Fox News host Steve Doocy on Thursday lamented the fact that the media was covering leaked emails that proved New Jersey Chris Christie’s (R) administration closed part of the busiest bridge in the world as political retribution instead of criticizing President Barack Obama.
Fox & Friends spent the first five minutes of their 7 a.m. ET hour reminding viewers that former Defense Secretary Robert Gates had written a book that had been hyped by The Washington Post‘s Bob Woodward as offering “a harsh critique of Obama.”
For the third day in a row, the Fox News hosts asserted that the book meant that the president did not trust or support the U.S. military, although people who have actually read the book say that conservatives have mischaracterized Gates’ comments.
But the Gates story was moved to the back burner on Wednesday, when emails emerged suggesting Christie’s office ordered George Washington Bridge as lane closures last year political retribution against Democratic Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich and most of the media — with the exception of Fox News — focused on the scandal.
“Imagine the commander and chief claiming he supports you, but not your mission,” Fox News host Elisabeth Hasselbeck charged on Thursday. “To hear any of that coming forward in this book is just shocking!”
“Yeah,” Doocy agreed. “And I was watching one news channel yesterday, you would think that this would be a big story… all about the bridge thing… with Christie.”
Don't you just hate it when your carefully crafted attack against the President is overwhelmed by news of a real scandal that centers around a politician that your network is touting as the next GOP presidential hopeful?
Man that must blow.
Somebody the other day labeled the Christie scandal as "Bridgeghazi." I wonder if we keep calling it that that it will finally attract the attention of Fox News?
Yeah, probably not.
By the way for those of us who are interested in the REAL scandal that broke this week, here is Rachel Maddow's fascinating hypothesis as to the real reason Christie's operatives closed down the George Washington Bridge.
Please, Gryph, as someone who appreciates science call this Rachel's hypothesis (testable proposed explanation) not theory. I know theory means "guess" in everyday parlance, but if we who care can be more precise in our speech it might help counter the crazies.
ReplyDelete-physics gramma
Duly noted, and changed accordingly.
DeleteCompliments to both of you, physics gramma and Gryphen!
DeleteFox News Host Admits Chris Christie Bridge Story Is A 'Scandal,' Not A 'Distraction'
ReplyDeleteFox News has devoted less coverage than several of its cable news rivals to the scandal swirling around New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who has had to confront the fact that one of his top aides was directly involved in a nasty political payback scheme. While the revelations were all over CNN, MSNBC and the front pages of the nation's newspapers, Fox News paid relatively little attention to the story — on Wednesday, it spent just 15 minutes on the topic, according to Media Matters.
But Thursday afternoon, Greg Gutfeld, one of the hosts of "The Five," admitted the story is a "scandal."
"We cannot sit here and dismiss this as a distraction," he said. "That makes us look like complete hypocrites, because we would explode. ... We have exploded here at this table when somebody says Benghazi is a distraction or...is a phony scandal."
"This is not a distraction. This is a scandal," he added.
Gutfeld then argued that the media is softer on Democratic scandals than Republican ones but said, "[Y]ou cannot use it as an excuse to say this isn't real."
Not everyone in the Fox News family agrees with Gutfield. Earlier on Thursday, Fox News Radio anchor and reporter Todd Starnes asked, "the mainstream media is hyperventilating over a traffic jam?"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/09/fox-news-chris-christie_n_4571334.html
Chris Christie is a more compelling story because it affected so many people! Also, it shows the abuse of power and a climate of fear and retribution by the Governor...should sound familiar to Alaskans under the half-term quitter Governor.
DeleteIt’s Safe To Say That Fox News Is ‘In The Christie Camp’
Deletehttp://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=11234
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10450
Anyone that cares about 911 and terrorism will care about that bridge and will want to know what happened. This is a huge story regardless of who the players are or what the politics. Someone did something and that is a big deal.
DeleteThis just in.... Fox changes the name of it's show from "The Five" to "The Four" This is a breaking story with an error rate of plus or minus 1. Stay tuned. And ignore the fat guy in overalls and a hard hat putting cones on the GWB.
