This could be really, not good, pretty awful bad for Christie:
David Wildstein, a former ally of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, is set to plead guilty, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, suggesting he may be cooperating with prosecutors probing traffic jams he ordered near the George Washington Bridge.
Wildstein is scheduled to appear as early as Friday in federal court in Newark, where grand jurors heard testimony in secret for months about gridlock over four mornings in Fort Lee, New Jersey, according to the person, who requested anonymity because the matter isn’t public. The plea was originally scheduled for Thursday, the person said. The specific charges were unclear.
A plea by Wildstein, who was a top appointee at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, would be the first conviction for U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in an investigation of the September 2013 lane closures. The scandal has hurt Christie’s popularity as the Republican weighs a run for the White House and tests his tough-talking image with voters in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Christie denies knowledge of a plot to close two of the three local-access lanes to the world’s busiest bridge, which is run by the Port Authority. If Wildstein pleads guilty and cooperates with prosecutors, he could give them an inside view of how the plot unfolded.
It was just a few years ago that he looked like someone who really could make a run at the White House, and now the closest it looks like he will get is on vacation. That’s a good thing.
JPL
It’d be good news for McCain though.
Corner Stone
I’ve always thought he was a guy that at least we knew where he stood on issues, and was someone we could work with.
It’s a shame he’s being taken down by lying subordinates who are just trying to save their own skin. Don’t they realize that saving Gov Christie’s skin would benefit way more people?
sm*t cl*de
and now the closest it looks like he will get is on vacation
Ha! Cole misspelled “parole”.
srv
Dream on. Either outcome make Christie look like a hero to his base.
There’s no way for you to spin this though:
Hal
I was just thinking the other day after seeing some of those polls of current republican candidates how Christie had completely fallen off the radar. Truth is his not pulling a Jan Brewer and telling Obama to fuck off during Sandy hurt him with the GOP base far more than this bridge scandal, which I don’t think any of them even care about. Too bad all of this didn’t happen before the last election.
scav
I’m still trying to come up with a use for Christie’s skin. Would make a few handy tents for Nepal I guess, but the time needed for tanning it would argue for the usual Nylon or whatever.
hells littlest angel
“Something’s going down, but it ain’t going to be jobs, sweetheart.”
Aimai
They dont care about the bridge but its hard to run for president with subpoenas and testimony and baggage like this.
Howard Beale IV
Thar she blows, Cap’n!
raven
Some geologists thinks there may be 50,000 dead in Nepal.
Howard Beale IV
Here’s another juicy nugget buried in the article:
These flights were stopped by Continental before the United/Continental merger because they were money losers.
Snarki, child of Loki
…detailing numerous “business opportunities”, organic products to make various body parts swell up or shrink, and a bevy of widows of african dictators asking for help accessing millions in swiss bank accounts.
Hal
@srv: That “investigation” is still on going? Hopefully this won’t affect Obama’s 2016 re-election campaign.
J.D. Rhoades
@Aimai:
Which is exactly the strategy being deployed against Hillary Clinton.
feebog
C’mon! Christie has nothing to worry about. Why, he barely knew this Wildstein guy. Yeah, they went to the same High School, but Christie was a jock and ran with the cool kidz while Wildstein was a nerd and hung out at the dork table in the cafeteria. Christie has no idea how he even got that job at the Port Authority. This is all just an unfortunate isolated incident crafted by over enthusiastic low level staffers.
JPL
Bridget Kelly and Samson might have trouble sleeping tonight. I sure hope that Wildstein has some type of protection the next few days.
JPL
Chris is not concerned at all…..
link nj.com
SiubhanDuinne
O/T, but how the fuck can “Less Than Two Hours Until Baltimore Curfew” be considered a BREAKING NEWS story?
Oh wait, sorry, it’s CNN.
Never mind.
cahuenga
Idunno. I travel constantly – been to every state multiple times. I’ve seen the folks that inhabit every little dirty corner here, and every fiber of my being tells me that Christie could never be a viable national candidate – never happen. He is just too harsh and too Jersey.
Redshift
@J.D. Rhoades: They’re trying, but obviously partisan committee subpoenas don’t have quite the same effect as judicial subpoenas. It’s not nothing, but there aren’t going to be any indictments coming out of the Benghazipalooza committee.
SatanicPanic
Aww, this means you won’t get to vote for him Cole, you’ll have to go with your second choice Rand Paul
j/k
askew
Not surprised he flipped. Christie mocked him in the press and denied even knowing him. Isn’t there still charges against Christie’s ex-CoS as well?
Mandalay
@Aimai:
And even harder to raise money. Why would a donor give Christie anything right now, without knowing what dirt Wildstein has on him?
Omnes Omnibus
@cahuenga:
That’s always been my view.
Redshift
@Corner Stone:
It’s been quite a while since that was the case. Ever since he started actively running for president, he’s changed where he stood on the issues to please the wingnut base, and he’s started declaring that he “doesn’t want to talk about it” when asked questions that might get him in trouble. He discarded being “straight talking” from his persona almost immediately, and the only thing he’s kept is being a bully.
