Every man for himself

So Gov. Blowhard has gone from "I wouldn't know this guy if I fell over him," to dishing dirt on David Wildstein from all the way back to high school. Politico short lists the 5 Reasons Wildstein's Bombshell is a Bomb but better you should read the entire email Christie blasted to friends and allies at TPM who tells us:

Christie's office attacked the New York Times's portrayal of the revelations, reasserted Christie's truthfulness in the past and attacked the credibility of the official, David Wildstein, whose attorney claimed that “evidence exists as well tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what" Christie said in a January press conference.

"Bottom line - David Wildstein will do and say anything to save David Wildstein," the email concludes.

As opposed to the totally innocent bystander Mister Governor Christie who, according to the twitter, has only changed his story four times so far. [Image via The Reaction]

Former ally burns his bridges with Christie

I've said all along that Christie would survive the bridge closing unless and until proof positive emerged tying him directly to Fort Lee's traffic problem. Well, today David Wildstein delivered the smoking gun. Thus does Wildstein exact his revenge after Christie threw him to the wolves in order to save his own prodigious ass.

Now that Port Authority has refused to pay Wildstein's legal bills, it's every man for himself. Wildstein's lawyers released this bombshell statement today.



One might think Gov. Blowhard was expecting this turn of events. Christie responded shortly thereafter:

The governor's office issued a statement today saying that he had not "prior knowledge" of the lane closures, and that he "denies Mr. Wildstein's lawyer's other assertions.”

The statement in full reads: "Mr. Wildstein's lawyer confirms what the Governor has said all along - he had absolutely no prior knowledge of the lane closures before they happened and whatever Mr. Wildstein's motivations were for closing them to begin with. As the Governor said in a December 13th press conference, he only first learned lanes were closed when it was reported by the press and as he said in his January 9th press conference, had no indication that this was anything other than a traffic study until he read otherwise the morning of January 8th. The Governor denies Mr. Wildstein's lawyer's other assertions.”

Christie's allies are clearly smelling blood in the water. He's already lost Ron Fournier and Rudy Giuliani in the last couple of days. NYT is all over this story and today Drudge turned on him with the banner headline. It will be very interesting to see how Morning Joe and Mika play it on their next show.

One thing is clear, if Wildstein gets immunity, it's all over but for the tearful goodbyes.

Christie's crony corruption throws up another roadblock to 2016

Still not writing Gov. Blowhard off as a 2016 candidate, but I'm pretty sure Christie has lost Hoboken.

Two senior members of Gov. Chris Christie’s administration warned a New Jersey mayor earlier this year that her town would be starved of hurricane relief money unless she approved a lucrative redevelopment plan favored by the governor, according to the mayor and emails and personal notes she shared with msnbc.

Longer at the link. Shorter version: Port Authority hired "a reputable firm" to do a study on redeveloping some prime real estate in lovely Hoboken. It took time to conduct the study.

Finally, in January 2013, the firm – which was tasked with evaluating a 19-block area – concluded that only the three blocks in which the Rockefeller Group had an ownership stake were fit for redevelopment.

The mayor of Hoboken, a Democrat and otherwise a Christie supporter, wasn't willing to simplyn hand over her town to Christie's cronies. And then this happened with the sandy relief funds.

Christie’s people came back with less than 1% of what Hoboken had sought. With $250 million to disburse statewide, just $142,000 went to Hoboken – enough to help defray the cost of one backup generator to power a flood pump. Out of another pool of money for recovery grants – $1.8 billion in all – Hoboken received $200,000.

Meanwhile the Jersey legislature is issuing subpoenas and Christie lawyered up. If another couple mayors come forward, this story isn't going to die any time soon. Nonetheless, Christie is on the road raising money. He's clearly not ready to quit yet. [photo via]

Many rivers to cross for Christie

While I continue to think Christie's bridge scandal will ultimately lead nowhere, the story has a lot longer legs than I first anticipated. The hundreds of pages of documents will keep the media busy for at least a couple of weeks and if it turns out the lane closures were illegal somebody could get indicted. It could become a enduring scandal of his administration. But hell, we're talking about Jersey. Politicians and their operatives are always getting caught in scandals. It's part of the fabric of life in The Garden State.

Everybody who's not a gullible, hardcore conservative knows Christie was lying his face off in that two hour pity party of a presser. Nonetheless, absent irrefutable evidence Gov. Blowhard knew about the plan to bring a little traffic trouble to Fort Lee, the story won't last into February. That's almost two years from 2016. As long as no one can prove he lied, he can brazen his way through this and come out ahead on name recognition. He's complicated the journey, but I'm not writing him off the campaign trail just yet.

Christie's bridge scandal leads nowhere

Josh joined the chorus singing a dirge for Chris Christie in the wake of emails released today showing Gov. Blowhard's top aides were involved in creating that massive traffic jam in New Jersey simply for petty political payback. Lot of internet pundits seem to think this is the death knell for Christie's 2016 hopes. I'm not seeing it.