DeleteHow the Media Marketed Chris Christie's Straight Shooter Charade
ReplyDelete...He's been relentlessly and adoringly depicted as some sort of Straight Shooter. He's an authentic and bipartisan Every Man, a master communicator, and that rare politician who cuts through the stagecraft and delivers hard truths. Christie's coverage has been a long-running, and rather extreme, case of personality trumping substance.
But now the bridge bombshell casts all of that flattering coverage into question. How could the supposedly astute Beltway press corps spend four years selling Christie as a Straight Shooter when his close aides did things like orchestrate a massive traffic jam apparently to punish the governor's political foes? When an appointee joked in texts about school buses being trapped in the political traffic backup? How could Christie be a Straight Shooter when he's been caught peddling lies about the unfolding scandal and now claims he was misled about what people close to him were up to?
The truth is Christie was never the Straight Shooter that political reporters and pundits made him out to be. Not even close, as I'll detail below. Instead, the Straight Shooter story represented appealing fiction for the press. They tagged him as "authentic" and loved it when he got into yelling matches with voters....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-boehlert/how-the-media-marketed-ch_b_4567992.html
Here is another hypothesis! The massive media 'misread' of Chris Christie (he's the next BIG THING in Republican) is related to the massive media 'misread' of John McCain (Mr. Straight Talk Express.)
DeleteWe will be able to test the hypothesis in a year or two.
If the MSM never asks or mentions Bridgegate to the reformed and elder statesman Christie (like they never mention Vice President Palin to the resurrected President McCain,) then the hypothesis will be supported.
I.E.: The MSM is composed mainly of talking heads who are full of shit and like to associate with others just like themselves.
Alternate hypothesis to explain MSM failure: Hundreds of monkeys typing might, given enough time, write something comprehensible. So far, not so much.
How can these people stand themselves. They spend every waking hour obsessing over a man who was duly elected president not once but twice. Give it a rest. And maybe try and show a little professionalism once in a while. God they are so tedious.
ReplyDeleteThey're not about professionalism. They're not about truth. Their job is to obfuscate and escalate distrust and paranoia to fever pitch.
DeleteWatching Fox News is like going to the zoo and watching the monkeys masturbate and throw their own sh*t at the glass.
DeleteI have better things to do.
So do I.
DeleteMy republican mother can't even see the TV while the Christie story is being covered. I'm afraid she's gonna trip over it.
ReplyDeleteLimbaugh Says GOP Are ‘Like A Bunch Of Wildebeests’ For Not Coming To Christie’s Defense
ReplyDeleteAs one would suspect, Rush Limbaugh totally lost his sh*t Thursday regarding the Chris Christie bridge scandal. For the most part, Limbaugh spent the entire show discussing the scandal, affectionately known as Bridgegate now. Limbaugh had a lot of different takes on the situation, as you’d expect. And, obviously, Obama was to blame somehow. But what was interesting is that Rush threw the Republican Party under the bus for not circling he wagons and coming immediately to Christie’s defense. Below are some of his comments from Thursday’s show:
(QUOTE)
...After calling out Republicans for not rallying around Christie, El Rushbo was somehow able to blame Christie’s whole troubling saga on Obama. Of course, that is a Limbaugh specialty. Always find a way to mention and blame Obama for anything and everything. In a display of sheer and utter lunacy, Limbaugh pivoted Christie’s Bridgegate into Chicago politics, the IRS ‘scandal’, Obama’s foreign policy, Obamacare and the government shutdown.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/01/10/limbaugh-gop-like-bunch-wildebeests-coming-christies-defense.html
Jersey's Top Paper Isn't Buying Christie's Story: It 'Stretches The Bounds Of Belief'
ReplyDeleteThe editorial page of the largest newspaper in New Jersey has some serious doubts that Gov. Chris Christie (R) only learned this week that a close aide signed off on lane closures that caused paralysis on the George Washington Bridge last summer.
The governor's claim, wrote the editorial board of The Star-Ledger on Thursday, "stretches the bounds of belief."
When his appointees at the Port Authority resigned, did he really not ask why? And was he not curious enough to inquire about the content of the emails being handed over in these subpoenas? Did he really just wait to read about it all in the papers?
