attacks on him would be illegitimate, because attacks on true conservatives are by definition illegitimate, at least when they're coming from leftists. It's sort of like the Richard Nixon/John Yoo theory that if the president does it, then it isn't illegal,—except applied to misconduct and true conservatives. I can't say that Limbaugh is the only commentator who conducts himself as if this ideological method of deciding what to believe is sound, but I've never seen anyone embrace it openly and self-consciously.
True conservatives cannot fail, they can only be failed. They cannot sexually harass leftists. They can only be falsely accused. That is Rush Limbaugh's ideology. I'm not sure what to call it. But it isn't deserving of the name conservatism. __
*If it matters, I am agnostic as to what transpired, believe that Clarence Thomas is qualified to sit on the Supreme Court, and wish his default mode was safeguarding liberty rather than selective, idiosyncratic originalism.
Sitting in traffic destroys the soul. In the Hobbesian logic of a jam, each car becomes every other car’s enemy, and life’s purposefulness turns on itself. Time dilates. The NPR headlines roll by, then roll by again. Inching your way toward the tauntingly designated E-Z Pass lane, you grow to despise the man in the gray Audi, but it’s the woman in the blue Subaru who cuts you off. Progress slows until you reach a standstill. You begin to fantasize that you’re the victim of a malevolent force, that your lane has been singled out for some sort of cruel test or act of vengeance. This is a sign that you’ve lost touch with reality—unless, of course, you live in New Jersey.
Last week, as the scandal inevitably known as Bridgegate bubbled away, Governor Chris Christie delivered his fourth annual State of the State address, in Trenton. It was, to paraphrase A. A. Milne, a Sad Christie, a Melancholy Christie, a Small and Sorry Christie who spoke to state lawmakers. The Republican governor, normally the King of I, was all about comity and collaboration. He alluded only briefly to the incident in Fort Lee, and only vaguely. “Mistakes were clearly made,” he said. The very next day, the Wall Street Journal published a photograph of Christie chatting with David Wildstein, the official at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey who apparently ordered up the George Washington Bridge lane closings. The picture, taken mid-backlog, was plainly at odds with the Governor’s assertion that he and Wildstein had scarcely spoken in years. Meanwhile, the New Jersey Assembly and Senate, both controlled by Democrats, initiated a new round of investigations aimed at tying Christie even more directly to the tieup. It’s too early to say what these investigations will uncover; on Thursday, subpoenas were issued to seventeen people, including the Governor’s chief spokesman, his former campaign manager, and his chief counsel. Already, though, the scandal has done so much damage to the Christie administration and to every other organization it has touched that it almost doesn’t seem to matter.
Back in 1921, when the Port of New York Authority, as it was then chauvinistically called, was founded, it was—in the words of Jameson Doig, a professor emeritus at Princeton and the author of “Empire on the Hudson,” a six-hundred-page history of the agency—a “reformer’s vision.” A product of the Progressive Era, the authority was to be insulated from the vagaries of politics on both sides of the river, which is to say also from Trenton’s and Albany’s multifarious forms of corruption. Half its commissioners would be appointed by the governor of New York and half by the governor of New Jersey, but to promote their independence they would serve staggered, six-year terms.
Amazingly, this arrangement worked for the better part of the twentieth century. One of the Port Authority’s first major construction projects was, as it happens, the George Washington Bridge. When the bridge was dedicated, on October 24, 1931, New York’s governor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, declared that the authority was “charting the course toward the more able and honorable administration of our nation’s affairs,” and that it should serve as “a model for government agencies throughout the land.” The span—twice as long as any suspension bridge previously built—was completed below budget and ahead of schedule. The authority earned a reputation for integrity and professionalism. Writing in the nineteen-fifties, a reporter for the Newark News noted the “incredible vigor and efficiency” of its operations, “as contrasted with the slumberland of the average City Hall.”
A recent audit of the Port Authority, which, in addition to the George Washington Bridge, now runs the New York metropolitan area’s three major airports, the PATH train, the Holland Tunnel, the Lincoln Tunnel, the Bayonne Bridge, the Goethals Bridge, and the Outerbridge Crossing, described the agency’s operations succinctly as “dysfunctional.” The audit, performed by a private consulting firm, suggested that at least some of the problems could be traced back to September 11, 2001, when the authority, which owned and was also headquartered in the World Trade Center, lost its executive director and eighty-three other employees. The terrorist attack, the report observed, took “a significant emotional toll on the psyche of the organization.”
