Gov. Chris Christie in hot water over Bridge Scandal

[waggy]

You know what? thanks to this article I may just well vote for him.

"I'm responsible for everything that happens in this government. ... I didn't know anything about it, but I'm responsible," said Christie. "For every person who acts in this government, I am ultimately responsible. So if you want to hear that, I'm happy to say that, because it's true. ... That's different obviously than direct responsibility, but ultimate responsibility, sure.

a TOTAL 180 from the President.

fuck yeah someone taking responsibility even when they weren't told!

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

Here's an entertaining thread from last year regarding Christie (aka "The Evil One")...enjoy.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2267170

 

[K1052]

You know what? thanks to this article I may just well vote for him.

"I'm responsible for everything that happens in this government. ... I didn't know anything about it, but I'm responsible," said Christie. "For every person who acts in this government, I am ultimately responsible. So if you want to hear that, I'm happy to say that, because it's true. ... That's different obviously than direct responsibility, but ultimate responsibility, sure.

a TOTAL 180 from the President.

fuck yeah someone taking responsibility even when they weren't told!

I don't think Christie knew about this, however it is entirely within the realm of possibility that these people acted on his behalf independently. Since he appointed them to the PA the responsibility is a little closer to direct than the more general sense that he's invoking.

I highly doubt he would have approved of such action knowing the fight he has coming.

 

[Moonbeam]

I don't think Christie knew about this, however it is entirely within the realm of possibility that these people acted on his behalf independently. Since he appointed them to the PA the responsibility is a little closer to direct than the more general sense that he's invoking.

I highly doubt he would have approved of such action knowing the fight he has coming.

What if he did know about it but has plausible deniability? Should an investigation which would look political take place anyway to try to be sure? Would you want a person so petty to be your president?

 

[Matt1970]

The only way you can lose insurance is if you willfully opt out and volunteer to pay a fine.

And you say Conservatives are in denial.

Mine went up as it does every year with no change but the one I paid 425 dollars a month for a family member is now going to be paid for out of our taxes. And folk who don't have family that can support them will be able to avail themselves of care too. I gots 425 dollars a month for my taxes to go up before I start to suffer the slings and arrows of government caring for people. A conservative might just say, I got mine, fuck you.

I can see why you love Obamacare. Government subsidies are now paying for your insurance. So basically "WE" are paying your insurance premiums.

 

[Thump553]

It'a amazingly venal and petty, and the sort of thug politics that we all thought passed with Richard Dailey (Sr) of Chicago forty years ago. If Chrsitie was involved in this, would anyone really trust him with the vastly wider powers of the Presidency?

Too bad as he seems to be the only national GOP that is not either batshit crazy, pandering or both.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Chris Christie is a fat fuck doughboy that is all about porking bills to further suck government teet - just like any other liberal. He is sitting right next Paul Ryan.

He never was. Never is. Never will be considered conservative. Having an R next to your name means nothing.

 

[kage69]

Too bad as he seems to be the only national GOP that is not either batshit crazy, pandering or both.

Exactly, and it's pretty much why the Dems are scarred of him. I don't think Christie directed that "study," but it does sound like his people were getting sleazy there. Dems smelled blood in the water, but have backed off because the trail doesn't lead to Christie himself.

Studies like that, particularly on the busiest freaking bridge in the country, aren't just thrown together without everyone being on the same page and aware of what's coming. There is simply too much business that can be hurt by it.

I'm not sure Foye being unaware of the closures, or knowing why they were ordered, doesn't really sound as damning as some republicans would prefer. "Being out of the loop" is something they already have experience with wrt Colin Powell, a la the United Nations IIRC. Seems... odd that there would be acceptance and/or understanding of that, but for a couple of traffic lanes leading to NJ?

Holy shit! Fools! What kind of show are they running over there? lol Dems!

I actually don't blame the Dems at all for the suspicion. Politics are dirty, and one party in particular has shown repeatedly that it is perfectly fine inflicting financial hardship and overall miserly on the American people if it means making some, any, political hay. Sorry GOP, you gleefully smeared yourself with shit the last couple of years. It's a little stupid to complain about people wrinkling their noses when they see you coming now.

 

[kage69]

Chris Christie is a fat fuck doughboy that is all about porking bills to further suck government teet - just like any other liberal. He is sitting right next Paul Ryan.

He never was. Never is. Never will be considered conservative. Having an R next to your name means nothing.