The Star-Ledger, which begrudgingly endorsed Christie for re-election last year, published another tough editorial earlier this week, questioning whether the presumed presidential candidate can be trusted "as a potential future leader of our country."
Another Garden State paper, The Bergen Record, argued Thursday that the lane closures on the bridge warrant a criminal investigation.
During his nearly two-hour press conference Thursday, Christie said repeatedly that he was lied to by his staff.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/star-ledger-christie-bridge-bounds-of-belief
I bet it is pissing Christie off that he has lost total control and is even having local papers discredit him in New Jersey. I love the fact they are going to do state and federal investigations of this matter.
DeleteHe is in one stressful situation and he deserves everything that is being shuffled to and about him. What a bully and jerk!
Maybe he be so stressed out he will lose some more weight!
Delete10 cats
N.J. Lawmaker: New Docs Mention Christie Meeting With Port Authority Chair
Delete...Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D) in a statement drew particular attention to a document showing an apparent meeting between Christie and one of his top appointees at the Port of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the bridge, just days before his deputy chief of staff wrote an email to a Port Authority executive saying it was "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."
Read Wisniewski's full statement below:
“As with so much else we’ve discovered during this investigation, these documents raise many more questions. It’s obvious that senior members of the governor’s staff were involved in spin control once this story broke.
“Given everything we’ve seen and heard, there are two glaring questions that exist right now....
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/wisniewski_documents_new_questions
And those are the people who know him best...
DeleteThis is Christie's major appeal that's been torn to shreds. All the positions were filled by close personal friends that Christie owed favors to. Someone who gets paid almost a quarter million dollars plus perks for one day a week's work to resign, and lose his retirement bonus with no questions asked is just (excuse the word, but it fits) Retarded. Christie didn't ask "Why?" He lambasted Obama for much less, then when he needed his help, they're bff's and he gets to meet Brooooce.
DeleteDoes the Governor watch the news, read the papers or listen to the radio? A major bridge is shut down for four days, and he has no clue why or who to call? Or is it because the bridge leads directly to Fort Lee, whose mayor refused to endorse the grand poobah?
The taxpayers aren't stupid, a grade school kid can connect the dots with one arm tied behind their back.
Retribution is a big thing with Republicans right now; they use the word proudly. I’d go so far as to say it’s a dog whistle for winning at any cost.
ReplyDeleteNeighbor A built a huge barn to block the view of Neighbor B, because Neighbor B built his house where he wanted, not where Neighbor A requested. Neighbor A wanted his own lot to look much bigger than it really was, but Neighbor B ruined that with his perfectly legal house. So, Neighbor A built a huge barn to spoil Neighbor B’s view. He even used the word “retribution.” Ironically, they’re both Republicans. They run to the liberals next door for sympathy.
I would say Rachel Maddow's theory on why Christie ordered the "traffic problems" is spot on. The timeline is perfect. The motive is correct. I think she has something here. I wonder if the media will now do it's job and follow ALL leads?
ReplyDeleteIt makes a lot more sense than the original speculation that it was because of the mayor's refusal to endorse Christie. There were many other Democrats who refused to endorse him, and they didn't experience any 'misfortunes'.
DeleteThe State Supreme Court Justice controversy seems a much more likely cause of this whole kerfuffle.
Maddow and her staff are smart and do their homework so I suspect they have quite a bit of evidence to back up this new hypothesis.
N.J. Paper: 'Playing God' With Bridge Warrants Federal Criminal Investigation
ReplyDeleteA New Jersey newspaper that doggedly reported on Gov. Chris Christie's (R) ties to a traffic mess on the George Washington Bridge called for a federal criminal investigation into the matter Thursday.
The Bergen Record was among the news outlets, including TPM, that reported one of Christie's closest aides talked about closing lanes on the bridge weeks before they occurred with one of the governor's appointees to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
"Playing God" with the bridge, the newspaper wrote, amounted to interfering with interstate commerce and warrants investigation at both the federal and state levels.
From the newspaper's editorial:
No evidence showing the governor was involved in the GWB scandal has emerged. Christie issued a statement late Wednesday saying he knew nothing about the lane closures and that anyone in his administration found responsible would be held accountable. Strong words that would have been stronger if issued in person rather than by press release. But all investigations into this growing mess must look at the full chain of command and the culture that existed inside the governor's office.