In this case, as in so many others, farce followed tragedy. As soon as Christie took office, in 2010, he set about stuffing the weakened agency with his supporters. A lawsuit filed by a former employee revealed that within two years the new administration had sought berths at the Port Authority for nearly fifty loyalists. These included Wildstein, who attended high school with Christie, in Livingston, and was hired as the agency’s interstate-capital-projects director, at a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year. (Wildstein resigned last month.) The patronage push made front-page news in the Bergen Record in early 2012, a development that should have been chastening to the Christie administration, but wasn’t. By the end of the year, the patronage count at the agency had reportedly reached eighty. By September, 2013, when the events at the center of the scandal took place, the authority was in such disarray that top-level Christie appointees were barely speaking to their colleagues from across the Hudson. The authority’s executive director, Patrick Foye, a New Yorker, seems not to have learned about the jam in Fort Lee until four days in; when he did, he ordered the lanes reopened. The chairman, David Samson, a New Jerseyan, responded with fury. Foye, he wrote in a private e-mail since made public, had a habit of “stirring up trouble.” This time, Samson said, Foye had “made a big mistake.” The chairman reached for a suitable metaphor: “He’s playing in traffic.”
Politics, as everyone knows, is not a profession for the fastidious. But there are rules even about stretching the rules, a precept that Christie either never bothered to learn or chose to ignore. As a consequence, his political career is now quite possibly in ruins. Unfortunately for anyone who flies out of Newark or Kennedy Airport, or who takes the PATH train or the George Washington Bridge, or who just believes in the “honorable administration of our nation’s affairs,” so, too, is the Port Authority.
CNN exclusive: Port Authority job created for Christie ally, source says January 16, 2014 Give him a position at the top of the agency; he's a good friend of the governor. That's how David Wildstein was introduced to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 2010, according to a former employee with extensive knowledge of the agency's hiring practices. Soon after, Wildstein was named the director of Interstate Capital Projects, a title that previously had not existed at the bi-state agency, setting in motion a career that would eventually place the former political blogger at the center of the lane closures controversy at the George Washington Bridge. [...] http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/16/politics/christie-wildstein-port-authority/index.html [with embedded video reports, and (over 7,000) comments]
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Under Christie, Business Booms for Port Authority's Chief
Port Authority Chairman David Samson at Newark International Airport announcing United Airlines adding routes in and out of Atlantic City Airport on Nov. 14, 2013 (Tim Larsen / Office of Governor Chris Christie [ http://www.state.nj.us/governor/media/photos/2013/20131114.shtml ])
Christie’s 'General' Reaps Benefits of Office While Chris Christie has been Governor of New Jersey, the lobbying business for Wolff & Samson -- David Samson's law firm -- has soared. [interactive chart embedded]
By Andrea Bernstein Thursday, January 23, 2014
The governorship of Chris Christie has been very good for David Samson, a close associate he installed as chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey - and who has emerged as a central figure in the scandals swirling around the New Jersey governor. Records show that his law firm's lobbying revenues have skyrocketed during Christie's tenure, and its business as a bond counsel has quadrupled.
Christie and Samson met when Christie was U.S. Attorney in Newark and Samson was New Jersey attorney general, appointed by Gov. Jim McGreevey, a Democrat. The two became close, frequently dining at Pals Cabin, a classic Jersey steakhouse in West Orange. Samson would become counsel to Christie's 2009 campaign, provide campaign offices, and become Christie's transition chair. Samson was so close to Christie that he was part of a small coterie that traveled with the Governor to the Republican Governors Association meeting [ http://www.wnyc.org/story/following-governor-christie-republican-governors-association/ ] in Arizona last November. And he was on the stage this week when Christie - who calls Samson "General" in recognition of his time as the state's top law enforcement officer - was sworn into a second term [ http://www.wnyc.org/story/inaugural-christie-ignores-scandal/ ].
Long an influential attorney in the state, Samson during Christie's tenure has become the go-to man for people with business to do in New Jersey. His law firm, Wolff and Samson [ http://www.wnyc.org/story/law-firm-center-christies-hoboken-dispute/ ], saw an increase in its lobbying business from $40,000 before Christie was elected to over $1 million annually in the years after, according to state records.