This kind of juvenile ratfuckery is exactly the sort of thing that thrills the crackpot con base. He pissed off a librul Democratic mayor and most of the base considers New Jersey just another outpost of east coast elites. If anything, it's going to raise his ratings with that crowd. If they're even following the story. Unless you use the George Washington Bridge, chances are you don't care if there's another traffic jam in Joisey. Nothing ties our Gov. Blowhard to it directly. A few more people will resign and no one will even remember it in a few weeks.

Steve M thinks what is really going to kill Christie's candidacy is his embrace of a DREAM act that was recently passed in his state. Granted, this will give the crackpots some pause because they hates those illegals but the GOP's biggest problem right now is the loss of the Hispanic vote. Crackpots alone are not enough and for all the noise they make, they're still going to vote for the Republican over the Dimmocrat. Doesn't matter who it is. It's possible Christie will be able to win over enough Hispanic voters to make a difference by supporting immigration reform.

I would love to see something quash Christie's chance to run. I'm just not seeing it yet. Unlike many, I don't want him to run just because it will make such an entertaining contest. The man is dangerous. He could actually win. He would make the worst President ever.

Addendum: Case in point.

@CNN @jaketapper acting like lane closures is a big deal. Who cares? Don't u have anything better 2 talk about? No one cares if it's true.

— J Knight (@J_KnightNY) January 8, 2014

And so it begins

Unlikely to end well.

RT @nravitz: Backstage at the @WSJ CEO Council with @rupertmurdoch and @GovChristie pic.twitter.com/Gfl4aZnON8
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) November 18, 2013

Creepy Chris Christie shouts down constituent - updated

Photo of the day. Chris Christie closes out a rally at Rutgers rally by spit-shouting at a female teacher. Clearly he's channeling his inner Ralph Kramden but without the barest shred of humanity. Meanwhile, I've seen that blank look and frozen smile on another GOP presidential hopeful wife's face.



Jersey Jazzman has the teacher's side of the story. Apparently it takes very little to trigger a tirade from New Jersey's biggest bully. Can't understand how any decent person could vote for this creep. His shameless abuse of his constituents (and his power) should have ended his career years ago.

Update: Kevin Drum thinks Christie's Big Bully schtick won't play well outside of Jersey politics. I was thinking the same. It's one thing to be amused by Gov. Blowhard as a sideshow, but would you want this hothead negotiating with testy and suspicious world leaders who have nuclear weapons? I think not.

Chris Christie's weight is no joke

[photo via]

I've never found mean jokes that mock appearance or ethnicity funny. I cringe every time I see someone make a fat joke about Chris Christie. But when former White House physician Dr. Connie Mariano expressed concern about Christie's weight, she was making a valid observation about his health, not mocking him.

Christie responded by telling the doctor to shut up and called her a typical hack who just wants five minutes on TV. But that apparently wasn't satisfying enough blowback for NJ's biggest bully. He subsequently called Dr. Mariano and hollered at her personally. She advises it was like his presser, only much louder. Guessing it was much like Christie's encounter with a critic at the ice cream stand at the Jersey shore.

Dr. Mariano is of course perfectly correct about the health concerns. It's no joke that the man is morbidly obese. Heart attack and stroke is a very real possibility. If Christie wants to run for President, his physical health is a genuine consideration, as is his emotional stability. Playing the big tough bully may play well in Jersey, but it's not a style well suited for a President who needs to be a statesman on the national, and even more importantly, the international stage.

President's precedence

[ photo via Steven Portnoy on twitter]

Lot of chatter on the internets this afternoon about Chris Christie ditching Miserable Mitt and singing the praises of President Obama. The general consensus goes along the lines of Mistermix's view that Christie is playing for 2016.

There's a small contingent of reluctant admirers ranging from John Cole's near kudos to Atrios who sees Christie as wanting to rise to the occassion and do his job.

Me, I'm somewhere betwixt the three of them. I don't doubt Christie calculates the political ramifications of any act and fine tunes his schtick with an eye on 2016. And like John, I've had a few moments when I've felt some genuine admiration for Christie's refusal to pander to the crazies and flat out take a firm and unpopular position. But I'm generally turned off by his big mouth bully boy style.

I'm with Atrios on the notion that for all the shady dealing Christie does to advance his own ambition and the fortunes of his own benefactors, in this situation I believe he's driven more by wanting to get the job done than by politics. On a practical level embracing Obama and the feds serves his needs the most in bringing relief to the victims of the storm. Of which he has millions. So why would he snub Obama who's bringing in FEMA in favor of Romney arriving with a rented truck full of canned soup and baby diapers?

