Bridgegate report: New crisis, different woman, same Old Boys [View all]

[Beach Rat]

Wow, here's a pretty good summation of the tactic of portraying Bridget Kelly as an unstable woman scorned. Kapow Mr. Mastro, take that! Here's an excerpt. You need to read the whole thing. It isn't that long.

In a report designed to clear Gov. Chris Christie of any wrongdoing in the George Washington Bridge controversy, the characterization of Bridget Anne Kelly by Christie’s attorney, Randy Mastro, was a direct lift from “The Old Boys Club Handbook.”

As read by Mastro before a bank of television cameras, the report portrayed Kelly essentially as a woman scorned, saying Christie’s former deputy chief of state and his former campaign manager, Bill Stepien, had been “personally involved,” that she had “seemed emotional,” and that Stepien had ended the relationship.

Despite the fact the investigating attorneys had interviewed neither Kelly nor Stepien, their report implied the two were not speaking at the time the access-lane closures had been ordered, and that Kelly’s jilted-woman status may have been at the root of the order.

It’s the classic psychological profile of a woman — if you’re from the 14th century. It holds that, at times of crisis, women become emotional, irrational, unstable and unreliable.

Mastro told American Lawyer that his report had no sexist undertones. Kelly’s irate attorney, Michael Critchley, begged to differ.

“(T)he report’s venomous, gratuitous and inappropriate sexist remarks concerning Ms. Kelly,” he said, “have no place in what is alleged to be a professional and independent report.”

Venomous, gratuitous, inappropriate. Got that right.

http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/03/bridgegate_report_new_crisis_different_woman_same_old_boys_opinion.html#incart_river_default