So, doorhinge, tell me: Why didn’t you fix the lanes in less than four days? Are you an ineffective failure?
The whole “authority” thingy has me sorely confused. Where, exactly, does the Director of Interstate Capital Projects fit on the hierarchical scrotum pole? He has no job description, so who reports to him? Who does he have authority over? If he said “Close those lanes!” and the guy who works in the toll booth said “Fuck, no, I’m not losing a day’s pay!”, what, if anything, is he authorized to do about it?
It appears he was following the instructions of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Ms. Kelly. OK, where does she get that authority?
That development project that has access to New York as a major selling point, did they have the good sense to hire the Wolff and Samson law firm? It would appear that those who do have such shrewd judgement have done quite well when it comes to congenial and cooperative interaction with the New Jersey gummint.
See, I’m thinking that screwing over the mayor of Fart Lee was naught but icing on the cake. Thinking that the guys in charge of that development spent a lot of time on the phone with nervous investors. And those investors were nervous because their big selling point of access to New York suddenly looks a mite shaky. Investors don’t like shaky, it causes their sphincters to pucker painfully.
Its about money. Usually is, isn’t it?
David Samson is Chairman of the Port Authority. Also, name partner is the law firm referenced above. And two bits says he is the Big Enchilada.
I think doorhinge has a point here. Sokolich should have ordered the Ft. Lee Police Department to immediately move the traffic cones and reopen the lanes - shooting any Port Authority employees (up to and especially including “Port Authority Wildstein”) who interfered with said traffic cone movement. He might have gone to prison, but he would have done so knowing that he would have the eternal admiration of some random guy on the internet - which, really, is its own reward.
No, that’s not how it works. You made claims you cannot defend. Switching it around and asking me to prove you weren’t right is just ridiculous.
What could Sokolich legally have done that he did not do?
From the governor.
When my daughter was in college she interned for a Maryland state representative, a fairly senior one. She was surprised to find that when she called people in government they jumped - for a 20 year old girl they had never heard of before.
In politics it is all influence.
The political committee investigating the Great NJ Lane Reassignment lost a publically biased member when Democrat Bonnie Coleman was pressured to resign from the committee. That would make a “bipartisan” committee of 7 Democrats and 4 Republicans.
*Bridgegate investigation committee member says Chris Christie should resign -
…“And this really is what they’re all about, transactional deals, dismissiveness, remarks that are totally, totally unacceptable in a civilized society,” Watson Coleman said during an appearance on MSNBC. “And you know what? The governor needs to think about resigning, and he needs to take all his friends with him because this is sickening.”
Asked by host Al Sharpton why the governor should go when there has so far been no smoking gun to implicate him in the scandal, Watson Coleman said the governor is responsible for the actions of his staff*.
Gee whiz, even Sharpton agrees that there has been no evidence presented that Christie was involved in Great NJ Lane Reassignment.
*Watson Coleman quits investigative committee after criticism of her call for Christie to resign
- Mar. 1, 2014
Following comments calling for Gov. Chris Christie to resign, Democratic Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman has stepped down from the joint legislative panel probing the George Washington Bridge access lane closures*.
http://www.app.com/article/20140228/NJNEWS1002/302280059
Coleman can’t even pretend that she’s unbiased and should never have accepted a position on an unbiased and impartial committee intended to search for the truth of what actually had happened.
He could have called Port Authority Foye on day 1. Or on day 2. Or on day 3. Or…
Christie could have called on day 1 or day 2 or day 3 or… day 25 or day 26 or day 27 or…
How long was it again that it took him to acknowledge something was going on?
Why would the governor of a State involve himself in what was, at that point in time, considered a traffic jam in one city in his State? That would be the Mayor’s responsibility or under the Port Authority’s jurisdiction.
Unless you have some evidence that Christie was actually involved in the Great NJ Lane Reassignment.
I made no such suggestion that Sokolich should harm or murder anyone. That was your idea.
I do not blame the part time Mayor of Fort Lee (pop 36,000) when the Port Authority, an inter-state organization, closes 2 of 3 toll lanes from Fort Lee without prior announcement and keeps them closed for 4 days. That was done by Port Authority Wildstein, and Baroni.
I hold Sokolich responsible for Sokolich’s inability straighten out the traffic jam that his constituents were asking him to straighten out.
The entry for Monday Morning Quarterbacking in the dictionary has a picture of doorhinge. Why would he call the New York guy? And don’t you think the New York guy would tell him to call the New Jersey guy? Only when it dragged on did Foye do anything. Over Wildstein’s objection, remember.
The only thing I think the mayor could have done would be hold a press conference with as much media as he could gather and lay out the whole mess from his perspective.
As far as who he called or didn’t call in the Port Authority, it made no difference. If he called the NY guys, they would have surely referred him to the NJ guys. And we all know that the NJ guys were not going to lift a finger to help him or even talk to him. So he’d be just as far ahead baying at the moon as talking to the PA.
He didn’t call. Why didn’t he know that he should call to figure it out? Why didn’t he know? Incompetence.
I hold Christie responsible for his incompetence in straightening out the traffic jam that his constituents were asking him to straighten out.
He had the power to straighten it out. He didn’t use it.
He had the information available to him. He didn’t access it, at best. At worst he ignored it.
He had all of the tools. Incompetence.
He hired these asswipes in the first place. If only that were merely incompetence.
[post shortened for clarity]
How do you know he didn’t? You stated up-thread the press were not reporting on his activities. How do you know who and when and how many times Sokolich called?
Or New Jersey style corruption. The investigation isn’t completed yet.
I’m sure paper towel tubes were involved somehow.
I stated up-thread that, “Either Sokolich didn’t provide the media with the details “OR” the media didn’t report them”. There are many investigations trying to determine who said or did what and how that relates to several questionable situations in NJ.
It’s known that Sokolich said he had called his usual contacts (Baroni and ? ) at the Port Authority. Sokolich has also said he contacted the Governor’s office but I don’t remember Sokolich naming names. Sokolich has never said that he had personally contacted Christie during the 4-day traffic jam. Christie has said that he wasn’t aware of this traffic jam in Ft Lee during that same time frame. The GW Bridge traffic is normally congested, in-bound to NYC, during rush hours. SNAFU.
It hasn’t been reported that Sokolich had talked to then Deputy Chief of Staff Kelly during the traffic jam. If Sokolich’s request for the governor’s assistance was funneled, directly or indirectly, thru Kelly, the same Kelly who was involved in creating the traffic jam, I assume Kelly would have withheld that information from Christie.