Among its clients were GTECH, an online gambling and lottery operator; a firm whose effort to run a gas pipeline through the Pinelands [ http://www.wnyc.org/story/christie-loses-pinelands-pipeline-vote/ ] recently was stymied, despite a push from the Christie Administration; the International-Matex Tank Terminal in Bayonne, a port facility; and a number of real estate developers, including the Rockefeller Group.
Federal prosecutors are investigating claims by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer [ http://www.wnyc.org/story/fbi-investigates-allegations-christie-aides-withheld-sandy-aid-report-says/ ] that Christie's lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno, threatened that the state would withhold Sandy aid for Hoboken unless she supported the Rockefeller Group project - a plan backed by a $75,000 Port Authority-funded study. Guadagno and other state officials have vigorously denied applying any such pressure. Zimmer has said that Lori Grifa, a Wolff & Samson attorney who previously served Christie as commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs, also pressed her to support the Rockefeller Group plan.
"It has the appearance of significant conflict of interest," said James Doig, a Dartmouth and Princeton professor who is the author of Empire On the Hudson, the definitive tome on the history of the Port Authority. Doig said it could be possible for Samson or Christie to present information showing the mixing of business and government work were proper. But, he added, "until I had information that seemed persuasive I would say it looks like a clear ethical violation."
Records also show that Wolff & Samson's municipal bond counsel business has quadrupled during Christie's tenure. During the previous administration of Gov. Jon Corzine, the firm handled $2.4 billion worth of bond sales. In Christie's first term, just concluded, that jumped to $10.1 billion [which jump, by the way, certainly produced a significantly bigger boost to W&S's income than the extra million a year from 'lobbying'], according to data provided to WNYC by Thomson Reuters, a media and information company that tracks the municipal bond market.
In addition to his firm's tie to the Hoboken imbroglio, emails disclosed in the legislative inquiry [ http://www.wnyc.org/story/email-links-top-christie-aide-bridge-fracas/ ] into the George Washington Bridge traffic snarl show that Samson was in communication with two men who Christie fired for their roles in orchestrating the traffic jam. Christie has stood by Samson, even though he ousted four other officials tied to the bridge traffic scandal.
Neither Samson, the Governor, or the Port Authority responded to requests for comment.
Christie Ally Prepped Official Before George Washington Bridge Lane Closure Testimony
Philip Kwon Associated Press
Philip Kwon, an Attorney at the Port Authority, Helped to Prepare Bill Baroni
By Ted Mann Updated Feb. 3, 2014 12:01 a.m. ET
An attorney with close ties to Gov. Chris Christie's administration helped prepare an official who gave now-discredited testimony that lane closures at the George Washington Bridge were part of a traffic study, officials said.
Philip Kwon, a top attorney at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, spent parts of four to five days helping to prepare Bill Baroni, then the authority's deputy executive director and its top executive appointment by Mr. Christie, before he spoke to a New Jersey legislative committee on Nov. 25, a person familiar with the matter said.
An authority spokesman disputed that the preparations took five days and defended Mr. Kwon's work.
"Meeting with a witness prior to testimony is a routine function of any lawyer and any attempt to assign ulterior motives to this general practice is unwarranted," the spokesman said.
New Jersey Democrats have questioned why Mr. Baroni needed so much preparation before his committee testimony. The lane closures have become a political crisis for Mr. Christie since emails released in January showed that his aides and allies purposefully caused traffic backups over five days in Fort Lee, N.J. , lengthening commutes and delaying emergency vehicles.
Mr. Baroni told a New Jersey legislative committee in November that the lanes were closed as part of a traffic study designed to determine the equity of Fort Lee having three local access lanes. Mr. Baroni resigned about three weeks after his testimony, which wasn't under oath. Other authority officials have said there was no study.
Sen. Loretta Weinberg, the co-chairwoman of the special committee investigating the scandal, said she would seek an explanation of Mr. Baroni's preparations. "What concerns me is why the Port Authority or any member of the Port Authority staff, if the allegation is true, would have to spend four or five days preparing somebody who told this story that is obviously incorrect," Ms. Weinberg said Sunday.
Mr. Kwon didn't respond to a request for comment. Mr. Baroni's attorney declined to comment.
Also on Sunday, a Christie staff member who, according to documents released by the state Assembly, knew that a Fort Lee official was alleging "government retribution" during the lane closures has resigned. Christina Genovese Renna, the state's former director of departmental relations, submitted her resignation Friday, her attorney said. The resignation was first reported by the Associated Press.
