Christie Crime Digest-Volume IV

[Laxman]

104. A Fateful Meeting In A NJ Diner....

if only Mr. Doblin knew then what he knows now he might have gotten some real answers at that breakfast. As it is, a very interesting anecdote and quite compelling :

Doblin: DuHaime, Kelly dispel any doubts about Christie and the GWB

N JAN. 8, 2014, I had breakfast at the Tick Tock Diner in Clifton. I remember the date because it was the same morning my colleague Shawn Boburg broke wide the scandal that is known as Bridgegate. Boburg was first to report that Governor Christie's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, had sent David Wildstein an email with the words, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee." As fate would have it, I was having breakfast with Mike DuHaime.

DuHaime was part of Christie's inner circle; I'm not sure if he still is, given his testimony Friday at the trial of Kelly and former Port Authority Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni. DuHaime testified he told Christie prior to a December press -conference that both Kelly and Bill Stepien — Kelly's former boss and Christie's former campaign manager — knew about the GWB lane closures. Christie went on to his press conference and denied that was true.

But back to the Tick Tock. The Record's GWB story broke shortly before I got to the diner. I was reading furiously, and when DuHaime arrived, I immediately asked for comment. He didn't know what I was referring to, so I showed him the story on my phone. He started reading, and when he saw Stepien's name, he was visibly upset, making a comment that this could involve the campaign, referring to Christie's successful reelection campaign.

I asked DuHaime if he knew anything about the GWB lane closures in advance. He said no. It didn't occur to me to ask whether he knew about the lane closures after the fact and spoke with the governor about it or whether his shock about Stepien was because Stepien was now linked to the scandal or rather that he did not know Stepien could be linked to the scandal.

In any case, almost immediately DuHaime's phone lit up. "Call Blocked" — I could read it from my side of the booth. DuHaime signaled that it was the governor. He got up without his suit jacket or coat and went outside to talk. He was gone for a long time.

Whatever illusions anyone may still have had that anyone close to Christie was out of the Bridgegate loop are now shattered like so many pieces of glass. Those illusions lie on the floor catching the light, the glass shards sending out small distorted rainbows that will never end in a pot of gold.

Kelly took the stand on Friday as well. And she began telling her story. She didn't try to paint herself as a dupe, as did Baroni earlier last week. Kelly said she was trying to please Christie, and by her testimony, Christie was a hard boss to please, foul-mouthed and foul-tempered. Every stereotype of Christie is being proved as either true or understatement.

Kelly testified that she told the governor of the lane closure plan the day before she sent the infamous email. So on Aug. 12, 2013, Christie knew of the traffic jam to come in Fort Lee. At least from Friday's testimony, there still is no definitive proof Christie understood it was political retribution. Some blanks we are left to fill in, like a "Wheel of Fortune" saying that is missing one or two letters. We do not have to ask Vanna to complete it. We can figure it out.

The Bridgegate trial is not over and Kelly is not finished on the stand, but I have heard more than enough. Many of the people going in and out of a federal courthouse in Newark are people I spoke with regularly. Some of them I liked. It is hard to wrap my head around how some of these folks chose to continue down such a dark path to the very end — all for Christie.

Back in December of 2013, I could not accept that anyone would gridlock Fort Lee because its mayor, a Democrat of no particular star constellation, refused to endorse Republican Christie. I didn't get it. I didn't understand how so many people could be bamboozled by Christie. They believed they were helping the next president of the United States, and the 36,000 people of Fort Lee were just collateral damage on the road to the White House.

How pathetic that was. That is.

Because as I read parts of the trial transcripts, Christie comes across as the least presidential person I can imagine short of the current Republican presidential nominee. I joked with a colleague last week that Christie was Willie Stark, the Huey Long-like fictional creation in "All the King's Men." But Willie Stark built big things, besides a political machine. He was loud and without character, but there was a legacy of accomplishments.

So Christie isn't even Willie Stark. He has not built anything. Neither have his followers. Some have lost their integrity completely. Some are tarnished. Maybe the tarnished will redeem themselves over time. I don't know.

I sat in the Tick Tock for more than 30 minutes before DuHaime returned. During that time, I ordered my breakfast. At one point, the waitress came by to top off my coffee cup. She saw that I had been sitting there alone for a while and said with a laugh, "If you were on a date, I would leave him."

Great advice. I expect many people who followed Christie and now are paying a heavy price for it wish someone had told them just that before orange traffic cones were placed near the GWB.

Read it here: http://www.northjersey.com/opinion/duhaime-kelly-dispel-doubts-about-christie-and-gwb-1.1681942