Yep, Chris Christie Really Jammed Jersey Traffic For Political Revenge

[warrior1]

http://gawker.com/yep-chris-christie-really-jammed-jersey-traffic-for-po-1497032624


For months, it had been rumored: Gov. Chris Christie's office ordered a traffic jam on the Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge to screw a mayor who had reneged on endorsing the governor. Today, a smoking gun emerged in the form of a Christie deputy's one-line email:



Bridget Anne Kelly, a deputy chief of staff for Christie, had emailed transportation appointee and Christie high-school classmate David Wildstein to cause "traffic problems in Fort Lee," home to Democratic Mayor Mark Sokolich, who had endorsed Christie's Democratic opponent in the 2013 gubernatorial election. Wildstein's response: "Got it."

Both parties used personal emails, apparently hoping to avoid releases of their communications to the public. But the New York Times obtained the emails and reported on them this morning, appearing to substantiate the rumors that September's traffic problems on the Bridge were caused by political pettiness, not logistical need.

What effect will this have on Christie's presidential aspirations? It's hard to say; his trademark snippiness has rarely been a liability with voters before.

[JustAnotherGen]

1. He will dodge that bullet

And Republicans in 'Red States' will totally get their rocks off on that. We could have stopped him here - we just needed a little help. But he was a 'Star', Buono did not have the backing of the State bosses or National Leadership and alas . . .


Onward to the Republican Primaries for you Christie.


Sad but true - this I *believe* is an appealing thing to the average spiteful, vicious, selfish little Republican out there.

[geek tragedy]

7. I disagree. The paranoids in the Republican primary (Rand Paul crowd)

will go apeshit over this.

[JustAnotherGen]

9. I hope you are right GT

But remember - how the New Jersey DUers were told he's unbeatable?
How we should 'forgive' the 60 DINOs that endorsed him because he was too big, bad, strong, and they had to look out for their own people?

We 'knew' - we knew it before the election - and we did the best we could for Barbara. But no one in the left other than staunch progressives IN New Jersey gave a damn and believed in her . . . because he was so 'wonderful and strong'.

But we knew.

We knew he was dirty.


This guy is made of teflon and I think he can shout down and humiliate Rand Paul. He can. And he'll get away with it.

I just can't be positive on this geek - and you are a person I rely on to keep us level headed and positive about being Democratics . . . but I just can't on this. Not when I'm paying close to 8K in property taxes because of this dick.

[geek tragedy]

13. Had this come out before the NJ election, he may have lost.

They'll compare Christie to Obama on this. Which is ridiculous considering Obama hasn't abused his authority, but to the fever swamp crazies he sure has.

[JustAnotherGen]

18. You betcha

Was just speaking about this in the ladies room with a far left colleague who said, "Kelly has to go! If Obama had to get rid of Jones (Van) for nothing then she has to go for doing something very very bad."

He would have lost if this had gained traction and the media had not dismissed Mr. Sokolich or as Kelly and Co. refer to him . . . the Serbian. Assholes.

[heaven05]

14. It's the type of democrat that 60 "DINOS"

represent in our party that worries me, especially since we have them at the national level. Sellouts. Easily bought.

[Laxman]

21. There Was A Portion Of The NJ Legislature....

that was already bought and paid for by the big business/development community in the state before Christie was created by those same interests. Christie has then used threats, intimidation, retaliation and other strong-arm tactics to reign in enough opposition to give him clear sailing. The GWB scandal, while a relatively minor transgression in relation to his other actions, had the right ingredients to embolden the non-developer owned democrats to take him on.

[Ikonoklast]

25. Christie deliberately interefered with interstate commerce.

He caused huge delays to interstate commercial traffic at a state border crossing for no valid reason.

Huge no-no, the USDOT takes a very dim view of people that do such a thing.

[calimary]

10. Not if we keep it hanging in front of his nose.

We have something very meaty to use against him now. And we need to! First priority - making sure others don't forget. And if he keeps denying it? DELICIOUS!!! It just reinforces all the less-than-desirable things about him.

AND we need to connect the dots about: ANYBODY who wins the presidency brings his pals and cohorts in with him. It's not ONLY the candidate as some isolated island complete and unto himself. It's the candidate and everybody he brings in with him. People need to remember that. And parallels need to be drawn to connect this with all the other shit people don't like about others like him. The bush/cheney partnership brought the PNAC in with them - the liars and schemers and oil barons who lusted after war with Iraq mainly to line their own pockets. To hell with protecting the American people and keeping them safe from some vague and illusory bad guys, it was to protect their own bottom lines. For the older folks, it might help to remind people of what THEY experienced, watching felon after felon after felon from the nixon administration be indicted, convicted, and sent to prison. All THOSE weasels and bastards came in with nixon. And reagan. Remember him with ed meece, john negroponte, oliver north, the whole Iran/contra scheme that almost got him impeached? And the guy pulling the strings, lee atwater, starting to gain ground (before he himself rose to full flower during bush1). Let's be shrewd about this.