Ms. Renna said she continued to "respect and admire" Mr. Christie and said the transition from a first term to the second was a natural time to leave.
Mr. Kwon's involvement adds a new ally of Mr. Christie to those involved in managing the aftermath of the lane closures.
He was a deputy chief in the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey, which Mr. Christie led before being elected governor in 2009. He then served as first assistant attorney general during Mr. Christie's first term as governor, and Mr. Christie nominated him for the state Supreme Court in 2012.
Democratic lawmakers blocked Mr. Kwon's nomination. He then was hired at the Port Authority as its first deputy general counsel in July 2012.
Mr. Kwon's precise role in the preparations isn't clear. He and a top aide to Port Authority Chairman David Samson, Philippe Danielides, attended Mr. Baroni's testimony but didn't comment publicly.
The role of the Port Authority's attorney in Mr. Baroni's testimony was brought up Friday by an attorney for David Wildstein, the former authority official who personally oversaw the lane closures. The attorney, Alan Zegas, said Mr. Wildstein was present during parts of the four to five days of preparations for Mr. Baroni's testimony.
Mr. Baroni's testimony drew attention because it conflicted with that of the Port Authority's executive director, Patrick Foye, who testified under oath before the same committee that he didn't believe the explanation that the closures were part of a study. Mr. Baroni has apologized for what he called a "communication failure" in the authority's neglecting to tell local officials what was going on as the lane closures caused traffic jams.
Messrs. Baroni and Wildstein tried to keep word of the closures, and of the fury of local officials in Fort Lee, from becoming public, according to emails released by a state Assembly committee.
The correspondence also shows Mr. Baroni fretting, in text messages with Mr. Wildstein, about the reaction of "Trenton" to his testimony.
"Trenton feedback," Mr. Baroni texted, just after finishing his appearance, followed by a question mark.
"Good," Mr. Wildstein responded.
"Just good?" Mr. Baroni replied, followed by an expletive.
Mr. Wildstein replied with assurances that some Christie officials were "VERY happy" with Mr. Baroni's testimony, including a reference to Bridget Kelly, the deputy chief of staff who wrote the "traffic problems" email on Aug. 13.
A few minutes later, Mr. Wildstein wrote, "Charlie said you did GREAT," a reference that Democratic lawmakers have said they believe is a reference to Charles McKenna, then the Christie administration's general counsel.
A Christie administration spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment.
Chris Christie Bodyguard Arrested For Shoplifting In Pennsylvania Chris Christie is sworn in as New Jersey Governor, Trenton, New Jersey. 02/03/14 PITTSBURGH (AP) — A New Jersey state trooper shoplifted gun accessories and attempted to get out of his arrest by telling a Pennsylvania police officer that he would lose his job as a member of Gov. Chris Christie's security detail if charges were filed, a police chief told The Associated Press on Monday. Trooper William Carvounis, 35, of North Brunswick, N.J., was at a Cabela's sporting goods store on Jan. 8 when he put several items in his cargo pants pockets — including some handgun grips, a pistol magazine and a hat — and put a $29.99 binocular strap in a box for a product worth $19.99, according to a criminal complaint filed by Tilden Officer Dennis Schwoyer. While Carvounis paid for some items at checkout, he allegedly did not pay for the concealed items, which were worth $267.38. [...] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/03/chris-christie-bodyguard-arrested_n_4718796.html [with comments]
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Brit Hume: 'Old-Fashioned Tough Guys' Like Christie Can't Survive in Today's 'Feminized Atmosphere'
Brit Hume has himself a theory about why New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's got this nagging "bully" reputation hanging round his neck: it's not his fault, see, he's just a bull in the emasculated china shop of the world.
"In this sort of feminized atmosphere in which we exist today, guys who are masculine and muscular like that in their private conduct, kind of old-fashioned tough guys, run some risks," Hume said on Sunday's Media Buzz.
Even co-host Lauren Ashburn was a bit taken aback by that. "Feminized?" she asked.
“Atmosphere,” Hume specified. “Men today have learned the lesson the hard way that if you act like kind of an old-fashioned guy’s guy, you’re in constant danger of slipping out and saying something that’s going to get you in trouble and make you look like a sexist or make you look like you seem thuggish or whatever. That’s the atmosphere in which he operates. This guy is very much an old-fashioned masculine, muscular guy, and there are political risks associated with that. Maybe it shouldn’t be, but that’s how it is.”