If [Bridget Anne] Kelly has not been fired by this sunrise, she should be. But firing one deputy isn't going to cut it now. Interfering with interstate commerce – and playing God with the GWB is doing just that – warrants a federal criminal investigation. In addition to a federal probe, a state probe is needed. Because New Jersey's attorney general is a Christie pick, New York should take the lead in that investigation.
The Bergen Record also reported Wednesday that the September lane closures delayed responses to at least four medical emergencies -- including the response to an unconscious 91-year-old woman, who later died of cardiac arrest at a hospital.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bergen_record_playing_god_bridge_scandal
I wonder if Issa's committee will investigate this?
DeleteBridget Ann has Christie by the short and curleys. All she, or anyone else, needs to do, regardless of what the emails and texts say is "Governor Christie knew exactly what was going on". IF she's going to be a sacrificial lamb, she's taking the big guy with her.
DeletePresident Obama supports the troops, but not their mission. Most of the US agrees with him, the mission was a mistake, these troops are placed in jeopardy for a scam. Does Dooshy have any kids in uniform? Does Lizzie have any relatives in uniform? Doubtful. Have they mention the $100 a week raise from Ailes yet? Maybe he offered others more $$$, so they are keeping quiet and cashing the checks!!
ReplyDeleteChristie needs more than weight loss to make him presidential. Ethics and character are not qualities ths doughboy has.
ReplyDeleteThis man is as the saying goes...."ugly all the way through"......
ReplyDeleteAs some of the elders in my family say: Ugly as homemade sin.
DeleteGov. Chris Christie’s load of bull: Fired aide Bridget Kelly merely a patsy in attempt to shelter Port Authority cronies, himself
ReplyDeleteNew Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s one-hour-and-forty-seven-minute self-serving, self-pitying display of contrition on Thursday was a climactic act in a brazen cover-up that threatens to further unravel his political career.
Ever so thoroughly the governor scoured the thesaurus for words of apology, regret and painless self-flagellation while nervily playing the victim and mercilessly destroying the aide who played only a supporting role for the George Washington Bridge political revenge plot.
Christie needed blood to express his outrage to the public, so he drew it from deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly for the sin, the governor said, of lying to him. Perhaps, Kelly did lie, although it seems incredible that anyone would flat-out attempt to deceive an intense, emergency inquiry.
Regardless, Christie made roadkill of Kelly and his former campaign manager while wholly exempting the close pals who were central to the lane-closure conspiracy that caused four days of gridlock and dangerously slowed emergency response in Fort Lee. Pathetic.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/christie-load-bull-article-1.1571541
I'd bet that President Obama is enjoying these few days from the relentless press trying to find a scandal in his Administration. Even Fox's 15 minutes or so of letting go of Benghazi must be a refreshing welcome.
ReplyDeleteIt's so noticeable how Fox and Rush and the right are poo-poo-ing the Christie story. Certainly the teapartiers must be in heaven, seeing this as a victory for 2014. They will join in with the left-leaning media in order to stigmatize all the old GOP guard. Strange bedfellows indeed.
IDK. POTUS doesn't come off like one who finds pleasure in other people's pain. A 91 year old woman died because EMT was delayed, and her family isn't suing because theres no way to tell if she would have been helped had the emt's arrived on time.
DeleteEither they hate their mom, or they're capable of profound forgiveness. Imagine if it was a young woman or child who died?
Permit me to revise and extend my remarks from yesterday regarding Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, the putative Republican frontrunner for president in 2016, and, apparently, nothing but a delicate feather in the wind, buffeted in his professional life by the machinations of the web of scoundrels and liars with whom he innocently had surrounded himself, and the innocent victim, always, of the traps and snares of others.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.esquire.com/cm/esquire/images/jT/esq-christie-bridge-illo-0114-xlg.jpg
Maybe Hasselbeck actually said Commander and Chief, or maybe the transcriber was that stupid, but it is Commander in Chief -- did they ever wonder what CIC stands for? Such a perfect example of Rethugians' profound ignorance of government.
