# Did Christie (or his staff) intentionally cause the Fort Lee traffic jam? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 9, 2014, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351 "2014-01-09T13:34:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/161 "2014-01-10T20:15:41Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > That’s your 2nd post about my posted opinions. Are you hinting that I should not be posting in this thread or are your questions of a more serious nature? > > Oh my! Look at the time. I didn’t realize how late it was. It must be time to let the dogs out, or something. Opinions aren’t facts. “I love chocolate!” is an opinion. “Chocolate is made from the seeds of the cacao tree” is a fact. Your opinions are fair game to criticism. Any facts you might choose to bring to the table are vulnerable to cites. ---
**Author:** ![Karrius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71c47a/32.png) [@Karrius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karrius)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/162 "2014-01-10T20:19:19Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > Or an outright lie made up by someone writing for the daily kos. > > What’s one more unverified rumor at this point in time? If you’re going to accuse the Wall Street Journal of lying, are you willing to apologize if you’re proven wrong in your attempt to defend a scumbag politician that put people’s lives at risk in exchange for a petty revenge act? And honestly, “random bloggers on daily kos” have a way better track record than “people willing to defend conservatives on the SDMB”. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/163 "2014-01-10T20:27:58Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > This story appears to have legs, even way up here in Canada. Not only did it make big headlines in the German press — front page yesterday (it’s fallen to the foreign news page today) — they didn’t even think they had to identify who this “Christie” character was in the headline itself, just referred to him as “Christie.” [Christie entschuldigt sich für absichtliches Verkehrschaos](http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/amerika/amerikanischer-gouverneur-christie-entschuldigt-sich-fuer-absichtliches-verkehrschaos-12744838.html) Rough translation: Christie apologizes for deliberate traffic chaos They appear to have since added small text above the headline that reads “American Governor.” However, being in the news biz, I can tell you that if you have even an inkling of doubt that your readers will know who the hell you’re talking about, you identify them right in the hed, especially since that’s the only part that gets carried over when it’s posted to social media. Any small text outside the hed won’t show up (meta descriptions notwithstanding). ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/164 "2014-01-10T20:33:50Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > Not only did it make big headlines in the German press — front page yesterday (it’s fallen to the foreign news page today) — they didn’t even think they had to identify who this “Christie” character was in the headline itself, just referred to him as “Christie.” > > [Christie entschuldigt sich für absichtliches Verkehrschaos](http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/amerika/amerikanischer-gouverneur-christie-entschuldigt-sich-fuer-absichtliches-verkehrschaos-12744838.html) > > Rough translation: Christie apologizes for deliberate traffic chaos > > They appear to have since added small text above the headline that reads “American Governor.” However, being in the news biz, I can tell you that if you have even an inkling of doubt that your readers will know who the hell you’re talking about, you identify them right in the hed, especially since that’s the only part that gets carried over when it’s posted to social media. Any small text outside the hed won’t show up. Heh, that’s awesome. I’m sure I join with my American friends in saying there is no way I’d be able to identify any particular German provincial-level government official by name, either. 😉 But yeah, I think this makes news because it makes a good story, even if you have no idea who the guy in the picture is. Hence its being reported by Canadians and Germans. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/165 "2014-01-10T20:56:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Or an outright lie made up by someone writing for the daily kos… Mr. Christie didn’t know anything about it! He said so, in between declarations of his personal sadness. Therefore, he could not have made such a call, since he didn’t know anything about it. But now he does know, and he is very sad. So sad he was teary-eyed, such that his throwing under the bus accuracy was diminished, and the bus had to roll back over his dear, dear friends to ensure the correct degree of squashing. Hell, it worked for Reagan. I remember sitting in stunned amazement when he explained that the facts of Iran-Contra were totally at variance with his personal memory, but the facts clearly said that his memory was wrong, so he had to accept that, very very sadly. Christ, what an imagination I’ve got… And we bought it. Coast to coast, we shrugged and said what a sweet old man he was, with more holes in his memory than a fifty pound block of Swiss cheese, so it couldn’t be his fault! ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/166 "2014-01-10T21:17:55Z")
I think it’s only right to point out Christie’s awesomeness. He said at the presser that he lost two nights’ sleep over the scandal- which was amazing since he claimed he first heard of it the day before. So he lost a night of sleep over something the day before he first heard about it- what an amazing person! ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/167 "2014-01-10T21:42:20Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > And we bought it. Coast to coast, we shrugged and said what a sweet old man he was, with more holes in his memory than a fifty pound block of Swiss cheese, so it couldn’t be his fault! I sure as hell didn’t. He should’ve rotted in prison, the criminal prick. Christie is toast now. Burnt toast. He’ll never secure the GOP primary nomination, and even if he did, the country at large will never elect him president. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/168 "2014-01-10T21:52:43Z")
It doesn’t seem that big a thing; and try as I may, I can’t get interested. However two things spring to mind. Miss Kelly looks not that unadorable — although a right-wing woman is not mentally attractive. I can’t imagine doing bad things, but if I was using a ‘traffic study’ as cover, you’d better damn well believe there would be an _actual_ — costly and full of experts as a parrot is full of seeds — **Traffic Study** going on. If people can’t be bothered to fake a good cover story, how can we trust them to run the country ? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/169 "2014-01-10T22:23:05Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > It doesn’t seem that big a thing; and try as I may, I can’t get interested. Traffic in a big metropolitan area is a carefully orchestrated dance. It only takes a little disruption to wreck things for literally hundreds of thousands of people. I’ve seen news reports quoting a price tag of over a billion dollars in lost work time as the result of this little stunt. If the governor of California had done something similar (blocking half the southbound lanes on the 405 during the morning rush, for example, in order to exact political revenge on Van Nuys) people in L.A. would be howling for his head on a platter right now. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/170 "2014-01-10T22:43:38Z")
> [@MacCat](#): > > From Daily Kos that I’m having trouble linking to… > > “Mr. Christie, a Republican, complained in a private phone call to Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, that Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was pressing too hard to get to the bottom of why the number of toll lanes onto the bridge from Fort Lee, N.J. was cut from three to one in early September, according to this person.” > > Could be a very interesting development. Here’s a link to the original WSJ story, which, note was posted on December 12 - it’s behind a paywall. [http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304477704579254012674389146](http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304477704579254012674389146) And here is a link to the Kos story, published on January 9th, about the WSJ story, which MacCat was pointing to - > **[Christie asked Cuomo to back off investigating Fort Lee. In mid-December.](https://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/09/1268413/-Andrew-Cuomo-needs-to-put-the-last-nail-in-Christie-s-coffin)** > > In what seems like ages ago in the Chris Christie Gina Close-a-your-bridgeda scandal saga, the WSJ reported something that looked exceptionally fishy at the time; that Christie had talked with ... And here is an update to the Kos story - a different Kos story, posted on December 13, in which a Kos diarist, Jed Lewison, mentioned hearing that Christie had told Cuomo to tell his investigator to back off. > **[After revelation that Christie asked Cuomo to back off bridge lane closure...](https://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/13/1262485/-After-revelation-that-Christie-asked-Cuomo-to-back-off-bridge-lane-closure-inquiry-top-aide-resigns)** > > New Democratic video hits Christie on controversy > > One day after the Wall Street Journal reported that New Jersey Governor Chris ... So both the Wall Street Journal story and the mention of it on Kos happened a month ago. At the time, Christie told Cuomo that his (Cuomo’s) guy, Patrick Foye, was pushing too hard into the investigation of Bill Baroni, the Cristie appointee who ordered the shutdown of the bridge. Foye was eventually called to testify in Trenton and said he was told by Baroni that the shutdown was for a traffic study, but he didn’t know nothing about no traffic studies and had no idea what Baroni was up to. A day later, Baroni resigned, denying that it all had anything to do with the bridge shutdown. Bottom line: Yesterday was not the first day Christie heard about any of this bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/171 "2014-01-10T22:58:01Z")
So are the New Jersians howling ? Speaking of which great state, one earlier governor afterwards acted as lawyer for Dutch Schultz, so their tolerance may be high and standards low. Little devils. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/172 "2014-01-11T00:35:29Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > So are the New Jersians howling ? Speaking of which great state, one earlier governor afterwards acted as lawyer for Dutch Schultz, so their tolerance may be high and standards low. > > Little devils. As Jon Stewart pointed out, by New Jersey governor standards, this is really a piss-poor scandal. Christie’s predecessor [Jon Corzine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Corzine), and [Jim McGreevey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_McGreevey), who was forced to resign, set a very high bar. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/173 "2014-01-11T01:09:22Z")
