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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChris Christie Is Over.....
Last edited Wed Oct 26, 2016, 04:56 PM - Edit history (1)
what a great headline and what a great article from The Atlantic! A fantastic summary of the big ship going down.
Even though 2016 appears to be the year of painful, public disqualification from higher office, you may be forgiven for not noticing the extraordinary implosion of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. After all, the Trump surrogate and White House Transition chair has benefitted from his early endorsement of the Republican presidential nominee in unusual fashion: Christies power in the Grand Ole Party has decreased, rather than increased. The likelihood of a plum position in the Trump administrationAttorney General, perhaps, since Christie was spurned as the Republican running mateis decidedly dim, what with the presently apocalyptic predictions about November 8.
Instead, Trumps gift to Christie has been shadow: the top Republicans national meltdown has obscured that of the one-time rising Republican star and sitting New Jersey governor. But make no mistakeChristies is a fall of epic proportions, precipitated by an unfathomably petty revenge plot. The contrast of the two, the top-heavy-ness of the fallout compared to the insignificance of the initial transgression, would be comic, were it not so tragic. Remember that in November of 2012, Governor Christie had a 72 percent approval rating. Today, it stands at 21 percent.
While most of America has been busy digesting a nearly-daily intake of sexual assault allegations, paranoid screeds about a rigged election, and a wildly vituperative back and forth between party elders and their Republican leader, Governor Christies political career has been quietly, steadily unraveling.
There are some who will point to the governors early and eager embrace of Trump as the beginning of his political demise (others may point to his wifes obvious disdain for the man for whom her husband was putting his reputation on the line), but the ongoing trial of Christie aides Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni for their roles in the Bridgegate scandal has revealed a culture of craven and unusually vindictive acts (even for New Jersey pols). The testimonies are devastating to Christies political ambitions.
Most damning, two of his top aides* (former Deputy Chief of Staff Kelly and former Port Authority official and one-time Christie henchman, David Wildstein) have now testified under oath that Christie knew of the lane closuresones that would strand thousands of motorists on the George Washington Bridgein advance. Prosecutors have maintained that the lanes were closed by Kelly and Baroni as retribution against the mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, who refused to endorse Christie during the governors reelection campaign, and whose residents were most affected by the obscene traffic delays, (the defense teams have maintained their clients innocence against nine charges of corruption and fraud).
On Friday, Kelly testified that she reviewed the plan with Christie on August 12, 2013nearly a month before the lanes were closed for an alleged traffic study. This directly contradicts what Christie has maintained all along, most famously in his 108 minute-long press conference on January 9 of 2014, immediately following the Bridgegate allegationssaying he had no knowledge of the lane closures:
I had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or it execution, said Christie, and I am stunned by the abject stupidity that was shown here.
The fact that three of his consiglieres have testified exactly otherwise is very bad for Christie, but its perhaps the stuff the governor did afterwards that is unprecedented....
Read the rest of it here: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/chris-christie-is-over/505241/
lpbk2713
(42,766 posts)liberal N proud
(60,346 posts)madokie
(51,076 posts)but somehow he continues to skate by
world wide wally
(21,755 posts)Historic NY
(37,453 posts)the hope & dreams of a Chris Krispy reign are over.
Beach Rat
(273 posts)His approval ratings right now are somewhere between Ebola and illegal dumping of toxic waste.
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)gvstn
(2,805 posts)Mean as it sounds the minute I knew he was out of the primaries, I smiled. Content with the fact that I am under the impression the type of gastric bypass that he got (obviously to help his chances for President), is the type that is not adjustable but leaves him only able to eat 4-6 tbsp. of food at a sitting. Big price to pay for ego.
tblue37
(65,490 posts)gvstn
(2,805 posts)tblue37
(65,490 posts)Ineeda
(3,626 posts)PearliePoo2
(7,768 posts)Boy, you've got that right! Me neither.