Plus, he shook Obama's hand! Egads man!

 

[nageov3t]

It'a amazingly venal and petty, and the sort of thug politics that we all thought passed with Richard Dailey (Sr) of Chicago forty years ago. If Chrsitie was involved in this, would anyone really trust him with the vastly wider powers of the Presidency?

Too bad as he seems to be the only national GOP that is not either batshit crazy, pandering or both.

we've had pretty great presidents who played their ball a lot harder than this.

insofar as New Jersey political scandals go, causing a traffic jam hardly rates. there's not even a hint of a dead body.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

we've had pretty great presidents who played their ball a lot harder than this.

insofar as New Jersey political scandals go, causing a traffic jam hardly rates. there's not even a hint of a dead body.

Liberals have to prepare their drama overrated scrutiny on the potential target candidate EXTRA early. Don't you know??

 

[Moonbeam]

We need Ken Starr to investigate him for years and years.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

We need Ken Starr to investigate him for years and years.

Looks like more than a few liberals here would approve of this approach. How about you Moonie?

 

[Moonbeam]

Looks like more than a few liberals here would approve of this approach. How about you Moonie?

I don't know. As usual, I'm mired in the complexity of multiple possibilities and their implications. I wouldn't want a person guilty of such petty behavior to be President, nor would I want to fall victim to wishful thinking just because for other reasons I don't think he would be very suited for the job. I wish I could know the truth of the issue but I see no way to do so. I am conservative enough to think that smoke often indicates fire, and liberal enough to know that wishful thinking generates the illusion of smoke, and modest enough not to have crystallized any opinion whatsoever.

And sense I see the crystallization of hysterical opinion as a conservative symptom in the majority of cases, I focus my attention there. It's the most delusional among us who need the most help, I think. An additional winkle, of course, is that they need the most help because nobody knows how to help them. The scientists and researchers don't at least.

 

[werepossum]

Obamacare? Surely you don't mean that? It has a mandate that folk have to have insurance. The only way you can lose insurance is if you willfully opt out and volunteer to pay a fine. Mine went up as it does every year with no change but the one I paid 425 dollars a month for a family member is now going to be paid for out of our taxes. And folk who don't have family that can support them will be able to avail themselves of care too. I gots 425 dollars a month for my taxes to go up before I start to suffer the slings and arrows of government caring for people. A conservative might just say, I got mine, fuck you.

Gee, you mean if slavery had come with a mandate that folks have insurance we could have avoided the Unpleasantries Between the States?

And I can't say that now that Obama has mine. But hey, government only has to care for the Right people, eh?

 

[HTFOff]

A+ thread. Will read again when I need a good pick-me-up.

Again, thanks for the laughs guys.

 

[Moonbeam]

Gee, you mean if slavery had come with a mandate that folks have insurance we could have avoided the Unpleasantries Between the States?

And I can't say that now that Obama has mine. But hey, government only has to care for the Right people, eh?

What? Conservative isn't my native language. I learned my English out side the bubble in the real world. I have no idea what any of this is supposed to mean. I have no idea how slavery could have come with insurance or how that relates to the war between the states. I also do not know what Obama has that's yours or why you suggest that government has to care about the Right people. Who the fuck are they. I got mine and fuck everybody else so remember, I'm only trying to figure out what you mean as a courtesy. Obamacare has been great for me.

 

[fskimospy]

Interesting, looks like Christie was behind it after all:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/nyregion/christie-aide-tied-to-bridge-lane-closings.html?hp&_r=0

 

[K1052]

Interesting, looks like Christie was behind it after all:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/nyregion/christie-aide-tied-to-bridge-lane-closings.html?hp&_r=0

There is more detailed info here:

http://www.northjersey.com/news/christie_kelly_bridge_lane_closures_emails.html

Epically stupid way to retaliate and also manage to document the sordid thing on email.

 

[Phokus]

There is more detailed info here:

http://www.northjersey.com/news/christie_kelly_bridge_lane_closures_emails.html

Epically stupid way to retaliate and also manage to document the sordid thing on email.

Whelp, looks like the ATPN conservatives look like fucking retards yet again, shocking i know.

How are closing lanes on a bridge going to "punish" a mayor? That doesn't make any sense, and connecting it to a governor is ridiculous. What next, the potholes in Texas highways are Obama's way of "getting even" with them for voting Romney in 2012? After all, interstate highways ultimately are his adinistration's responsibility.

seems to be a reach to nail this to christie.