What is it that makes self-proclaimed centrists such easy marks for right-wing con men? Actually, it’s not that much of a mystery: the centrist creed is that the two parties are symmetrically extremist, and this means that there must, as a matter of principle, be Serious, Honest Republicans out there — so such people must be invented if they don’t actually exist. Hence the elevation of Paul Ryan despite clear evidence of his con-artist nature.
That affair ended up in a breakup over Bridgegate, but the evidence of Christie’s true nature was obvious all along. I wrote two years ago about his fiscal fakery .. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/opinion/krugman-fiscal-phonies.html , and in particular the way he tried to silence independent critics of his budget projections via crude, vicious personal attacks.
Can we say that someone who tries to browbeat anyone daring to question rosy scenarios is someone who should never, ever be allowed near higher office? And can we also say that there’s something very wrong with pundits who failed to see the obvious about this guy?
Bridge scandal grand jury subpoenas Port Authority attorney with ties to Christie
1 / 27 - LtoR Senators Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex), Christopher Bateman (R-Somerset) and Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) listen to senator Nia Gill (D-Essex) (below) during a heated exchange over secret documents and lines of questioning during the testimony of Supreme Court Justice nominee Phillip Kwon before the Senate Judiciary Committee at the Statehouse this afternoon. Trenton, NJ 3/22/12 (Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger)
Darryl Isherwood/NJ.com By Darryl Isherwood/NJ.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on May 01, 2014 at 4:35 PM, updated May 02, 2014 at 6:30 AM
Bridge scandal grand jury subpoenas Port Authority attorney with ties to Christie [this one] ---
A federal grand jury investigating the lane closings at the George Washington Bridge has subpoenaed the deputy general counsel of the Port Authority, Phillip Kwon, a longtime associate of Gov. Chris Christie, two sources with knowledge of the investigation confirmed today.
Kwon reportedly helped prepare the authority’s deputy executive director, Bill Baroni, for his November testimony before the Assembly Transportation Committee, which was then investigating who ordered two of three access lanes closed at the foot of the bridge in Fort Lee, snarling traffic for several days.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the issuance of the subpoena on its website, said that Kwon had hired a prominent attorney, Geoffrey Berman, of the firm Greenberg Traurig LLP, to represent him.
A source familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because he was not given permission to discuss the case publicly told The Star-Ledger that Kwon "was asked to testify last week, and today he asked the Port Authority for indemnification" — to cover his legal fees associated with the investigation.
A spokesman for the Port Authority declined comment on the subpoena.
Baroni has also asked the Port Authority to pay his legal expenses, but the spokesman for the agency, Steve Coleman, said the request was still under review.
When Baroni testified before the Assembly panel on Nov. 25, he insisted the lanes were closed so that the bistate agency, which operates the bridge, could undertake a traffic study — an explanation that has since been denied by other senior Port Authority officials and attributed to political hijinks.
According to an internal investigation conducted by an attorney hired by Gov. Chris Christie, Kwon also took part in a conference call to discuss the testimony of Baroni, who has since resigned from the authority.
Kwon — who worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark under Christie and after his election was appointed deputy state attorney general — was nominated by the governor for a seat on the state Supreme Court two years ago. He was rejected by Senate Democrats because of concerns about his family’s business dealings, which had come under federal review, and his party affiliation.
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman has been investigating the bridge scandal and other accusations of abuse of power by officials within Christie’s sphere. Democrats have said the lane closings, which tied traffic in knots for days, was done as political payback because of the refusal by Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich to endorse Christie, a Republican, for re-election.
Christie’s chief spokesman, Michael Drewniak, was called to testify before the same grand jury last month.
Fishman’s investigation is running parallel to one underway by a 12-member joint legislative committee that took over from the Assembly panel. Last week the committee issued four subpoenas for testimony beginning next week, and on Monday it subpoenaed a Christie aide, Matt Mower, to testify. Among other things, it was Mower’s job to solicit endorsements from local officials, including Sokolich.
One of the four who was subpoenaed to testify next week, William Shuber, a Christie appointee to the Port Authority commission, rescheduled his appearance until, the committee said today.
The Manhattan district attorney and the Securities and Exchange Commission are also reportedly investigating various dealings of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
In a related development, acting state Attorney General John Hoffman declined to say today whether his office had launched its own investigation into the scandal, which has imperiled a possible presidential run by Christie in 2016.
Star-Ledger staff writers Brent Johnson and Steve Strunsky contributed to this report.
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