Romney: "In some ways, we kind of had to steal the Republican nomination."

Given what has come before it in the film — Romney's defeatism in the debates — the scene leaves the impression that perhaps in his heart of hearts Romney never really believed he could win. That also seems the message of one of the last scenes of "Mitt," the day after the election, when Romney addressed staff at his Boston campaign headquarters. The old lack of confidence came out again as Romney suggested he never felt comfortable in the race. He passed on something someone at headquarters had told him: "In some ways, we kind of had to steal the Republican nomination. Our party is Southern, evangelical and populist. And you're Northern, and you're Mormon, and you're rich. And these do not match well with our party."


http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2542430#.Utu_dkFocfQ.twitter

How US Evangelicals Fueled the Rise of Russia’s ‘Pro-Family’ Right

The irony is that it is the new conservative vanguard—anti-gay, anti-abortion and pro–“traditional family”—that has most successfully cultivated the West’s financial and institutional support. Scott Lively, an extreme anti-gay campaigner, all but took credit for the new law, calling it “one of the proudest achievements of my career,” while Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, visited Moscow with much fanfare just before the new law was passed. But the language of Russia’s anti-gay and anti-abortion movement seems to borrow most heavily from mainstream evangelicals and conservative politicians in the United States and Europe. Referring to the anti-abortion bill passed in 2011, Lyubov Erofeeva, executive director of the Russian Association for Population and Development, a women’s advocacy group, said: “It was 100 percent clear that everything was copied from the experience of American fundamentalists and conservative circles of several European countries where abortion is forbidden or restricted severely.”

The church’s close ties with American evangelicals reflect a shift in policy. For much of the post-Soviet period, the Russian Orthodox Church held evangelical denominations at arm’s length, fearing that they would compete for influence within Russia. But as the church has consolidated its power, it has come to view the evangelical community as a partner. “The ROC realizes that the evangelical denominations are not their opponents but rather their allies in the relations between the church and the secular population,” says Olga Kazmina, a professor of ethnology at Moscow State University.

“It’s a re-envisioned paradigm,” says Father Leonid Kishkovsky, head of the Orthodox Church in America’s Department of External Affairs. In many ways, it makes sense, he adds: both religious groups share an ideological commitment and have grown disillusioned with the way mainline churches have dealt with issues like gay marriage and abortion. “But what I’m quite nervous about is the ideological core which actually motivates both sides,” Kishkovsky says. “Where is the motivating force? Is it in faith? Or is it in political ideology?”

The Russian Orthodox Church’s chief emissary to the US evangelical community is Hilarion Alfeyev, a high-ranking bishop and chairman of the powerful Department of External Church Relations (the position previously held by Patriarch Kirill). In February 2011, the 47-year-old Alfeyev traveled to Washington, where he met with prominent evangelical and “pro-family” leaders; and then to Dallas, where he addressed thousands of members of the Highland Park Presbyterian Church and emphasized the importance of “creat[ing] new alliances,” especially around issues of marriage, abortion and the family. Alfeyev also visited the Dallas Theological Seminary and had an hour-long meeting with George W. Bush.

http://www.thenation.com/article/177823/how-us-evangelicals-fueled-rise-russias-pro-family-right

Brace yourself: The polar vortex is coming back

The giant, wavy pattern of Arctic air that froze most of the U.S. and Canada last week, meterologists say, hasn’t disappeared. It’s currently hanging out over the Hudson Bay and north Quebec, biding its time … but not for long. AccuWeather reports:

…during the third and fourth weeks of January, some changes will take place. The high amplitude pattern is forecast to get more extreme. The polar vortex will move farther south and get stronger. The pattern will gradually change the current mixture of Pacific and Arctic air in the Canada Prairies and the North Central U.S. to all Arctic air. The air will get significantly colder over the Canada Prairies and the much of the eastern half of the nation as a result.

