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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Maybe It Was A Different Democrat Christie Was Punishing

Open Thread: Maybe It Was A Different Democrat Christie Was Punishing

by Anne Laurie|  January 10, 20141:49 am| 30 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Assholes

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@SamWangPhD Something about someone closing a few lanes on the GW bridge. Apparently routine traffic studies are big news now. #slownewsday

— billmon (@billmon1) January 10, 2014

Chris Christie late night joke: @jimmykimmel : How bad is blocking a bridge? That's what Bane did in the Batman movie!

— Juan Cole (@jricole) January 10, 2014

Just possibly Politico smells blood in the water, because they assigned Olivia Nuzzi, of brief NSFWCorp fame, to explain “15 Chris Christie Controversies You Missed“…

Rachel Maddow has a new theory about the target of Christie’s wrath; I’m putting the video below the fold because people have previously complained about autoplay issues.

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Reader Interactions

30Comments

  1. 1.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    January 10, 2014 at 2:02 am

    Poor Christie. All the guy wants is closure.

  2. 2.

    Seanly

    January 10, 2014 at 2:12 am

    I love Rachel, but I don’t watch her because I can’t stand how she takes a 5 minute story & turns into 15 minutes…

  3. 3.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    January 10, 2014 at 2:15 am

    Class action

  4. 4.

    jl

    January 10, 2014 at 2:17 am

    Interesting theory. Dat Joizee poliitics is interestin’.

    So, if Christie is lying, then maybe he figures he can finesse it.

    He can honestly say he didn’t know about a scheme to give some payback Sokolich or Ft. Lee in particular. That’s technically true.

    If Maddow’s theory is true, it’ll be a field day for pundits, and I will eagerly await the Brooks column on the finer moral points, and I guess Lane or whatsisface (there are several) can complain that it was the result of Nobama’s failure to lead.

  5. 5.

    Joseph Nobles

    January 10, 2014 at 2:24 am

    @Seanly: It’s tough filling an hour M-F.

    However, I don’t see Christie’s ship utterly foundering yet. After all, Fox News hasn’t slipped up and put a D behind his name yet. So he’s still got legs.

  6. 6.

    piratedan

    January 10, 2014 at 2:52 am

    I don’t have any reason to not let Rachel follow those dots, seems plausible as hell. Political retribution is on the menu, it’s just that media picked something from the appetizer side of the menu instead of checking out the entrees. If so, then that means that CC lied about political retribution as a reason, just let us assume that we had the wrong target. If proven, he’s toast.

  7. 7.

    Amir Khalid

    January 10, 2014 at 3:08 am

    I don’t know how important this is. Whether the governor’s office (or the governor himself) was punishing Weinberg or Sokolich, and for what, seems of secondary importance. It happened; Christie either took part or let his closest aides run wild and do it. He hasn’t managed to explain that away.

  8. 8.

    scav

    January 10, 2014 at 3:14 am

    If the trigger is a simple

    > Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.

    and the recipient knows what to put into motion, this has been discussed prior. It’s not coded, true, but it is enigmatic. That comes across my desk early one morning without context, and there’d be a bounce back along the lines of

    But the swallows are in flight over Piscataway

    and an inquiry as to the quality of the party last night.

    There should be more crumbs upstream. And it being entirely the result of a late night breaking point being reached the day before doesn’t quite hold up. Whatever this is, it was served slightly colder than that.

    Another thing is, what kind of revenge message or warning it is that is so utterly diffuse in actual impact and unclear as to target? It’s like finding 16 horse heads in the middle of an 5 intersections, 7 parks and 4 pizza parlors. Most odd.

  9. 9.

    Amir Khalid

    January 10, 2014 at 3:35 am

    @scav:
    A too-obvious punishment leaves no denial room for the perpetrator, who might then not escape punishment himself.

  10. 10.

    scav

    January 10, 2014 at 4:01 am

    @Amir Khalid: Yes, some diffusion, slight of hand, anonymity is required for cover, but this seems a little overly scattershot. The other stuff being described (pulling funds etc.) seems more usual in targetting (and style), whereas this? Take that bridge users that use certain onramps! Take that city with clogged streets! Something was clearly up, so people were trying to reverse-engineer the recipient, but the one everyone first assumed was it wasn’t then and isn’t sure now of it (at least publically) and there are now theories of others. Ley Lines of communication spring to mind: Keep drawing them, we’ll find someone that fits, but I don’t think it’s an example of effective, even if cloaked, communication or suasion.

    eta. And I say that as someone well-versed in getting tangled up in what I,m trying to say.

