According to Christie’s camp, Bill Baroni hired Wildstein.
*At a news conference Thursday, Christie painted a different picture of his relationship with Wildstein.
“Let me just clear something up. About my childhood friend David Wildstein. It is true that I met David in 1977. In high school. He’s a year older than me. David and I were not friends in high school. We were not even acquaintances in high school. I mean, I had a high school, Livingston a three year high school that had 1800 students. A 3-year high school in 1980. I knew who he was. I met David on the Tom Kean for governor campaign in 1977. He was a youth volunteer and so was I really after that time I completely lost touch with David. We didn’t travel in the same circles in high school. You know, I was the class president and athlete. I don’t know what David was doing during that period of time and then we reacquainted years later in I think 2000,” said Christie.
“We went 23 years without seeing each other. And in the years we did see each other, we passed in the hallways. I want to clear that up. It doesn’t make a difference except that I think some of the stories that were written impute a emotional relationship and closeness between me and David that doesn’t exist. I know David and you know I knew that Bill Baroni wanted to hire David to come to the Port Authority and I gave him my permission to do it but that was Bill’s hire,” the governor added.*
Baroni, Wildstein, and Bridget Anne Kelly are up to their necks in the lane closure debacle. They know something. Does any of it actually prove Christie ordered the lane closures?
Wildstein’s lawyer suggested that evidence is available. Wildstein’s lawyer didn’t say Wildstein had that evidence but that Wildstein could (might if they can cut a deal?) provide some evidence himself.
For Christie not to have at least known about and approved of the closings, he’d have to be completely fucking clueless, wouldn’t he? Do *you *think he’s completely fucking clueless?
Both Baroni and Wildstein said they served one client- Chris Christie. Every action they took was to further Christie’s agenda. It has been established that there was no traffic study. So there appears to be no innocent motivation for the closure and those responsible for it saw as their sole responsibility looking after Christie’s interest. You can believe these guys were rogue players, but the Kelly memo where she says “time for some traffic problems” and Wildstein says “got it” indicates that this was discussed in advance and that Wildstein understood that his sole client had signed off on the operation. So either Christie is a conniving bastard or a clueless buffoon. Both possibilities disqualify him from the White House. And that’s before we even think about the more serious allegation- treating federal disaster money as his personal slush fund.
Seriously? Baroni and Wildstein served one client? Really? Are you saying there is absolutely no chance that Baroni and Wildstein weren’t serving themselves and furthering their own agendas?
Yes, we’ve all read that. Wildstein was team statistician. Maybe not buddy buddy, but a face in the crowd. And are you saying that Christie had no approval of such an important appointment? It was a patronage job, pure and simple, and governors in NJ care about such things.
I’m looking forward to seeing the evidence - which will of course be leveraged to get Wildstein off the hook. He’d be dumb to release it now. Christie’s hatchet job shows he is scared.
Beside the smoking gun that BobLibDem provided, how does punishing a mayor for not endorsing Christie further their agendas? Especially in terms of the Port Authority.
Of course it does in the sense that doing good for Chris does good for them.
As for proof of crime - at this stage in Watergate there was no proof either. Kind of early, isn’t it?
Then how the fuck did he not, according to his own version, even fucking ask what was happening in Fort Lee (it was all over the news), or even ask any of his staff if they knew anything for so many weeks later? If, as you agree, he’s not completely fucking clueless, then hell yes he knew what they were doing. Then hell yes he knew the sorts of things they would do for him when he hired them.
You’re missing the part about this being the court of public opinion, not of law, and about the consequences anybody other than Christie considering relevant to be primarily the electoral ones, not criminal ones. Or are you actually in agreement that he’s done in politics, and deservedly so?
And why fire Bridget Ann without even asking her why she did this or on who’s authority? The only thing that makes sense is he already knew the answer.
Yeah, but notice how he words it: once he knew she was lying to him, he had no further questions to ask, the source is tainted. She lied to him, why would he ask her anything? Almost makes sense. And it offers the flimsy picture of Christie righteously refusing any contact with so mendacious a person!
What was actually happening in Ft. Lee, NJ? People were stuck in traffic. It took longer than usual to enter the GW bridge. People in Chicago, IL didn’t care. We’ve been stuck in traffic jams before. Same for Atlanta, GA, and Los Angeles, CA. Thanks to 24/7 coverage of a traffic jam, hundreds of more people now know where Ft. Lee is located.
Is it considered normal for a governor of any state to ask about a traffic jam in one state’s city such as Ft. Lee, Chicago, Atlanta, or Los Angeles?