[Those promised texts and emails have been released](http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/new-chris-christie-bridge-scandal-documents-emails). Here’s a few posts about them at Mother Jones: [Chris Christie’s Not in the Clear Yet. These Text Messages Show Why.](http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/01/chris-christie-fort-lee-charlie-mckenna-text-message) [New Bridge Scandal Emails: Port Authority Official Said Christie Team’s Lane Closure “Violates Federal Law”](http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/01/emails-port-authority-bridge-closure-violate-law-christie) [New Christie Bridge Scandal Email: Cops Forced to Direct Traffic Instead of Responding to Emergencies](http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/01/emails-christie-forced-police-direct-traffic-instead-responding-emergencies) I think the [New Christie Minstrels](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Christy_Minstrels) are gonna need to come out of retirement to commemorate this scandal in song and story. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/174 "2014-01-11T01:15:42Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > I can’t imagine doing bad things, but if I was using a ‘traffic study’ as cover, you’d better damn well believe there would be an _actual_ — costly and full of experts as a parrot is full of seeds — **Traffic Study** going on. > > If people can’t be bothered to fake a good cover story, how can we trust them to run the country ? They did [write up a fake report on the not-really-a-study](http://www.businessinsider.com/george-washington-bridge-davos-study-2014-1). It’s actually kind of hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/175 "2014-01-11T02:50:40Z")
[hijack] It looks like SNL is a rerun this week. I suggest a moment of silence for Bobby Moynihan, as he will miss out on what would have been a good opening skit. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/176 "2014-01-11T03:27:44Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > …I think the New Christie Minstrels are gonna need to come out of retirement to commemorate this scandal in song and story. 😃 Your joke is bad, and you are old. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/177 "2014-01-11T04:01:16Z")
> [@Moe](#): > > If he knew, I must say he’s performing as well as anyone could in this press conference. He’s really good at handling the press. > > I personally am still not buying it though. It just doesn’t make sense that he found out Kelly lied and betrayed him and he fired her without confronting her just to ask her for a response. I dunno if he’s lying or not, but I have to admit that if I were in his position and I really was blindsided by this, I absolutely would fire Kelly immediately and would not give her the respect of telling her in person. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_from\_CB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/278dde/32.png) [@Alex\_from\_CB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_from_CB)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/178 "2014-01-11T04:07:05Z")
Here’s an article about Bridge-it Kelly. Has that nasty Republic Party look about her. 4’9" tall? Really? > **[Bridget Anne Kelly: The aide at the center of the storm](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/homepage/20140110_Bridget_Anne_Kelly__The_woman_at_the_center_of_the_storm.html)** > > Just over a year ago, Bridget Anne Kelly was thanking her boss, Gov. Christie, and fellow staffers via Twitter for making her 40th birthday "great." On Thursday, the account had been deleted, and the nation watched Christie call her a liar, dub her... ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/179 "2014-01-11T04:42:29Z")
It seems ironic — considering her political opinions very probably include the badness of big government, against welfare subsidizing undeserving poor who weren’t working at proper jobs, the necessity of creators ( business, not arts ) against looters — that she got $140,000 a year for being a glorified PR agent for an aspect of government. Plus that at the end, she wasn’t even very good at it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351/180 "2014-01-11T05:08:11Z")
> [@Blaster\_Master](#): > > So, with that in mind, the idea that the governor should know about this sort of thing, is ridiculous. He’s the governor, chances are that he gets briefed on all sorts of things and, presuming he had no advanced knowledge, I’d expect him to get some sort of brief along the lines of the DoT doing a traffic study and it causing problems. Even if it IS the busiest bridge in the world, there’s so much more going on in the state that the governor has to keep an eye on that it’s ridiculous to expect him to be directly aware of any specific situation like that. That’s the whole point of him having a staff and **delegating responsibility**. Wondering if you might want to rephrase that. _AUTHORITY_ can be delegated; _ **RESPONSIBILITY** _ can not be. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-christie-or-his-staff-intentionally-cause-the-fort-lee-traffic-jam/678351.md?page=10)