Manufactured scandal, ho-hum.

So, just to make sure I understand, a couple of lanes are closed for a study that may or may not have actually happened or even existed. We don't know anything about the motivation for the lane closures, and there is absolutely nothing linking Christie to any of it. That's the big 'smoking gun' against Christie? LOL Idiots.

This kind of speculative bullshit is only the beginning. More smear campaigns to come. Stay tuned.

Oh, no doubt you're right, the smear campaigns will be in full swing before too long, this is just the early on smearing to see try to find something that can stick.

From the article, talk about petty, i can't believe they gloat over school children suffering. I guess you can't say the Christie administration is full of Rhino's, these are definitely republicans running the show:

“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Bridget Anne Kelly, one of three deputies on Christie’s senior staff, wrote to David Wildstein, a top Christie executive at the Port Authority, on Aug. 13, about three weeks before the closures. Wildstein, the official who ordered the closures and who resigned last month amid the escalating scandal, wrote back: “Got it.”

Christie has previously said that no one in his staff or campaign was involved in the lane closings, and he has dismissed questions about political retribution by joking that he moved the traffic cones himself.

But the private messages, mostly sent through personal e-mails accounts, indicate that Kelly, a senior staff member in the governor’s office, was involved in the planning and received updates during the week of the traffic jams. She was also informed that week that Christie’s executives at the Port Authority were ignoring the Fort Lee mayor’s desperate attempts to get a reason for the sudden unannounced closures, as the borough’s first responders struggled to respond to emergencies and buses arrived late on the first day of school.

The explosive documents, supplied by Wildstein in response to a subpoena issued by a panel of state lawmakers, don’t spell out the precise reason for the apparent retribution. But they lay bare a disdain for the mayor and an apparent indifference to the hardships suffered by North Jersey residents who sat in four-hour backups. Wildstein has been called to testify about the documents under oath before the panel tomorrow.

In one exchange of text messages on the second day of the lane closures, Wildstein alludes to messages the Fort Lee mayor had left complaining that school buses were having trouble getting through the traffic.

“Is it wrong that I’m smiling,” the recipient of the text message responded to Wildstein. The person’s identity is not clear because the documents are partially redacted for unknown reasons.

“No,” Wildstein wrote in response.

“I feel badly about the kids,” the person replied to Wildstein. “I guess.”

“They are the children of Buono voters,” Wildstein wrote, making a reference to Barbara Buono, the Democratic candidate for governor, who lost to Christie in a landslide in November.

On Sept. 13, the day of Foye’s reversal, Wildstein wrote to Kelly: “The New York side gave back Fort Lee all three lanes this morning. We are appropriately going nuts. Samson helping us to retaliate.”

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

This thing had sounded like some unbelievable BS driven by paranoia and politics but there it is. Wow.

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly wrote in an email on Aug. 13.

"Got it," replied David Wildstein, who was then one of Christie's top aides at the Port Authority, which is run jointly by New York and New Jersey.
...

The emails point to clear political motives for the closures, and the officials seem almost giddy at the problems they create.

At one point, Wildstein received a text message from an unknown sender -- the emails are partially redacted -- saying, "Is it wrong that I'm smiling."

"No," replied Wildstein. When the other person added, "I feel badly about the kids. I guess," Wildstein reminded them that their parents are probably Democrats anyway.

"They are the children of Buono voters," said Wildstein, referring to Democrat Barbara Buono, who unsuccessfully challenged Christie in the Nov. 5 gubernatorial election.

Wildstein also predicted political problems for Sokolich over the issue, writing in a Sept. 18 email, "It will be a tough November for this little Serbian."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/08/chris-christie-traffic_n_4561448.html

 

[Theb]

That's amazingly vindictive.

 

[Phokus]

That's amazingly vindictive.

Yeah, i mean, a mayor from the other party doesn't endorse you and you gloat at punishing the voter's children, that's psychotic. Why the hell would anyone feel entitled to an endorsement from someone on the other side of the aisle anyway?

Christie should be a shoe-in for the RNC nomination for president, based on this though.

 

[Matt1970]

Lane Closure Gate.

 

[Phokus]

You know what? thanks to this article I may just well vote for him.

a TOTAL 180 from the President.

fuck yeah someone taking responsibility even when they weren't told!

This comment is even funnier now based on the released emails.