Now, granted: there are people on the other side of the aisle who are still so intoxicated by the whole reagan thing that they see nothing wrong with much if any of this. BUT THEY'RE NOT THE ONES TO REACH!!!!!! What we need to do is secure the independents and the idiot Dems like those in New Jersey who've been lobotomized and ideologically drugged by the chris christie schtick and somehow think he's just freakin' adorable. The "I dunno - I just LIKE him" types. It's as though christie has slipped them a date rape drug and they're just fine with whatever he does that winds up screwing them in some way. THOSE are the ones we have to reach and rehabilitate. THOSE are the souls we have to rescue. Consider this like one big political intervention.

[JustAnotherGen]

26. I believed it

In October. Lots of Democrats here did. I did.

Now is the time to dirty his admin and demand Kelly goes. She's got to go. It's time for her to go home now.

[lark]

33. I think this has legs.

People get very pissed off when their commute to work is impacted and when they realize they were written-up for being late, or had to get up at the crack of dawn to get to work on time due to Christie being pissy, oh, they will have their revenge!

[JustAnotherGen]

36. This was the first day of school

My co-workers are remembering this. . .

[riversedge]

2. I know nofin!!

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Ohh boy do I have questions...

Isn't there some law against using private means to do official work?
I rememeber back in the Bush days, there was a kerfuffle because all communications was to be done
officially.

and how does the media get copies of personal email?
While in cases like this I consider they are doing a public service,
wasn't the Murdock thing about a newspaper spying on the Gov?

From everything I have read, the Port Authority has always been a prize plum for political partisans.

[JustAnotherGen]

6. no subject

and how does the media get copies of personal email?
Who knows? I'm assuming they used above board means UNTIL some 'con' proves me wrong.

While in cases like this I consider they are doing a public service,
wasn't the Murdock thing about a newspaper spying on the Gov?
Let the right wing Media and Good Guv'nah doughboy prove it!

From everything I have read, the Port Authority has always been a prize plum for political partisans.
Less about the Port Authority - and more about a Democratic Mayor endorsing a PERFECT Democratic Progressive Candidate - Buono.


I'm assuming the media was honest and above board and Christie is the dirtbag that he's got a bunch of people - both Democratics and RepubliCONs outside of NJ convinced he's a winner! He's a good guy! It's a set up! He's innocent.

He's not - he's an asshole of the highest order that tax paying citizens of NJ (My property taxes ALONE are almost 8K a year annually) have a right to know this information and access to those emails.

We have a right to know. We are his boss and he owes us an answer.

[Laxman]

8. Evil Doesn't Begin to Describe Him

He will hurt innocent people to get political payback against one person. Hence the "they are the children of Buono voters" e-mail in the chain. (How messed up is that?)

He held Sandy aid hostage until democratic mayors of shore communities endorsed him.

He has held back road repair funding from towns with mayors who didn't fall into line.

He has used the threat or promise of prosecution to sway votes from democratic legislators on some of his prize bills.

He will bully and go out of his way to try to embarrass anyone who publicly disagrees with him.

He has diverted dedicated funds for environmental and renewable energy projects to balance the budget.

I'm shocked that your property taxed didn't go down! Christie promised property tax relief. This might actually be his biggest lie because he has taken measures that are all but assured of causing the already highest property taxed in the nation to rise even further.

[JustAnotherGen]

20. We closed in mid October

And nope - they didn't go down. Another lie. Tax Histories are very easy to find online.

[Laxman]

27. Welcome to NJ!

I've been paying those property taxes for 27 years! It's really a great place to live. (our evil governor aside) Christie's strategy was to promise tax relief, cut state aid for programs and pass the costs along to the municipalities, then claim how fiscally responsible he was and its your local officials who can't control spending. Stupid stuff like that actually works on brain-dead people who don't know any better.

[JustAnotherGen]

29. I've lived here since

January 2006. I remember all of those 'promises'. And I'm just hoping we can get Lance (NJ7th) to come out and condemn Christie. He won't . . . but it might be a nice sticking point this November.

ETA - I wish people had just held their noses and voted for Corzine like I did.
And I wish he hadn't gotten his way with the special election - We'd be looking at Governor Buono right now.

[Princess Turandot]

43. According to the NYT...

NJ Democratic legislators subpoenaed Wildstein's communications regarding the closure. I'm assuming that extended to all emails, not just ones on the Port Authority servers. I don't know how the news outlets got them.

The other private email account addresses/comments all come from Wildstein's emails, because they were the ones with whom he was emailing back and forth.

I wonder how many emails Ms. Kelly has gotten since this broke...

[Ligyron]

4. Heck, this won't get much if any coverage in the msm, so ... eom

[Fred Sanders]

19. The MSM IS Republican owned, how else do you explain their lack of interest? No sex angle, I guess.

[warrior1]

5. I hope this ruins any chance his has

[calimary]

11. Again, not if we keep this hanging in front of his nose.

By thy friends art thou known.

See my post above - #10.

This is a very nice sharp tool we've been handed. On the proverbial silver platter. If we don't use it - and use it as effectively as we can - WE'RE the schmucks. He's ruthless? Let's show him some ruthless straight back in his face.