In some areas, the cold may rival that of earlier this month. As if the sub-zero temperatures weren’t fun enough the first time around, this time there are above-average odds of snow, which could step everything up a notch — a deep snow cover, AccuWeather explains, would insulate the ground’s warming effects, making the cold even more severe.

http://www.salon.com/2014/01/17/brace_yourself_the_polar_vortex_is_coming_back/

GOP Source: Christie Got Standing Ovation At Florida Fundraiser

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) was warmly received by donors at fundraisers Saturday in Florida as he gave the state's governor $2.5 million on behalf of the Republican Governor's Association, according to a GOP source.

Christie was in Florida to help Gov. Rick Scott (R) even as questions continue to swirl in his home state of New Jersey over the September lane closures of the George Washington Bridge.

But the source, who asked not to be named, said the scandal didn't deter donors. The source said Christie got a standing ovation at the first fundraiser of the day and that hundreds of donors attended the events.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who is the chair of the Democratic National Committee, responded to Christie's visit to Florida by holding a press conference in which she highlighted the fact the governor did not make any public appearances in the Sunshine State.

"It’s interesting that while Chris Christie is spending the entire weekend in Florida with Governor Scott, they won’t have a single public appearance. Either Chris Christie doesn’t want to face the press or Governor Scott doesn’t want to be seen publicly with Chris Christie, who is an embattled governor, and I think it’s probably a little bit of both," Wasserman Schultz said.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/christie-florida-fundraisers-ovation

Christie's GWB counsel fights to shield toll files re. 2011 toll hikes

The law firm representing the Christie administration in several investigations into the George Washington Bridge lane closures is aggressively trying to keep communications between the governor’s office and the Port Authority private in an unrelated court case about the unprecedented Hudson River toll hikes approved in 2011, records show.

That strategy, employed by former federal prosecutor Randy Mastro and the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, could provide clues as to how a flurry of legislative subpoenas delivered to the governor’s office on Friday will be handled. Christie has said he will cooperate with all “appropriate inquiries” into whether his office had any involvement in the September lane closures, seen as an act of political retribution, but it’s still unclear whether he will try to block the release of some internal communications.

Mastro is representing the Port Authority in a lawsuit filed by the automobile club AAA over massive toll hikes, but progress in that case has been slow, with accusations of stonewalling keeping it in its early stages. It is getting renewed attention this week as the lane-closure scandal unfolds.

The two seemingly unrelated issues were linked on Friday for another reason: the Port Authority raised concerns that Mastro’s firm had a potential conflict of interest because it was also chosen by the Christie administration this week to handle document requests from twin probes of the lane closures being conducted by the Legislature. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is also reviewing the closures.


http://www.northjersey.com/news/state/Christies_GWB_counsel_fights_to_shield_toll_files.html#sthash.8grAqpIA.dpuf

Prosecutor sacked for bringing case against Christie cronies reveals ordeal

A prosecutor who was sacked after attempting to indict Chris Christie's political cronies for corruption told MailOnline today about his ordeal at the hands of the New Jersey Governor's 'mafia.'

Bennett Barlyn, a prosecutor for 18 years in New Jersey’s Hunterdon County, has spoken out following the revelations over the Bridgegate scandal to reveal his firsthand account of being fired and shamed at the hands of Christie and his political henchmen.

He said there were parallels between a criminal case he tried to prosecute – before, he says, it was unlawfully dismissed – and the Bridgegate scandal, where Christie’s staff closed off travel lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge, in order to retaliate against a Democratic mayor who had declined to endorse him for re-election.

'It's the same modus operandi,' he said Tuesday in an exclusive interview with MailOnline. 'It's the governor's office again using a state agency in an improper way for political purposes'.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2539440/EXCLUSIVE-Prosecutor-sacked-bringing-case-against-Christie-cronies-reveals-ordeal-hands-New-Jersey-Governors-mafia.html#ixzz2qofuoBem

Christie Administration Tried To Jam Through Gas Pipeline To Benefit Top Operative

The Christie administration went to extraordinary lengths in an effort to secure approval for a controversial gas pipeline, opponents allege. Approval of the pipeline would benefit a top Christie political operative who is also enmeshed in the George Washington Bridge scandal.

