Chris Christie-Accounts of Petty Retribution Reinforce Christie’s Bullying Image

[Gothmog]

The George Washington Bridge incident that has been reported on by Rachel Maddow and others is not an isolated incident. Christie has a history of making people who irk him pay for their sins http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/25/nyregion/accounts-of-petty-retribution-reinforce-christies-bullying-image.html?hp

But the gesture would come to seem genteel compared with the fate suffered by others in disagreements with Mr. Christie: a former governor who was stripped of police security at public events; a Rutgers professor who lost state financing for cherished programs; a state senator whose candidate for a judgeship suddenly stalled; another senator who was disinvited from an event with the governor in his own district.

In almost every case, Mr. Christie waved off any suggestion that he had meted out retribution. But to many, the incidents have left that impression, and it has been just as powerful in scaring off others who might dare to cross him.

Now, the governor is dogged by another accusation of petty political revenge. Two close political allies ordered the abrupt shutdown of two local access lanes on the George Washington Bridge in September, gridlocking the borough of Fort Lee for four days. The borough’s mayor said it was punitive because he had declined to endorse the governor’s re-election.

There is a pattern here of Christie taking petty retribution against people who oppose him. That same pattern makes the story about the George Washington bridge a potentially good issue if Christie is the GOP nominee. The leadership of the GOP is already taking steps to eliminate debates and caucuses to try to give Christie the inside track for the 2016 nomination. While the tea party may hate Christie, I can see him getting the nomination because the GOP leadership will be desperate to win. The DNC is doing a good job of developing the facts on this issue in case that Christie is the candidate.

[Omaha Steve]

1. K&R!

[flamingdem]

2. Guys a dick

What more do we need to know. Low brow.

[Tarheel_Dem]

3. I hope NJ Dems & left leaning Independents are coming back to reality with this guy. nt

[Laxman]

4. This article is spot on...

Its a great description of the guy's twisted personality..actually the twisted personality of his close advisers. You just have to realize many of the state's democrats are owned by the same business and development interests that created this creep. This guy is the perfect Frankenstein creation for the right wing. A ruthless bully who manages to be entertaining. People think he "tells it like it is" just like Archie Bunker. Just have to keep up the pressure on him and he will eventually explode. Trust me on this one. I have the misfortune of knowing him.

[Gothmog]

5. The Tea Party hates Christie but i see signs of the GOP leaders clearing a way for Christie

To some degree, the nomination of Christie may split the GOP and the Tea Party but I am still thinking that the GOP leadership (i.e. the sane people in the GOP) will want to nominate someone like Christie who could appeal to moderates. Christie is not a moderate and he may be able to keep the tea party people somewhat happy with a VP nominee like Carnival Cruz or Marco Rubio.

I applaud the DNC's efforts here to develop the George Washington bridge issue because that issue is a great way to illustrate the fact that Christie is a bully and low life. The more that this theme is developed now, the better it will resonate in a general election. The Obama campaign did a great job of painting Romney as one of the one percent and so when the 47% comments came out the public was willing to accept these comments as reflecting who Romney really is. It is going to be harder to do this with Christie and so it is important that the DNC start now.

[abakan]

19. Poor impulse control..

Not someone you want running your country, unless you are in North Korea.
I believe a case could be made that Christie is temperamentally unfit for the job.

[calimary]

39. Welcome to DU, abakan!

Glad you're here. Indeed. Poor impulse control. Just what we'd want in a leader who has "the button" at his fingertips.

ALSO - even if he blows it off on his two aides, that's still a huge problem. It's not just the winning candidate. It's WHO HE/SHE WILL BE BRINGING IN WITH HIM.

You say george w bush, you also say cheney, rummy, kkkarl rove, contradicta, dougie feith, paul wolfowitz, gonzales, scooter libby, etc., and the accursed PNAC people (MANY of whom, btw, were itching to get back in with mccain/palin and four years later, romney/ryan - many of those war-hungry fiends were on the foreign policy advisory teams).

You say ronald reagan, you also get bush senior, lee atwater, james watt, oliver north, ed meese, and a shitload of criminals.

You say richard nixon, you also get spiro agnew, haldeman, ehrlichman, john mitchell, original dirty-tricker donald segretti, charles colson, and all kinds of fucking riff-raff, indicted AND unindicted coconspirators.

With the last two, nixon and reagan, I believe the statistic of note was that they both had more administration figures indicted for corruption and subsequently jailed for it than any other administrations in American history. I believe nixon held the record until st. ronnie and his merry band of bastards came along.

