On Christmas Eve, the NYTimes ran a scathing story Christie and mentioned the lane closure investigation. This story was simmering, ready to explode. I'm surprised Christie only lost a couple of nights sleep over it.
The article lists several instances of alleged bullying by Christie. It's very damaging to his current claims that he isn't a bully, does not participate in political paybacks, and didn't know anything about the political aspect of the lane closures.
I'll say it again, I do not want Chris Christie anywhere near the White House. Even if it means Hilary Clinton is elected President in 2016.
Quote:
Claim #1:
In 2011, Mr. Christie held a news conference where he accused State Senator Richard J. Codey of being “combative and difficult” in blocking two nominees. Mr. Codey, a Democrat who had served as governor following the resignation of James E. McGreevey, responded that he had not only signed off on the nominations, but had held a meeting to try to hurry them along.
Three days later, Mr. Codey was walking out of an event in Newark when he got a call from the state police superintendent informing him that he would no longer be afforded the trooper who accompanied him to occasional public events — a courtesy granted all former governors. That same day, his cousin, who had been appointed by Mr. McGreevey to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was fired, as was a close friend and former deputy chief of staff who was then working in the state Office of Consumer Affairs.
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The article says Christie laughed-off the suggestions that it was a political payback.
Quote:
Claim #2
Later that year, the governor was pressing hard on Alan Rosenthal, the Rutgers political scientist whom Republicans and Democrats had chosen as the tiebreaking member of the commission that was redistricting the state’s legislative districts. Mr. Christie wanted Mr. Rosenthal to vote for the map put forward by the Republicans on the commission, but instead he chose the Democrats’ plan, saying it offered more stability.
Soon after, Mr. Christie used his line-item veto to cut $169,000 for two programs at Mr. Rosenthal’s institute at Rutgers.
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Quote:
Claim #3
In 2010, when a blizzard paralyzed the state, State Senator Sean T. Kean, a Republican, told a reporter that the “one mistake” the Senate president and governor had made was not calling earlier for a state of emergency, which might have kept more cars off the roads.
Mr. Christie was smarting from criticism that he had remained at Disney World during the storm. When he returned, he held his first news conference in Mr. Kean’s home district. Shortly before, a member of the governor’s staff called Mr. Kean and warned him not to show up. His seat was eliminated in redistricting the following year.
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Quote:
Claim #4
Last year, another Republican, State Senator Christopher Bateman, voted against the governor’s plan to reorganize the state’s public medical education system. Mr. Bateman had been working with the governor to get a judge appointed in his home county. Suddenly, after months when it looked as if it would happen, the nomination stalled.
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And now we find out the lane closures isn't just a claim of political payback, it was indeed political payback.
There are only two possibilities:
1) Christie is a bully who either directly ordered the lane closures, or strongly hinted to do so; or
2) Christie is a bully whose past history of political payback emboldened his senior staff to try their hand at it and do it on their own, without his knowledge.
Either way, one thing is clear: Chris Christie is a big, fat, bully.
And have I written I don't want him anywhere near the White House or Oval Office?
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