ReplyDeleteHasselbeck is the epitome of "bubble-headed bleach blonde."
DeleteYou wouldn't think it was possible, but Hasselbeck actually brought the average IQ of that group down a few points.
Deletebubble-headed bleach blonde BIMBO
DeleteSee what all that peroxide can do, seeping into your brain?
DeleteLizzie isn't too bright...and, too religious for me. Remember that she and Palin use to be best buddies and Lizzie actually publically supported her and then changed her view on "The View"!
DeleteNow she has to 'act' as though she likes and respects Palin (barf!) when the idiot is actually on FOX being interviewed (questions given to Palin first so that she can memorize the answers!) being interviewed by the three of them.
Not impressive at all!
Steve Douche and his fireside friends are only appalled by abuse of power when they perceive it happening with Democrats. Repuglican abuse of power is encouraged, applauded and justified
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind, his last name is Douche. His real first name is Nozzle.
DeleteIt is wonderful not hearing President bashed continually and to see it occurring to someone else 'on the other side' (i.e. the guy from New Jersey).
ReplyDeleteUnderstand FOX is not following the news on Christie! They cannot have it both ways! Haha!
I'd say Christie doesn't pick staff very well and history (videos/radio) show he is, in fact, a first class 'bully'! And, I don't believe the bull he spouted yesterday. Can hardly wait for review of the copies that are suppose to be released today!
ReplyDeleteFox "news" has an agenda and they're trying their best to stick to it.
ReplyDeleteO/T Fed. Government to recognize same sex marriages. Hey remember that Mormon kid in Utah that promised to starve himself to death - Trestin Meachem? Well lol his facebook has been hacked. All comments removed.
ReplyDeleteAbout Trestin
I like Korean food, and new socks. Go get me some socks!
Languages: Klingon
Political Views: Anti-Marxist
Started Working at I'm too pretty to work.
Started School at Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
Website
http://www.donttreadonus.info/
ALL in Japanese which starts out saying:
To cut the nurse jobs in Tokyo, to reexamine the current state of medical care. Taken up the nurse jobs, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Shibuya, Shinjuku-ku, Chuo-ku, Minato-ku, Bunkyo-ku, Taito, Suginami-ku, Kita-ku, such as Arakawa, I will look at the trends and features.
The dummy deserves it LOL.
Total dick heads, all of them at Faux News, led of course by the queen Bitch herself.
ReplyDeleteGovernor Chris LargeASSian, please report to the Internet Hall of Shame.
ReplyDeleteDamn! These idiots would complain if they were hanged with a new rope!
ReplyDeleteDuring nixon years it took a lot of patience while the slow
ReplyDeletedribble of the historical facts became known.
Be patient.
CCs web is large. He also lobbied for Madoff.
Chris Christie's Favorability Rating Down 8 points Post-Scandal: Poll
ReplyDeleteThe automated phone survey of 800 voters was taken the night after Christie's lengthy, apologetic press conference, during which he denied any knowledge of the attempt at retribution and announced he had fired his deputy chief of staff.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/10/chris-christie-poll_n_4575719.html
New Yorker's Chris Christie Cover Is Perfect
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/10/new-yorker-chris-christie-cover_n_4576375.html
Things that make ya go, hmmmmm......
ReplyDeleteIn what seems like ages ago in the Chris Christie Gina Close-a-your-bridgeda scandal saga, the WSJ reported something that looked exceptionally fishy at the time; that Christie had talked with Andrew Cuomo and asked him to get Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, to back off investigating the Fort Lee bridge closure.
Mr. Christie, a Republican, complained in a private phone call to Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, that Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was pressing too hard to get to the bottom of why the number of toll lanes onto the bridge from Fort Lee, N.J. was cut from three to one in early September, according to this person. The lane closures occurred without notice to local authorities, officials have said, and snarled traffic for a week in the small borough on the Hudson River bluffs.
According to the WSJ story, that phone call was the week of December 12.
Yeah. Kind of makes Christies little press "performance piece" this morning look like the firehose of lies that it actually was.
Among the mounting stream of evidence that shows Christie knew damn well what was going on, this one would seem to be the final nail in the coffin.