[abakan]

41. Thanks for the welcome

I agree the hangers on are always a concern.

I firmly believe the ones that manage to hang on all the way to the white house, are the most corrupt of all..Just like birds in a nest, where the oldest chick throws it's siblings out of the nest. These devour the weaker hangers on.

[7962]

21. "Carnival Cruz". HA! First time hearing that one. But seriously,

I just dont think the TP will support him regardless of his VP. Although what you mention would be his best move, I dont think HE will do it because of his ego. I read comments all the time about "not another Romney" or "RINO". Many proudly state their non-vote in '12. Thats the difference between them and the Democrats; we read here all th time about not wanting Hillary as another corp candidate, but if she gets the nomination 98% of DU members will still vote for her as opposed to giving the GOP a better chance at winning. A LOT of these TP/right-wing fools will stay home and then bitch about losing. All IMO, of course, but I think thats what happened in '12.

[Gothmog]

25. In Texas, the term "Carnival Cruz" has been in use for a while

I am hoping that you are right as to the Tea Party. At some point the Tea Party will split from the GOP or the Tea Party will take over the GOP. Right now, the Chamber of Commerce types are in control and this group may be able to control the process so that Christie is the GOP nominee. This will be fun to watch

[Gothmog]

37. Good cartoon

[Kurovski]

6. Please, no more nutso pres candidates.

He will only get worse.

K&R

[Gothmog]

7. Christie is not Nuts

Christie is mean and vindictive. Christie is the typical bully which is why it was okay to punish a down as political payback.

[Kurovski]

8. I think he has a personality disorder. I didn't mean mentally ill.

He's not a balanced person. IE, nutso.

It will get worse.

You watch.

[Gothmog]

9. If want to see some true nuts, come to Texas

We have Louie Gohmert who believes in terrorist babies, Steve Stockman who thinks Cornyn is a liberal and Dan Patrick who thinks that Phil Robertson (the Duck Dynasty idiot) is the voice of G-d. Our current governor thinks that he is qualified to be the GOP nominee. Christie is sane by Texas standards

[Kurovski]

10. In addition, Gohmert seems like someone who got dropped on his head.

Bless his heart.

[Skittles]

11. CORRECT

Texas is tops in sheer nuttery; yes INDEED

[mountain grammy]

17. and that could clinch the nomination for Christie

that he's "sane by Texas standards." He appeals to the right wing whackos in Colorado, at least the ones who are "sane by Texas standards." I know what you mean. Our right wing congressmen aren't quite as nutty as Texas, but pretty darn close.

[TxVietVet]

32. Here in Texas,

We do have some genuine goofy fux. Stockman is now my Rep. He somehow replaced another goofy prick named Brady here thru gerrymandering.

[Gothmog]

34. I have a relatively sane GOP congresscritter who is pushing for Holder's impeachment

My congresscritter is sane compared to some of his GOP brethren. Unfortunately, Tom DeLay used to be in this seat and there are strong rumors that DeLay is going to take back his seat in 2016. As a result, my congresscritter is running to the right by heading the effort to impeach Attorney General Holder for such things as suing Texas on voter id. http://www.juanitajean.com/2013/11/15/some-rumors/

Within days of Tom DeLay’s conviction reversal by Republican judges, Tom began talking about running for his old seat again. He’s decided it’s too soon this time since the filing deadline in Texas for the 2014 election is December 9th, but he wants to run as a vindicated persecuted hero in two years.

No, seriously, my phone has been ringing like a bad handbell choir with people anxious to tell me that Tom is doing a Reunion Tour. He wants to go back to Congress. I saw him get handcuffed and hauled off myownself. I was there having a party the night before and the day after. I never wanted to see him again.

Okay, so Pete didn’t know he was a place holder and got to liking all the attention he gets as a congressman. If I’m hearing about Tom’s plans, you know that Pete is, too. So ….

Pete had decided to lead a movement to impeach Eric Holder. He got 20 other Republicans to sign on with him, 8 from Texas. Yeah, his desk would have gotten at least 26. Furniture. Bless his heart

[George II]

18. I WANT more "nutso" republican presidential candidates, makes the job easier for us!

[BlueMTexpat]

12. In this respect, he seems very much akin

to the half-term ex-Governor of AK. Where she is the Queen of Petty Retribution, he appears to be a strong contender for King.

It is a frequent GOP affliction, IMO.