  11. 11.

    Bob h

    January 10, 2014 at 7:39 am

    If the target was Weinberg you could have truly vile characterizations of her; maybe that’s why so much was redacted

  12. 12.

    TomG

    January 10, 2014 at 7:57 am

    @Seanly: Rachel’s the only one on MSNBC I can really stand to watch anymore. I wish the execs would stop insisting that every evening talk show host focus on the same lead story. If there were 3 or 4 different discussions over 5 hours, I’d watch more of the hosts.

  13. 13.

    Xboxershorts

    January 10, 2014 at 8:07 am

    @scav:

    > Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.

    Exactly!

    This gives me the impression that this action was pre-scripted by CC’s inner circle specifically as a potential form of retribution to be kept on hand until needed.

    And CC may not have had direct knowledge of the various scenarios of retribution his minions had planned, but I’m absolutely certain he had instructed his minions to develop retribution plans. Thus ensuring CC has plausible deniability of the specifics of the bridge lane closings. But I feel pretty damn certain he had direct knowledge of a collection of retribution plans without specific knowledge of what those plans were.

    I couldn’t tell you exactly when, but I think some time in December as this was coming to light, CC expressed muted outrage that Ft Lee would have so many lanes into the GWB just for it’s little old self….

    Kinda indicates he had some kind of issue or beef with Ft Lee, doesn’t it?

  14. 14.

    rikyrah

    January 10, 2014 at 8:37 am

    The Promise Zone Initiative is part of the President’s plan to create a better bargain for the middle-class by partnering with local communities and businesses to create jobs, increase economic security, expand educational opportunities, increase access to quality, affordable housing and improve public safety.

    http://youtu.be/PL6jJMFN1hE

  15. 15.

    Anton Sirius

    January 10, 2014 at 8:59 am

    @Seanly:

    I love Rachel, but I don’t watch her because I can’t stand how she takes a 5 minute story & turns into 15 minutes…

    I much prefer Doc Maddow over-explaining something than the usual news pattern everywhere else of relaying a five minute story in 12 words or less.

  16. 16.

    greennotGreen

    January 10, 2014 at 9:10 am

    @Xboxershorts: Bingo! Otherwise, why wouldn’t the email reply have been, “What do you mean?” And for Christie to comment, why does Ft. Lee have three lanes to itself? indicates he is either astoundingly obtuse (rode sistems, how duz they worx?) or he was being sarcastic when he said it.

  17. 17.

    Robert

    January 10, 2014 at 9:19 am

    Morning Joke did an impressive dance today to explain why Chris Christie is the real victim here. It was mesmerizing. I mean, he was practically crying when he called his BFF Mika to talk about how mean the New York press was in comparison to how they never ever say anything bad about that mean old President Obama. I can’t. That show is hazardous to my health and sanity. They talked about BENGHAZI!! again to support Christie.

  18. 18.

    Citizen_X

    January 10, 2014 at 9:26 am

    @greennotGreen:

    for Christie to comment, why does Ft. Lee have three lanes to itself? indicates he is either astoundingly obtuse (rode sistems, how duz they worx?)

    Meh. Republican: don’t know, don’t care. Long as I get elected.

  19. 19.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    January 10, 2014 at 9:27 am

    @Anton Sirius:

    Yeah, I much prefer Rachel’s way over the norm of turning a 15 minute story into one minute.

  20. 20.

    Mike in NC

    January 10, 2014 at 9:38 am

    Already tired of hearing the constant media bleat about assholes like Christie, Ryan, and Rubio and their presidential ambitions. STFU, Republicans.

  21. 21.

    Sondra

    January 10, 2014 at 9:43 am

    @Seanly:
    I get impatient with the set-up too, but I understand why she feels she should do it that way. Not everyone who watches her is as on top of the wonkiness as we are or as quick to add up the connections.

    Plus, people tune in at different times as they did in her radio days: Randy Rhodes does the same thing. So she feels she must make those connections very clear by re-iterating them many times.

    Maybe she also wants her audience to learn to think about issues rather than just decide which version of a story to accept based on who delivers it. When this story broke, everyone was out there covering it and they all said the same things – all day long and all night long: no one had anything different to offer. I was bored in about 5 minutes.

    But if the reporters all used the same words even to describe their own reactions: “petty” came up a lot, then it seems worthwhile to wonder what the motivation was for such a big response to such a minor offense.