You believe that Christie must have known what “they” were doing because he isn’t fucking clueless. That’s pretty slim evidence. I’m not ready to jump that shark yet. Christie is smart, so he must know everything the Port Authority is doing. Christie is a big fat guy, so he must be a sumo wrestler. Christie doesn’t stop talking, so he must not delegate authority.
I didn’t miss the part about this being the court of public opinion. Some people would believe Christie stole the Lindbergh baby if MSNBC “reported” such a story. We’re all entitled to voice our opinions and ask questions. You seem to have missed my question to you. You asked me a question and I asked you a question.
Quote:
Do you think the media or Democrats or investigating committees have proven that Christie is guilty of violating NJ laws?
We both know the answer is “No”.
I have no idea if Christie is “done in politics”. Will the voters of NJ reelect Christie? Maybe? Probably? No way? It depends on A) if “they” ever find any actual evidence that Christie ordered the lane closings/strong arming of mayors/fund extortion, or B) the Democrats can field anyone the voters like better, or C) the media can toss enough unproven trash on Christie that the voters begin to believe there must be “some” truth to the unproven stories, or D) the NJ voters decide that the media is full of shit most of the time anyway, so they return Christie to office.
From NJ there are three ways to cross over into Manhattan by car. The George Washington Bridge (GWB) the Lincoln and the Holland Tunnels.
A lot of people cross over to Manhattan this way ever work day. According the Port Authority the GWB alone has 106 million crossing a year, so 290 thousand a day. (probably higher on work days) so about 150 thousand trying to cross. (in the morning and then at night they cross back over)
Back that traffic artery up and there will be spill over to the others, slowing them as well. Traffic was backed up for hours. The back up in Fort Lee itself basically brought that town to a halt. Emergency vehicles couldn’t move. Kids couldn’t get to school, people couldn’t get to work. That is lost ‘productivity’ in the work place for hundreds of thousands of people. Add that up. The financial damage done by this bogus ‘traffic study’ will be in the millions. Probably hundreds of millions.
You don’t have to jump to any conclusions to realize how few are the number of possible conclusions. Either he knew or he didn’t, real bad or pretty bad, and the sunniest scenario reads like a Bergman movie scripted by Gorky.
Maybe it was all just a staff run amok. Thing is, a guy who spends his life to become the guy who calls the shots likes to be the guy who calls the shots. He doesn’t usually get in the habit of letting other people decide stuff.
I’m thinking along the lines that the whole thing was about putting a scare into the investors in that development that offers quick access to New Yawk as a big selling point. Perhaps they should consider the prudent investment of hiring the expert advise of some consultants, who might then offer insight and direction on which contractors are the most reliable, which vendors can be depended upon. The business, as usual.
Typical political corruption, hardly noteworthy. However, if as has been suggested, this could also lead to information about using Sandy relief funds as a bludgeon, or even re-directing the flow of relief to the comfortable rather than to the afflicted? That would genuinely chap my hide, that would be rope-worthy.
But I don’t want him run offstage, think he would make a dandy Republican nominee. Bit of a longshot horse, what with the gimpy legs and sway back, but nothing an extra twenty pounds of handicap weight couldn’t fix!
Partisan-wise, this is a gift to the Republicans. The Christie implosion was near-inevitable and it’s better for the GOP to get this process out of the way early. Plus it clears the path for Paul Ryan. Also, NJ Dems aren’t exactly licking their chops since this sort of low level corruption is endemic in the Garden State. True, the Fort Lee stuff reflects bad judgment by [del]Christie[/del] I mean somebody - but the holding up of Sandi relief aid in Hoboken appeared to be business as usual, if you believe the Christie aide that the Hoboken mayor was speaking to.
For myself, I think it’s a wonderful thing when an elected crook is caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Even better when they are investigated and given a fair trial.
It was more than a matter of taking more time to cross the bridge. The entire town was in gridlock because of it. EMTs had to respond to calls on foot. Fire, police, and medical emergency response in the city was seriously compromised. The Port Authority is entrusted to manage billions of dollars of public assets. The GWB is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. For the Christie Administration to abuse this trust and use this publicly owned asset as a political sledgehammer, fucking with the lives of tens of thousands of innocent people is criminal abuse of power. Moreover, the attempt to cover this up by concocting a flimsy story of a traffic study is obstruction of justice. Add to this outrageous behavior the use of federal disaster money to extort the mayor of Hoboken. Christie has no business even thinking about the presidency. He should not even be governor. He should not even be free to walk the streets. He belongs in federal prison.