[JustAnotherGen]

22. The Media needs to do it

Go to nj.com and nj12 on FB - 'like' them.

The comments from my fellow New Jerseyans are 50/50. . . 50% actually believe this is a ginned up non-story and the rest are steaming mad.

[calimary]

39. Yes, they do. And they are 100% unreliable, especially since so many in the media

have fallen in love with chris christie and won't be inclined to pursue this. We've all seen that happen MANY times before. I wouldn't sit around waiting for the media to do their job. WE have to step up and drive it. Otherwise there will be no one - or no one we can trust - at the wheel.

[JustAnotherGen]

41. I think

The people of NJ? We are pretty pissed off. Seriously try and get to NJ 101.5 if you can and listen to that. It's who is calling in. And what they are saying.

[bigdarryl]

12. Sound like some shit Nixon used to do back in the day

I don't know if Christie is directly involved but if he is hes a pretty sick guy who blows off steam when he doesn't get his way.

[rgbecker]

15. Looks like the GOP has their 2016 candidate!

One thing the Republicans love more than a stalemated government is a politician that knows how to use his power to fuck everybody he doesn't like.

[Jerry442]

16. When Nixon died....

...I kept telling people I couldn't shake the feeling that that son of a bitch was still out there somewhere. This is so Nixonian. I'm not sure how it can be, but I know I was right.

[Fred Sanders]

17. Criminal Acts By Christie (R) and Radel (R), but the Mass Media buries its head in the corporate

sands of profiteering and kowtowing to the corporate Republican masters, what else could it be?

[calimary]

40. Welcome to DU, Fred Sanders!

I agree. We cannot afford to sit and wait and watch and hope that the media will step up and embrace this. The media falls in love too easily with the bad guys who have "cool" images in one way or other. The chris matthewses of the world will fall all over the macho "GUY"- type. Remember during the "Mission Accomplished" stuffed flight-suit strut when he openly slobbered - "we have a GUYYYY for president. Americans like a GUYYYYYYYY for president!" Nauseating!!! I could have vomited over that one, it made me so sick to my stomach. They fell for rick perry. They fell for ted cruz. They fell for rand paul. They eventually talked themselves into falling for romney and his little dog paul ryan. They fell all over themselves over dubya. They particularly like macho/gutsy/stupid. They love arrogant because it often reads like macho/gutsy even while stupid. They fell for reagan too, and he was a frickin' cardboard cutout reading from cue-cards or having lines slipped to him by the whispering wife at his elbow most of the time. Too many of them are in love with chris christie. And they can't be trusted to run with this.

WE have to do it. WE have to lead the charge. WE have to keep this story alive. WE have to drive this train. It's up to US. I wouldn't trust the media to carry the ball on this one until such time as everybody suddenly decides some critical mass has been reached on christie and it's time to start hating him and to start bringing him down. And we have no way of knowing when or even if that moment will come. If nothing else, WE have to be the ones who bring this to critical mass. So then, presumably, the media can run with it.

[warrior1]

23. blood is in the water

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/01/08/3134241/emails-tie-christie-aide-bridge-closing-scandal/

Here Are The 4 Most Incriminating Email Exchanges In The Chris Christie Bridge Scandal

[otohara]

24. Perfect Toon - Governor Soprano

[Dopers_Greed]

28. This will affect nothing

Though this may turn off a few of his Dem supporters...

RWers will see this as a "plus" for Christie.

Independents will forget about this in two days, or won't hear about it at all.

[Voice for Peace]

30. rw christians may vote for him because his name has christ in it.

[another_liberal]

31. Let the Republicans run that fat bastard for President.

He has more than enough bad baggage to make just getting the nomination a long shot, let alone winning the White House.

[W.J. McCabe]

32. Shocking

If the definition of shocking was the opposite of what it is.

[WillyT]

34. K & R !!!

[edhopper]

35. Will the Dems there have the cahonies to impeach him?

Because this is an impeachable offense. Both the original act and then lying about it.

[MadrasT]

37. Oh come on.

How do we know somebody didn't just create those email addresses using those names and manufacture the whole exchange?

For that matter... how do we know they are even real emails, and not just something somebody typed up in a word processor to mimic the format of emails?

Chris Christie is a bloviating asshole but this is not "evidence".

[Shankapotomus]

44. Because people have already resigned

If someone is creating damning communications that aren't really from you, you contest them, you don't resign.

Obviously.

[Blue Owl]

38. Fancies himself a real mobster

"It would be "unfortunate" if there were traffic problems in Fort Lee..."

[Ganja Ninja]

42. I think you can just sum up the entire GOP's mission statement like this.

Be a universal pain in the ass until we get our way.

[Laxman]

45. This is All Just A Part of A Pattern Where Christie...

doesn't feel the rules apply to him. Here is a story from yesterday buried under all the Bridgegate hub bub.

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/chris_christie_administration_broke_law_in_ignoring_greenhouse_gas_rules_lawyer_tells_judges_1.html

The GWB affair was just the latest in a long pattern of bullying and hubris.