And it's very easily proven ... if Governor Cuomo has the backbone to be a proper partisan and put his boot on Christie's neck.
He doesn't have to do it personally. Heck, the WSJ would be HAPPY to report the facts if they just got the nod ... they're the ones with the connections to "a person familiar with the matter," which by the sound of it has to be someone in Cuomo's office anyway.
Ball is in your court, Andy. End Christie's political career.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/09/1268413/-Andrew-Cuomo-needs-to-put-the-last-nail-in-Christie-s-coffin
http://muckrack.com/link/nqhB/governors-spoke-privately-about-bridge-controversy
What I said yesterday about this very thing.
DeleteAnonymousThursday, January 9, 2014 at 8:48:00 PM AKST
WSJ (paywall) story, but the headline and lede actually make the point if you don't have a subscription. Not sure how this report and the others below here can be reconciled. If there is nothing to this bridge fiasco, and Christie didn't know anything about it, then why would Christie contact Governor Cuomo prior to asking his employees what they knew?
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304477704579254012674389146
Governors Spoke Privately About Bridge Controversy
Chris Christie Complained to Andrew Cuomo That His Appointee Was Pressing Too Hard for Answers
By Ted Mann, Erica Orden and Heather Haddon Updated Dec. 12, 2013 9:58 p.m. ET
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week to complain about a Cuomo appointee's handling of a growing controversy over traffic pattern changes on the George Washington Bridge, a person familiar with the matter said.
Mr. Christie, a Republican, complained in a private phone call to Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, that Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was pressing too hard to get to the bottom of why the number of toll lanes onto the bridge from...
This was in the WSJ on the 12th of December, and was one day prior to the events Christie described in the press conference Jan 9, 2014.
The transcript http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/transcript-chris-christies-news-conference-on-george-washington-bridge-scandal/2014/01/09/d0f4711c-7944-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html
has Christie referencing a one hour window for his staffers to tell the truth as follows:
"This morning I've terminated the employment of Bridget Kelly, effective immediately. I've terminated her employment because she lied to me. I brought my senior staff together I think about four weeks ago tomorrow. And I put to all of them one simple challenge: If there is any information that you know about the decision to close these lanes in Fort Lee, you have one hour to tell either my chief of staff, Kevin O'Dowd, or my chief counsel, Charlie McKenna.
And I told them that in an hour I was going to go out in a press conference. And if no one gave me other information to the contrary that I was going to say that no one on my staff was involved in this matter.
Over the course of the next hour, Kevin and Charlie interviewed each member of my senior staff, came back and reported to me that they all reported that there was no information other than what we already knew that had been testified to by Senator Baroni regarding this incident. I then questioned Kevin O'Dowd and Charlie McKenna directly, since they are the only two who report directly to me, and they assured me that they had no information that would change my ability to be able to say that no one, in response in Angie's (sp) question, on my staff was involved in this matter.
That was obviously a lie. And the emails that I saw for the first time yesterday morning, when they broken in I believe the Bergen Record story, proved that that was a lie."
I believe the press conference Christie referenced is the one that took place December 13, 2013. As reported here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/13/chris-christie-bridge_n_4440480.html
for example. It was at this press conference that Christie announced Bill Baroni had joined David Wildstein (Wildstein had announced his resignation December 6 2013) in resigning.
Christie placed a call to Cuomo requesting, in essence a stonewall, (if the WSJ report is accurate) prior to allegedly interrogating his staff to see what if anything they had done. Another explanation is that Cuomo told Christie something which led to the described interrogations and resignation. One can imagine what an astute investigator or prosecutor might do with a fact set like this.
Chris Christie's press conference claims don't add up
ReplyDeleteThere are quite a few inconsistencies in what Christie claimed during his marathon press conference. Some of them are more glaring than others:
Christie claims he learned about the emails/texts yesterday along with the rest of us. That would mean that not only did his Deputy Chief of Staff/Port Authority appointees lie to him repeatedly since September, she/they didn't even tell him after the emails/texts were turned over to the legislative committee, which happened a couple of weeks ago. Given what was turned over and the number of people involved, that seems implausible.
