Chris Christie's officials lied about GWB scandal. Did the governor?: NJ Star-Ledger Editorial Board

[Fred Sanders]

http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2014/01/gov_chris_christies_officials.html

"These emails show beyond a doubt that Christie's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, was directly involved in the planning of this massive gridlock and got periodic updates. And she knew his executives at the Port Authority were ignoring the mayor's frantic efforts to get a reason behind the lane closures, as emergency responders and school buses full of children got ensnared in the mess.

Wildstein has been called to testify about these emails, supplied in response to a subpoena, before a panel of state lawmakers tomorrow. And given their explosive content, we'll need subpoenas to hear Kelly's testimony, as well as that of Christie's chief of staff at the time, Kevin O'Dowd.

The most damning evidence against Christie's officials is their utter indifference to the consequences of this prank."

Meanwhile Christie has gone all turtle mode and is reviewing his series of lies in order to come out with his usual bluster or pretend to be all concerned and start firing the underlings in order to feed the media fires just now raging.

_______________________

Politicians, Leaders React: explosive emails linking top Christie aide to GWB closure scandal

• U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez issued the following statement:

“The reports about the released Port Authority emails regarding the ongoing investigation into last fall’s traffic jams at the George Washington Bridge are troubling and disturbing.

“The closing of local lanes to the bridge during the height of the morning rush hour made school children late for classes and interfered with first responders making their way to emergencies. We are very fortunate that no one was seriously injured.

“I will be reviewing testimony from the N.J. State Assembly Transportation Committee’s investigation and monitoring the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee’s inquiry into these matters so that it can be ultimately determined whether people were unnecessarily inconvenienced or put in harm’s way.”

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• John Currie, chairman of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, said:

“These emails demonstrate that under Governor Christie, vindictive political motivations were allowed to trump any regard for public safety.

“As hearings into this matter continue, Governor Christie owes us an explanation for why his core team appears to have such disdain for the public trust and how they could seriously abuse the power of the governor's office right under his nose.

"This time, I suggest that the governor try a new approach when answering questions: honesty."

• Matthew Hale, an associate professor at Seton Hall University, said:

“The smoking gun is not quite in the Governor’s hand, but these e-mails show that it is awfully close to it. These e-mails show an unbelievable level of arrogance, not to mention stupidity, among top-level Christie loyalists. They must not know or maybe just didn’t care that the ‘e’ in e-mail can stand for ‘evidence.’”

“I expect that additional resignations are going to come soon. This is not going away, in part because the e-mail documents reported on by the media contained redacted sections. The obvious next question is what or who needs to be redacted? Governor Christie has spent an enormous amount of effort trying to get away from the narrative that he is a bully. These e-mail destroy all of that effort in a single day.”

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And this, among much for the mass media to feed on:

"In 2011, Mr. Christie held a news conference where he accused State Senator Richard J. Codey of being “combative and difficult” in blocking two nominees. Mr. Codey, a Democrat who had served as governor following the resignation of James E. McGreevey, responded that he had not only signed off on the nominations, but had held a meeting to try to hurry them along.

Three days later, Mr. Codey was walking out of an event in Newark when he got a call from the state police superintendent informing him that he would no longer be afforded the trooper who accompanied him to occasional public events — a courtesy granted all former governors. That same day, his cousin, who had been appointed by Mr. McGreevey to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was fired, as was a close friend and former deputy chief of staff who was then working in the state Office of Consumer Affairs."

[PearliePoo2]

1. This!!

"Christie has gone all turtle mode and is reviewing his series of lies"

I hope he's sweating like a pig and messing his knickers just like the thousands of people who were caught in gridlock were doing.


Gotta love that the BIG MOUTH BASTARD is in "turtle mode" and hiding though!!

[oldandhappy]

2. This is his M.O.

This is the way he will be president or ceo or any other job. This is him.

[jsr]

3. Wait, there is more:

http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/This-One-Paragraph-Shows-How-This-Could-Just-Be-5124417.php

This One Paragraph Shows How This Could Just Be The Start Of Chris Christie's Problems
Brett LoGiurat

The recent Mark Halperin and John Heilemann book, "Double Down: Game Change 2012," suggests that there could be plenty of dirt on Christie to uncover. One of the things that most concerned Mitt Romney's staff about the nomination of Christie as vice president in 2012 was that they were "stunned by the garish controversies lurking in the shadows of his record."

Here's the key paragraph:

The vetters were stunned by the garish controversies lurking in the shadows of his record. There was a 2010 Department of Justice inspector general’s investigation of Christie’s spending patterns in his job prior to the governorship, which criticized him for being “the U.S. attorney who most often exceeded the government [travel expense] rate without adequate justification” and for offering “insufficient, inaccurate, or no justification” for stays at swank hotels like the Four Seasons. There was the fact that Christie worked as a lobbyist on behalf of the Securities Industry Association at a time when Bernie Madoff was a senior SIA official—and sought an exemption from New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act. There was Christie’s decision to steer hefty government contracts to donors and political allies like former Attorney General John Ashcroft, which sparked a congressional hearing. There was a defamation lawsuit brought against Christie arising out of his successful 1994 run to oust an incumbent in a local Garden State race. Then there was Todd Christie, the Governor’s brother, who in 2008 agreed to a settlement of civil charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission in which he acknowledged making “hundreds of trades in which customers had been systematically overcharged.” (Todd also oversaw a family foundation whose activities and purpose raised eyebrows among the vetters.) And all that was on top of a litany of glaring matters that sparked concern on Myers’ team: Christie’s other lobbying clients, his investments overseas, the YouTube clips that helped make him a star but might call into doubt his presidential temperament, and the status of his health.

[Fred Sanders]

4. Remember Christie took a helicopter and a limo to watch his son's baseball game?

Corruption has many faces, too many to hide.