There's something so mean, nasty and sadistic about this guy, it would not surprise me one bit to learn that this bully was/is an animal abuser. I'm serious. All the signs are there.
Laxman
(2,419 posts)in the Bridgegate trial. But what would his testimony really add anyway? In summary we now have heard Christie was obsessed with rolling up the score in his reelection to give him an advantage in running for President. His entire staff was in on the effort and used state time and assets to woo democrats to endorse him in that pursuit. Sokolich of Fort Lee and some other mayors didn't play ball. They were punished. Sokolich's punishment was a scheme hatched by Kelly, Wildstein, Baroni and Stepien-with Christie's knowledge-to close lanes to the GWB. It caused horrible gridlock-thereby punishing an entire region to prove a political point. They tried to cover their tracks. They deleted emails and texts. Baroni lied, Kelly lied, Wildstein lied and most importantly Christie lied to hide the truth. Oh, and he's a loud mouthed bully who curses a lot and throws water bottles at his staff. What a sick and depraved story. Unless he was going to take the 5th (which would be quite entertaining) a series of I don't remember or I don't know answers would just add one more witness to the litany of everyone is lying except me characters in this sordid tale. There's a reason he's going down in flames. The big question right now is where does the wreckage land. Impeachment, indictment or will we have to be satisfied merely with the ignominious ending to his political career?
modrepub
(3,503 posts)The great governor spent $8M for Gibson Dunn & Crutcher to absolve him. At least one NJ Legislator is asking for a refund.
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/10/senate_majority_leader_demands_8_million_refund_ov.html
StevieM
(10,500 posts)That study was such a transparent fraud. And people did laugh it off at the time.
But it was never really addressed as an abuse of power in its own right.
MyOwnPeace
(16,939 posts)"A fantastic summary of the big ship going down."
Laxman
(2,419 posts)watching this ship go down!
Hekate
(90,829 posts)For the sake of poetic justice I hope protestors show up wherever he is, shouting "Lock him up!"
Beach Rat
(273 posts)I heard nothing gets the taste of shame and humiliation out of your mouth quite like it!
rivegauche
(601 posts)Didn't an elderly woman die in an ambulence, in that traffic? Or was that an urban legend?
StevieM
(10,500 posts)Doitnow
(1,103 posts)you surround yourself with scumbags, that when it comes down to the wire, they will be the first ones to betray you. I guess when you only have left to associate yourself with are other scumbags it's always going to be a worry. You'd think.
tblue37
(65,490 posts)ffr
(22,672 posts)You think Bridgegate was bad...
Laxman
(2,419 posts)that when Chris Christie hit record low poll numbers in June it would seem like the good old days! His 26% approval rating that was a historically low number that now seems like a high point he will never reach again!
The Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll released Wednesday morning found that the Republican governor's approval rating stands at just 21 percent, down from 26 percent in July.
I can't say I'm dismayed-other than to wonder who in the hell makes up the 21% who think he's doing a good job? He can't have THAT many family members. Anyway, this calls for a song in honor of the beleaguered governor. Maybe a little Doors will cheer him up!
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)It'd be pretty fuckin' ironic if the next NJ governor legalized the stuff. Watch Baby Huey have a tantrum then.
sellitman
(11,607 posts)Bully can make a living around here.
There is no one maybe except Trump who is more repulsive than Christie.
Take him out in leg irons.
Mc Mike
(9,115 posts)--John Lennon
lindysalsagal
(20,733 posts)Lawyers can use lots of tactics such as kill the messenger, but if they have to do it to 2 different underlings, that really shows that it's a strategy, not the truth.
They don't make shovels big enough to dig out of the testimony that is corroborated by another direct underling.
ecstatic
(32,733 posts)Blue Owl
(50,512 posts)n/t
tblue37
(65,490 posts)I initially read it as referring to the way Trump has continually, deliberately thrown shade at Christie--telling him publicly to get on the plane and go home; using him as a gofer; rather ostentatiously passing him over for the VP slot he was obviously hoping for.