[blkmusclmachine]

13. Chris Crispy has the NJ Bully pulpit.

[jmowreader]

14. And he takes the "bully" part seriously

[Gothmog]

15. According to TPM, Christie is playing into our hands

Christie's reaction to this story is actually helping to build the narrative that Christie is a bully http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/christie-playing-into-enemies-hands

I don't know whether Chris Christie was personally involved in the boffo Bridge Closure payback earlier this year. And I find it very hard to believe he got his fingerprints on it. But he's managing so far to play into the hands of his political opponents and all national Democrats in the way he's handling the story. In fact, he's doing so so completely that I suspect he's in a situation in which he's simply not characterologically capable of behaving otherwise.

First, there's dismissing the story as no big deal. Whether that's true or not is a subjective judgment. But if your cronies really did massively inconvenience a whole city as part of a political payback that actually is a pretty big deal - and one that raises specific vulnerabilities for Christie and he tries to move on to the national stage.

Second, don't make false statements that are actually secondary to the story itself. If he ordered his friends to do this (something for which there's no direct evidence and I can't imagine it went down that way) then, okay, maybe he just has to deny that. But saying that Fort Lee officials didn't say anything about the traffic jams at the time seems easily refutable. Why burn through credibility on something like that, especially since it's not clear that complaints like this would make their way up to the governor's office.

[CTyankee]

22. I think the acid test will be how well it plays in primaries in such places as Iowa.

How much disdain do these voters have for the Northeast? They may think that the snooty East Coast folks "deserve" their traffic jams and delight in something that messes up New York City. Even my liberal friends in my husband's home state of Wisconsin have some dim views of Manhattan and resorts such as Martha's Vineyard. I hear it all the time since I live close to and visit those places but I also visit Wisconsin. It's not severe and godawful. My WI friends are all liberal Dems. Nevertheless, there are traces of it (e.g. calling NYC "the rotten apple&quot that take me aback. So I can imagine it is even worse with the Republicans out in the midwest.

[Gothmog]

23. What works in New Jersey will not work in the rest of the country

There are numerous videos showing Christie yelling at reporters. I found this conduct to be in poor taste but it worked in New Jersey. The conduct in these press conferences is consistent with the pattern of bullying that is reflected in these reports.

This will be fun to watch

[CTyankee]

26. Now, bullying people is a different story. Particularly when it is a large man with a really mean

snarl on his face, a "joisey" accent, and a loud, abusive voice, thundering against women and elderly men. I wonder how that plays in, say, Kansas...?

[whathehell]

27. True. I've always thought he was very Tony Soprano.....n/t

[gussmith]

16. This is the Year

As we said to our 6-year old who blames even inanimate objects for her situations, the is the year to take responsibility. "I am responsible" - a good message for the Christies of the world.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

20. Govenor Ballast has a bullying problem. . .who woulda thunk? he's been bullying teachers

and government workers during his tenure, but it takes lane closures to bring it to the forefront?

[Gothmog]

24. Christie's aides have lawyered up

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/100-days-later-christie-aides-lawyer

[Gothmog]

28. NYT has good editorial on Politicians who Bully

Last edited Mon Dec 30, 2013, 05:58 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/opinion/sunday/the-elected-bullies.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1388327217-QjjVV9zXc+FcWONWEWbCaw. Chris Christie is the main target of this editorial.

Once in office, however, he begins using that prod more against political enemies than problems of state, wielding his powers to punish critics, skeptics and those of questionable loyalty, while lavishly rewarding supporters. The brashness that seemed fresh and appealing in a debate loses its charm when it becomes the vengeful voice of a city or state, and voters then regret their choice. At least until the next charismatic bully comes along.

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is the most current example. As Kate Zernike of The Times reported last week, he has had aides deliver obscenities to a union official who criticized him on the radio. His administration removed the police protection for one state senator (and former governor) after the senator was seen as too dilatory in approving the governor’s nominees. When a Rutgers political scientist serving on the redistricting commission chose a plan favored by Democrats, Mr. Christie defunded two of his programs at the state university. And his associates have recently been accused of deliberately creating traffic jams in Fort Lee, N.J., in an act of vengeance against the city’s mayor.

[calimary]

40. We need this kind of thing to get out there as widely as possible.

I'm hoping other republi-CON candidate wannabes will go after him with knives and forks because of this. I hope it's a bloodthirsty primary season for them, and that whoever emerges does so as thoroughly damaged goods. All the Dems hopefully will need to do is just take a whole slew of pages from the various campaign books during the GOP primary season. The bad guys will be doing all the groundwork and heavy lifting for our team and the eventual victor will arrive on the scene not exactly unscathed or injury-free.