The New Jersey Pinelands Commission voted Friday to reject a pipeline that would have crossed 10 miles of protected national reserve to supply a coastal power plant with natural gas. And the fact that David Samson, a Christie appointee who is also connected to the George Washington Bridge scandal, is the lawyer for the plant that would have received power may have caused the pipeline to clear several obstacles towards approval too easily, and even led the governor’s office to play a role in intimidating a Pinelands Commissioner into recusing himself from voting against it.

The Pinelands Commission is technically not supposed to approve infrastructure in environmentally sensitive parts of the Pinelands unless it is for Pinelands residents and there is no feasible alternative. Theresa Lettman, Director for Monitoring Programs at the Pinelands Presservation Alliance, told ThinkProgress that since neither seemed to be true in this case, South Jersey Gas turned to a memorandum of agreement. Essentially, the gas company would give the Commission $8 million to spend on the area around the pipeline in exchange for special dispensation. The Pinelands Commission voted 7-7 on that proposal Friday, meaning the pipeline was rejected.

One commissioner opposing the pipeline, Edward Lloyd, recused himself from the vote. He told ThinkProgress he first got a call from the state Attorney General’s office on Friday, December 6, informing him that an organization he is the co-director of, the Eastern Environmental Law Center, had written a letter to the Pinelands Commission asking for another public hearing on the pipeline, and that because of the letter, Lloyd would have to recuse himself from the vote. Lloyd said that he didn’t agree that it constituted a conflict of interest, and was told to check with the Pinelands Commission’s ethics liaison, Stacey Roth.


http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/15/3154571/christie-pipeline-pressure/

ABC's latest Bachelor calls gays "perverted".

ABC's latest Bachelor says he doesn't think that there should be a gay or bisexual person on the broadcast reality television show and described gays as "more pervert in a sense" in a new interview.

Juan Pablo Galavis, the 32-year-old star of The Bachelor who also appeared on the most recent season of The Bachelorette, made the remarks in an interview with The TV Page's Sean Daly, who posted audio of the comments.

The writer asked whether ABC should have a gay or bisexual bachelor on the show. "No," Pablo Galavis responded. "Just 'cause I respect them but, honestly, I don't think it's a good example for kids to watch that on TV. It's hard, it's hard, it's a very thin line."

He continued: "Obviously, people have their husband and wife and have kids, and that's how we are brought up. Now there's fathers having kids and all that, and it's hard for me to understand that, too, in the sense of a household having people's -- two parents sleeping in the same bed and the kid going into bed. It's confusing in a sense, but I respect them because they want to have kids, they want to be parents. It's a scale; where do you put it on the scale, where's the thin line to cross or not? You have to respect everybody's desires, opinions and way of living. But it would be too hard for TV."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/abcs-bachelor-juan-pablo-galavis-672100

Video of NSNBC interview with Mayor Dawn Zimmer

Christie Administration Attorney Accused Of Having Conflict of Interest

Officials at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey are worried the law firm retained by the administration of Gov. Chris Christie (R) as it faces two investigations into the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge has a conflict of interest. According to a report published by the Bergen Record Friday, Port Authority officials plan to outline these concerns in a letter to the firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

The potential conflict of interest centers around the fact the firm represents the Port Authority, which oversees the bridge, in a lawsuit brought by the American Automobile Association over toll hikes instituted by the agency in 2011. Last September's lane closures, which some Democrats have alleged were ordered by Christie's allies in an effort to retaliate against a local mayor, have been discussed in the AAA lawsuit. The closures led to days of gridlock in Fort Lee, N.J.

On Thursday, the Christie administration announced it hired Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP to conduct an internal review of the lane closures and to assist with the U.S. Attorney's investigation into the matter. The team working for the Christie administration is headed by Randy Mastro, who leads Gibson Dunn & Crutcher's "crisis management" practice. Committees formed by the New Jersey General Assembly and state Senate are also investigating the closures.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/christie-attorney-conflict-of-interest