Two of his own appointees were forced to resign over this weeks ago. Press reports were already reporting that documents turned over to the investigating committee were incriminating for his administration. But he says he didn't know those documents even existed until yesterday. Did the governor confine himself to a hermetically sealed box for the last few weeks? Was he working on a particularly interesting crossword puzzle?
Two weeks ago, Christie said his staff had given him a "full briefing" on the investigation. That emails were being turned over directly implicating his office didn't come up? His entire office staff figured that if they didn't tell Christie that emails ordering the traffic closure existed, he would never find out about it?
This would all have been cleared up in an instant if Christie had verified just once that there was indeed a "traffic study" whose particulars meshed with the facts in question. He never did, and in fact was dismissive of reporters who asked whether he had done that. As hardball politician (and one who has no been no stranger to scandals) he never once asked for a scant page or two of paperwork that would have made the single biggest scandal of his tenure disappear in an afternoon? And that his staff was apparently unable to locate such paperwork on their own was unconcerning to him—his claim to the reporter asking the question was that if he produced such documents his opponents would just "find something else?"
On a more petty point: how did Christie "not get a lot of sleep" for the past two nights when he claims he only found out about the connection to his office yesterday? That's one night, Mr. Ex-Prosecutor.
That's not even getting into the premise of Christie "investigating" how this happened while simultaneously expressing no interest in talking to the primary, now-fired witness, but we'll chalk that up to Christie's normal predisposition to vengeance over logic, or his new claims that the fellow who had previously been described as one of Christie's school chums is in fact someone Christie barely knows (convenient, given that the non-friend has spent the morning pleading the 5th.)
So far Christie is pleading total managerial incompetence, up to and possibly including sudden onset amnesia. We'll see how that works out for him.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/09/1268412/-Chris-Christie-s-press-conference-claims-don-t-add-up
Fox News provides a valuable service for me, I'm certain for others as well as it is a wonderful "tell" concerning who is worth having a conversation with and who is not. I've gotten to the age and point in my life where I care not a fig for arguing or really having any kind of discourse with any individual who watches these characters on this outlet. Life is simply too short to dwell on the feeble.
ReplyDeleteBetter place Krystie Kreme on a doughnu watch.
ReplyDeleteMarypat has them on speedial. He's what they call in "weight watchers" and "emotional eater". I haven't seen him this emotional since the speech at the DNC where he mentioned himself several times and Mitt Romney exactly not once.
Delete"Hurry up, MaryPat, stay off Rte 80, they're doing roadwork and I like my glazed donuts HAWT!"
NJ Senate President Rejects Maddow's Alternate Bridge Scandal Theory
ReplyDelete...On her Thursday night program, Maddow suggested that the target of the lane closures, which led to a massive, multi-day traffic jam in the town of Fort Lee, N.J., was not the town's Democratic mayor, Mark Sokolich. In recent months, many Democrats have speculated that Sokolich was retaliated against because he did not endorse Gov. Chris Christie's (R) re-election bid last year.
Instead, Maddow suggested, the lane closures were prompted by Christie's bitter fight with Senate Democrats over re-appointments and nominees to the state Supreme Court. The cable news host pointed out that Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg's (D) district includes Fort Lee. She also noted that a key moment in the Supreme Court fight happened the day before one of Christie's aides sent a now-infamous email that read: "Time for traffic problems in Fort Lee."
But Sweeney, who said he did not see Maddow's program, rejected the theory.
"That can't be part of that, that can't be," he told TPM, referring to the Supreme Court fight, later adding: "Whoever said that has a very creative imagination."
Sweeney suggested that now that federal prosecutors are looking into the bridge incident, the truth about the lane closures will eventually come out.
"They're going to get to the bottom of it," he said.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/sweeney-rejects-maddow-theory
Put your money where your mouth is, Sweeny!
DeleteHelp TPM Dig Through The Chris Christie Bridge Scandal Documents
ReplyDeleteA New Jersey legislative committee on Friday released thousands of pages of documents related to the George Washington Bridge scandal that has ensnared Gov. Chris Christie's (R) administration.
The Assembly Transportation, Public Works and Independent Authorities Committee put the documents online after introducing some of them into the record at a hearing on Thursday, where a former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive refused to answer questions about the lane closures.