Don't forget how the last season went. You had the king-of-the-week show for months, starting actually with the queen-of-the-week, because I think I recall michele bachmann won the Iowa caucuses, as ridiculous a notion as that is! She kicked off primary season in 2012 as the one to beat. And very soon she was, and that was that. It happened to a whole slew of 'em, including rick perry, santorum, newt, herman cain, and whoever else is manifestly forgettable here. One by one they fell as more and more of that side decided to hold its nose and vote for romney. christie is this season's flavor. I heard analysts and pundits on Monday, musing basically - "hey, whatever happened to marco rubio?" 'Cause at one time he, too, was the flavor-of-the-month, before his star faded out. Hopefully christie will, too, as more people get to know him and discover how much there is to dislike. And hopefully his own team will help erode his leadership without our having to do much to soften him up. Hopefully, if he's to be the one, they'll deliver him to us all nicely sliced 'n' diced.

[hatrack]

29. Not a "bullying image" - a bullying reality

He's a petty, self-absorbed and vindictive asshole, and that's a fact.

[The empressof all]

30. How much of this is getting traction in New Jersey

My sister in New Jersey told me yesterday that she hadn't heard anything about this in the local news. Now perhaps it's quite possible she isn't paying that much attention...but her being unaware had me curious. Perhaps she needs to change her channel....

[ramapo]

33. From North Jersey...Not a lot

It is reported in the papers but most people don't read the newspaper. And unless you were directly affected by the traffic mess, there is not much chance you care a whole lot.

Christie's persona has taken him a long way. There are plenty of people who do not like him but he has won a lot of hearts and minds with his 'straight' talk and attacks on teachers. He hasn't done much to bring down property taxes and went nowhere near the police unions and their contracts which make the teachers look very reasonable. Now he is busy traveling instead of being governor. We will see how that plays out.

[Hekate]

31. KnR

[Dawson Leery]

35. kick

[Gothmog]

36. The New Yorker has a great cartoon on this issue

[Gothmog]

38. Christie Ally Ordered To Testify In Bridge Scandal

This will be fun to watch http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/christie-ally-subpoena-bridge-scandal

A close ally and former high school classmate of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) was ordered on Tuesday to testify about the scandal involving lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.

David Wildstein was subpoenaed to testify at a hearing Jan. 9 by New Jersey Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D), who has been leading the investigation into the September lane closures.

Wildstein was the director of interstate capital projects at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the bridge.....

"When not making traffic cone jokes and shrugging off the threats to public safety these lane closings created, Gov. Christie has made clear that this decision was largely the fault of Mr. Wildstein," Wisniewski said in his statement announcing the subpoena issued to Wildstein. "So as we continue gathering information on this matter the time has come to hear directly from Mr. Wildstein. The public deserves answers as to how this decision was made, who was involved and its true purpose. I look forward to Mr. Wildstein providing insight into this decision that put public safety at risk and raised serious questions about this vital yet dysfunctional agency being used for political vengeance."

[Gothmog]

42. It appears that the order to close the lanes came from "higher authority"

There is a good report out that the order to close down the lanes on the bridge came from a higher authority
http://www.northjersey.com/columnists/kelly/Kelly_Assemblyman_says_order_for_GWB_traffic_tieup_came_from_outside_Port_Authority.html?page=all

The George Washington Bridge lane closures that led to paralyzing gridlock in Fort Lee this past September were ordered by someone outside the Port Authority and possibly for “an improper motive,” said the state lawmaker leading the investigation into whether the closings were politically motivated.

“There are documents that we’ve received that would indicate that there was somebody else who initiated this,” said Assemblyman John Wisniewski. “There are words that are used that would imply an improper motive.”....

In signaling that he plans to expand the investigation beyond the Port Authority, Wisniewski said that Wildstein did not act alone, but appears to have been following instructions from higher-ups.

“This didn’t originate with David Wildstein,” said Wisniew¬ski, a Democrat. “It came from a higher authority.”
- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/columnists/kelly/Kelly_Assemblyman_says_order_for_GWB_traffic_tieup_came_from_outside_Port_Authority.html?page=all#sthash.DaRh56nT.dpuf

If this story does not directly reach Christie, it is going to get pretty close to him.