    So, Rachel understood that there might have been something else going on and decided to change the focal point of the story slightly. That made it more interesting and worth spending time on a story that had already been beaten to death before she even went on the air.

  22. 22.

    feebog

    January 10, 2014 at 10:22 am

    @scav:

    There should be more crumbs upstream. And it being entirely the result of a late night breaking point being reached the day before doesn’t quite hold up. Whatever this is, it was served slightly colder than that.

    I think the Transportation Committee already has some of those breadcrumbs in their back pocket. Remember that the leaked emails represent a small sample of about 900 pages of emails that Wildstein’s lawyer turned over to the Committee. Baroni turned over about the same number. Obviously a lot of those pages will be chaff, but there are bound to be some nuggets still unmined. Moreover, many of the pages (from both individuals) were heavily redacted. If the U.S. Attorney starts issuing subpoenas you can bet it they will receive unredacted copies.

    Christie took a huge gamble with his “I’m the victim and was betrayed” line yesterday. There is an email out there somewhere that implicates him. The only question is whether it will be uncovered.

  23. 23.

    coin operated

    January 10, 2014 at 10:41 am

    I like how Maddow sets up the stories…I like knowing the background information on the topic she’s dissecting. Her spending 15 minutes on a segment keeps me from spending an hour tracking down the information myself. If I wanted soundbites, I have a dozen other channels and news shows to go to.

    I think Christie overplayed his hand talking about Ft. Lee and political endorsements yesterday. Should have left that rumor alone. Now we’re seeing an angle that nobody saw before, and it makes a hell of a lot more sense. This isn’t over….

    Edited for clarity…

  24. 24.

    Joey Giraud

    January 10, 2014 at 10:52 am

    @Sondra:

    Nice to bring up “my Goddess” Randi Rhodes. She is, IMO, the very best radio talker on the air, although Norman Goldman has been on fire recently.

    You’re right about the repetition. Randi knows her biz.

  25. 25.

    patty \

    January 10, 2014 at 11:08 am

    WOW! what good reporting. as annoying as she is, i think she may be on to something here.

  26. 26.

    MCA1

    January 10, 2014 at 11:25 am

    Kudos to Maddow. That’s great reporting. [And to those complaining about her style, she has to give it the long play and setup, because everyone outside of MSNBC watchers thinks she’s the leftiest left-biased commie in the Western Hemisphere. She needs to lay it all out in indisputable fact form for anyone in the mainstream to pay any attention to it.]

    But, I mean, the fact that her shop is the ONLY ONE to think “Wait, really? All this over one Democratic mayor declining to endorse the Governor? Maybe there’s an alternate motive. What was happening in NJ politics generally about that time?” is just about all we need to know about our media in general.

    I had been thinking that this was not specifically retribution on Mayor Sokolich, but rather a Soprano style warning to every other Democratic mayor or other figure out there who was on the fence re: endorsing Christie. You know, nice restaurant you got there. It would be a shame if it were to burn down. Just sayin’. But with the factual background of the Supreme Court nominees, Rachel’s story makes even more sense. The question is whether anyone outside of her production team will start digging on the ‘X’ they put in the ground.

  27. 27.

    WaterGirl

    January 10, 2014 at 11:29 am

    So many scandals are called whatever-gate that it’s almost embarrassing. In spite of that, I have to confess that this bridge scandal really does have the same feel to me that watergate did all those decades ago.

    I turned 18 in time to vote to re-elect Nixon because I didn’t believe all the early reports about Watergate. I became an avid follower of all information about watergate, and the 1972 election was the last time I voted republican.

    I tend to not bother to remember names or details about things that are of passing interest, but there’s some intangible quality to this bridge scandal that makes me feel like it’s the real deal and that what we know about lane closings is just the tip of the iceberg. I realized this morning that I have been retaining the names of the various players, and I feel an excitement that makes me think this is going to unfold into something much bigger, which may influence another generation of voters.

  28. 28.

    WaterGirl

    January 10, 2014 at 11:29 am

    duplicate.

  29. 29.

    Comrade Mary

    January 10, 2014 at 12:25 pm

    Something to cheer you up while you’re waiting for news.

    I actually quite like this. Seriously. Completely unironically. I like the original artist, but never cared much for this one, the first big hit, and I don’t care much for the genre of the cover, but hey, put all the negatives together and it comes out .. pretty good.

  30. 30.

    Death Panel Truck

    January 11, 2014 at 2:58 am

    @Seanly: I can’t stand her constant repetition. It drives me nuts, so I stopped watching her.

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