Contributions from readers have been a key part of TPM's reporting in the past. And we welcome your help with these documents. You can read the documents for yourself below. Some of the documents are taking a long time to download with the Assembly website presumably overwhelmed with traffic. We are uploading them as we get them. Please send tips and thoughts to talk@talkingpointsmemo.com, with "Christie Docs" in the subject line. Don't forget to include the exhibit name and page number.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/christie-documents-raw
Chris Christie Is the True Face of the Republican Party
ReplyDelete...Some Republicans are claiming Chris Christie isn't really one of them. Some pundits are claiming, even as scandal erupts around him, that he's a "different kind of Republican." He's more than that: He is the archetypal Republican, the incarnation of its arrogant, corporatist soul.
It's like we said a while back: Christie is "the heartless, smug, bullying embodiment" of his party. He and his staff reflect a world in which other people are nothing more than rubes to be manipulated and exploited, whether they're trying to escape the trap of long-term unemployment or Fort Lee during the morning rush hour.
The conventional wisdom says that Christie's not like other Republicans. Pundits say he's a "moderate," a "pragmatist," a counterbalance to the far-right ideology of the Tea Party Republicans. But no leading Republican is really moderate, including Christie. And at the end of the day they're all pragmatists, ready to do whatever it takes to serve their paymasters' agenda.
Democrats and liberals routinely express frustration and bafflement at Republican hypocrisy. "They claim to hate big government," they'll say, "but they want to expand the Defense Department. They say they want government out of our lives, then vote to control women's sex lives or manage a brain-dead woman's care from the nation's capital."
Well, yeah.
It's true that Republicans are hypocritical in word and deed. But while they may be false to an ideology, they're always true to their mission: to promote and serve the interests of big corporations and ultra-wealthy individuals. And when it comes to that agenda, all of them -- the Chris Christies as well as the Paul Ryans -- are as extremist as the political climate will permit. Whether the subject is taxation, "corporate personhood," or the future of the planet, there's no room for either moderation or ideology in the service of corporate goals.
That's why the party's few real ideologues - the Ron Pauls and Rand Pauls - frustrate the leadership so much. Unfortunately, when Republicans aren't hirelings they're usually extremists. And when party leaders complain that other Republicans aren't "moderates" or "pragmatists," what they're really saying is that they won't behave like Rep. Spencer Bachus (who famously said that the institutions of government exist "to serve the banks"), or, like the ever-"pragmatic" Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, work with corporate-friendly Democrats to fund Defense Department boondoggles.
Why does Christie sound so much more moderate than Mitch McConnell? Because he holds his elective office in New Jersey, and McConnell holds his in Kentucky. You need the right salesman to make the sale. That's Job One. Once you've closed the deal, your objective is to shaft your customers as much as you can without losing the business altogether. That's the Republican Party's business model in a nutshell.
"Different"? Christie embodies his party perfectly. Arrogant? Check. Bullying? Check. Indifferent to the well-being of constituents? Check. He may sound like a different kind of Republican, but he governs the same way the others do....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/chris-christie-the-true-f_b_4571280.html
In the extremely unlikely event that Christie didn't order (or at least encourage) the closure himself, he certainly should have know about it after the first day.
ReplyDeleteAs governor of the state, his staff should have immediately alerted him to a massive traffic problem on the world's busiest bridge. According to the stories I've read, the mayor of Fort Lee wrote emails and made frantic telephone calls to Christie's office, begging for help. The calls and emails were ignored.
Having lived on Long Island the first 38 years of my life, I am well aware that massive traffic jams in the NY metro are big news, and there's simply no way Christie could not have known about it, from television if nowhere else. However, the closures continued for ANOTHER THREE DAYS after that, and Christie now claims ignorance of the mess his staff deliberately created, putting lives in danger and hurting businesses in two states.
Chris Christie is lying, and he's not telling lies that are remotely believable. David Wildstein's lawyer has already announced that his client is looking for immunity in exchange for his testimony. THAT does not bode well for Christie.
Makes sense. All sitting Governors (except for Sarah) read papers, watch and listen to the news. Sarah thumbs through fashion catalogs, spits on the perfume sample folds and rubs them under her armpits.
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