For what it’s worth, I believe that more likely than not, Christie was aware of and approved the lane closures. But at the same time, Christie is an experienced politician and attorney and it’s likely that he was careful not to put anything in writing and to make sure that he could plausibly deny any knowledge or involvement.
So my prediction was based on a rational analysis of the situation. BobLibDem’s prediction seems to be based on wishful thinking. Even now, a year and a half later, he seems to think there’s a decent chance Christie will end up in jail over this.
Honestly I think the bigger problem is that he is morbidly obese. But yeah, this didn’t help.
Have you created any YouTube videos that require comments?
p.s. Chris Christie wasn’t responsible for the lane closures in spite of the best efforts of MSNBC to continually suggest otherwise, month after month after month after month after month…
I’m no fan of Christie, but I always thought he was one of the most effective candidates the Republicans had. I think the embrace with Obama during Sandy may have done him in with the crazy base of the party.
Underline added. You seem to have information none of the rest of us do. I would agree that there is no public proof so far that he* was *responsible, and perhaps there never will be. That’s a far cry from what you said, however. Perhaps you have a future writing unverified statements for the LSM.
Dude’s always been fat. But prior to this scandal, he was Mr. Republican Who Could Win Reelection In A Blue State, which actually gave him quite a bit of credibility. But then this happened. Once he lost being popular in New Jersey, he had nothing else. He was a fat asshole who wasn’t particularly conservative. Not a great formula to win the Republican nomination.
I agree with you to an extent, but over the years I have seen many politicians sail through political scandals which were a good deal worse. I remember they used to call Ronald Reagan the “teflon president.” I remember that Bill Clinton was wildly popular among his base after the whole Monical Lewinsky scandal. My own theory is that physical attractiveness plays a large but unacknowledged role in how politicians are received and succeed.
If you’ve got evidence to the contrary, don’t be afraid to make it public. Christie has been investigated by several government agencies and they’ve found nothing pointing to Christie being responsible for the bridgegate closure.
OTOH, many of the media outlets have created “news” stories attempting to tie Christie to bridgegate. You would think that with all of that manpower, time spent, money spent, plus their sheer hatred of fat, white guys, who are conservative and Republican, someone would have uncovered actual evidence of Christies involvement.
But as you say, “there is no public proof so far that he* was *responsible, and perhaps there never will be”, but you keep dreaming that dream.
I think a major difference is that Monica Lewinsky was completely a “personal life” scandal, which is a very different beast from abusing your public office. (Of course, some politicians are taken down by purely personal life scandals, and it would be interesting to do a deep dive on why Clinton survived his so easily and someone like Anthony Weiner could not. There are a lot of variables at play.)
I think Christie’s big (no pun intended) problem was that he was perceived as an asshole and a bully. The Fort Lee scandal seemed like something an asshole and a bully would do, so it stuck to him even without a smoking gun tying him to the scandal. I would imagine the same scandal wouldn’t have had the same effect if, say, Lincoln Chafee had been governor. He just doesn’t seem to have that kind of vengeance in him.
This again… This statement is 100% factually incorrect. Christie may or may not have been a direct causative agent of the bridge closure, and even if he was, it may or may not be possible to find evidence of that fact. In fact, I strongly suspect that there is not any such evidence.
However, that does not change the fact that that he is responsible for it. An office-holder is responsible for all of the official actions of his staff, regardless of whether he ordered them, or even knew of them, or not. We here in the party of personal responsibility understand this. If Christie does not, then he has no business in the Oval Office, nor in any other high office in this nation.
Billy Clinton survived because a lot of people liked him. Billy was a bad boy but he was the kind of bad boy that people generally liked as a person. Oh that Billy, what a scamp .
Anthony Weiner didn’t survive because, well, - Weiner.
I’m glad that you can admit that you suspect that there is not any such evidence. Good for you. That’s the 1st step to a successful recovery and rehabilitation.
Officials/employees of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) made the call (had been the direct causative agents) to create, and carry out, the lane closures.
The LSM did their best to blame the fat/white/conservative/Republican guy because they don’t like fat/white/conservative/Republican guys.
So, he didn’t know? Went on for…how long? And no one told him? Thousands of totally pissed off New Jersey voters, and nobody said a word to him about it?
Sure. Hugh Betcha. Pull the other one, it’s got bells, pull the middle one, I’ll give you a nickel.
Focus on whether Christie is prosecutable misses the key point. Did not important Christie aides plead guilty to doing the mischief on Christie’s behalf? That Christie would appoint such aides, or foster such an atmosphere makes him morally guilty. If his aides were smart enough to heed an ambigiuous "“Will no one rid me of this troublesome mayor?” without more explicit orders, does that make the Fat Asshole an admirable human being?
I’m pretty sure some of the Governor’s staff has been indicted for involvement too. (“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee…” ) And, of course, the Port Authority guys involved were pretty close to the Governor. You make it sound like this who thing was cooked up for reasons totally unrelated to Christie’s reelection bid. (I’m not sure what would motivate Port Authority staff to fuck up bridge traffic independent of the Governor’s grudge.)
I don’t think it was the mayor, I think it was that big-ass development project. When the financial backers of the project revealed their lack of adequate awareness by hiring the wrong law firm, the firm that wasn’t Wolff and Samson…well, really, how can you have any confidence in their decisions?
That development was making a big selling point out of their access to New York, and just barely squeeked their financing. The Christie people reached down the front of their pants and gave them a friendly but firm squeeze. Maybe this isn’t that good an investment opportunity after all?
All that we have to believe now is that Mr Samson was in a position to tell Christie’s aides that this is what the Gov wanted…nod, wink, say no more…and they bought it. Could be. And if that is your notion of innocence, well, there you have it! The business, as usual…
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