Not saying Christie didn't weigh the political advantages at all, but really think this time it was secondary to doing what was best to solve the immediate problems.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

If called, Christie would serve

Back from my dinner date with one last thought about my favorite conspiracy theory before we throw it back into the catch-all folder.

Steve M. flags New Jersey gasbag governor's interview on Meet the Press. I agree Dancing Dave's hero worship of Christie is nauseating. And I agree Christie's carefully phrased answers signal a decided interest in a changing his zip code to 20050. But not so sure it's the VP's doorbell he's hearing in the distance.

This suggest to me, Christie is musing about a street address that starts with 1600:

Christie also suggested Sunday that his previous aversion to the idea of being president was more about having to spend a year-plus campaigning, rather than how ready he was to take on the job. Does it?

“Everybody’s misunderstood what I meant about saying being ready for president,” Christie said. “I meant that, you know, being ready to leave the job that I had and being ready to run for president of the United States, with all that entails. I didn’t want to do it, didn’t feel ready to do it.”

Preemptive revision of the one remark he's made that could haunt him in a two month long campaign?

Maybe I'm reading too much into it. But, the Village punditry is talking about a brokered convention. The buzz gets louder over time. Guessing Christie is listening.

Sure it's a long shot. But it doesn't hurt to be ready, just in case your dark horse comes in.

If it ain't brokered, how are they going to fix it?

I was planning to let my favorite conspiracy theory rest but with Newt's big win in South Carolina, the panic among the GOP establishment demands a brief resurrection. This comes up today because Josh at TPM noticed GOP pundits wishing for a savior to emerge from the shadows and rescue their primary from this lunacy. Josh runs the numbers and rightfully notes it's much too late for someone to jump in via the traditional route.

I tweeted Josh to mention the wishful thinking I've seen rests more on a brokered convention. Not making that up. I don't have cable but Angry DougJ saw it on the morning after South Carolina. And I saw a few headlines roll through Memorandum suggesting it as well.

Josh then tweeted: To answer: I think in the 21st century, brokered convention guarantees loss in Nov. & who convinces Newt/Mitt to give up their delegates?

I have an answer to that. It wouldn't fit into a tweet, but let's review my old posts. If you think about it, a draft in August leaves a candidate with only two months of media exposure. Which happens to be about the same length of time every GOP frontrunner who is not Mitt has enjoyed the adoration of the base. I wouldn't bet money that they couldn't win with that strategy.

If the primary battle does continue until the convention, all the candidates will have fatal flaws well exposed. Party is fractured. Not exactly a path to victory either. What do they have to lose with a draft? And my money is still on Chris Christie as the guy they would pick to save them. Sure he's had some exposure as Romney's wingman, but he's said nothing on the campaign trail yet that has hurt him. He's wowed the crowds at every stop. Not impossible for me to envision, if it indeed did come down to Mitt and Newt, that Mitt could be Christie's VP instead of the other way around. Mitt is still young enough to parlay a VP slot into one more future run for top dog in eight years.

And as for Newt, hell, how hard is it to buy him off? They could do it with a straight money bribe. Or they could offer him a high profile slot in the administration where he could parlay his grifting skills into a personal fortune.

Again, not saying I believe it's a plausible theory, but never say never, especially given politics as they're practiced in this age.

Let me call you sweetheart

Unlike most of the commentators on the intertoobz today, I don't think Chris Christie was making a sexual reference when he told a female protester, “You know, something may be going down tonight, but it ain’t going to be jobs, sweetheart.” Those of us of certain age remember when the term "going down" meant mere failure or abject defeat. Or an airplane crash, but that's only common usage among us old aerophiles.

In any case, whether he meant it sexually or not isn't the important point. Everybody knows Christie is a self-absorbed, foul mouthed gasbag. Indeed that's a big part of his appeal to his fans. My concern is how much the crowd loved it.



Look at those people. The fans adore him. They're cheering with approval and admiration. They find it hilarious and validating. Their favorite pompous gas bag showed those dirty fking hippie chicks who their daddy is. He's giving voice to what they they think but are afraid to say out loud themselves. I fear the protesters are doing Christie a favor by providing him a foil for his bullshit bombast.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

To the moon Alice...

Been a while since I revisited my Chris Christie conspiracy theory. Don't underestimate him. Even if he just ends up as the VP, he's a dangerous opponent. He's the Ralph Kramden of politics. Here he is stumping for Romney, Jersey style.

“If you don’t do what you’re supposed to do for Mitt Romney on Tuesday,” Christie said, defiant in only a suit jacket against the biting cold and wind-whipped rain, “I will be back, Jersey-style, people. I will be back.”

I understand it was clear he was joking. But joking or not, that bully schtick sells to the swing voters. Suspect there's a lot of Jersey Shore fans in that demo. And he really is Gleasonesque. Hell, he even looks a little like Jackie. That could win over the elderly vote who still remember, and maybe somewhat long for, the days of The Honeymooners.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]