Corner Stone
Wow, David Simon pretty much puts paid to any chance O’Malley had at a WH run here:
“The drug war began it, certainly, but the stake through the heart of police procedure in Baltimore was Martin O’Malley. He destroyed police work in some real respects. Whatever was left of it when he took over the police department, if there were two bricks together that were the suggestion of an edifice that you could have called meaningful police work, he found a way to pull them apart. ”
The whole interview is like a condensed version of Yikes.
Done bones.
danielx
No biggie…if the worst thing that happens to Christie is that his run for prez is aborted (that horrible word!), some would say it’s a blessing. There’s no way he’ll get what he deserves, since once you reach a certain level (if you’re a Republican anyway) you’re not going to prison no matter what you do.
askew
@Redshift:
Nothing will come from the Benghazi committee. I’d be more worried about the Clinton Foundation. There has been some new revelations there separate from the Clinton Cash nonsense. I still think the media lets her skate on it as they have with her complete 180 she did in her crime speech today.
WereBear
Color me happy. And unsurprised.
Corner Stone
@Redshift:
That doesn’t seem entirely accurate, IMO. Chris Christie has always been pretty much a straight shooter, and someone who says the hard truths when needed. That can come off a little raw sometimes, and I get that, but when it comes down to it I think it’s important to know where someone stands on the issues. We may not like some of the rough verbiage but knowing that there’s a marker, or position that is definite, is pretty useful if we want to reach across the aisle and be able to work with someone.
JPL
Christie will be missed at the republican debates. He takes get off my lawn to an entire different level.
gf120581
If it wasn’t clear before, it’s clear now that Christie missed his chance. He should have listened to all the GOP bigwigs begging him to run in 2012 and jumped in. Back then he was the shiny new guy, the media darling who told it like it was. That image is ruined now. Now he’s the corrupt bully whose approvals are in the cellar and seem to get worse with every new poll. I mean, he barely even registers in the list of GOP candidates anymore and the big money guys on the GOP side have pretty much abandoned him for Jeb or others. He’s past his sell date and no one wants to throw money into that lost cause anymore.
mdblanche
I see ya woke up this mornin’
The world turned upside down
Lordy, but a-things ain’t been the same
Since the blues walked in-a town.
But ya, but ya, one in a million
‘Cause you got that shotgun shine
Shame about it, born under a bad sign
With a blue moon in your eyes.
gf120581
@Corner Stone: All you need to know about how David Simon views O’Malley is to see the character of Tommy Carcetti from “The Wire.” Now, Simon says he was a compilation character, but really, was there anyone who saw that character (an ambitious politician who wins a surprise victory as mayor of Baltimore and then uses it as a springboard to the governorshup) who didn’t think of O’Malley? (That and the character is played by Aiden “Littlefinger” Gillen.)
Peale
@Corner Stone: yep. Not good at all. But why did he get elected twice?
Corner Stone
@gf120581:
Maybe O’Malley can give a few more speeches in Iowa and redeem his 3% recognition polling?
Although come to think of it, if people start thinking he is associated with The Wire in any way that may actually bump him up to 5% in the polls.
Corner Stone
@Peale:
Maybe due to screwing the crime rate numbers and essentially mass incarcerating black people in West Baltimore?
raven
@Corner Stone: Surprised you aren’t palpitating about the game.
Peale
@askew: so Clinton changes her mind in a way that you favor and you…whatever.
HR Progressive
A bloviating gasbag may yet be deflated. Could not happen to a nicer person. Except maybe Rand Paul, or Ted Cruz, or……
gf120581
@Corner Stone: I think the “Game of Thrones” connection would be worth a few more points. ;) (Though he then might have people yelling, “You betrayed Ned Stark, you bastard!”)
raven
@HR Progressive:
Corner Stone
@raven: I’m loving it but nobody else gives a shit. I mean, there isn’t an MLB, NBA or NHL thread anywhere in sight/site.
So, I mean, damn. My son and I already spent an hour practicing drop step to baseline, drop step to middle, drop step baseline to box out, drop stop middle to box out.
So we hoopin’ up in this piece. At least for a couple whiteys.
raven
@Corner Stone: Me too.
Corner Stone
How can you not love a hooper named Jarrett Jack?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@cahuenga:
Which of those is the euphemism for “a nasty bully”?
NB – It’s painful to put the punctuation outside the quotation marks but this seemed a rare instance where it might be appropriate.
jibeaux
“He looked like someone who could really make a run….” Dammit Cole some of us are trying to take the high road and not make cheap appearance jokes so don’t pitch em quite so slow….
In “hype my kid’s middle scool win-a-tuba competition news”, the school is currently up by NINE votes, closing tomorrow, it’s going down to The Wire. If you want BJ to be the blog that made a tuba for a band kid possible, go to Facebook, to the page for The Tuba Exchange, and vote for their video about 5 videos down called “band commercial.” I promise I won’t hype it again until possibly tomorrow if it’s still really close. Thanks and I love you all [most]!
raven
@Corner Stone: A Yellow Jacket. Where’s Rare Sanity?
Peale
@raven: so cruz is volunteering for the “easer of racial tensions” role. I believe that his party spent all last summer prockaiming 12 year old Hispanic children to be satan’s disease vectors unworthy of help. But please…
shortstop
Setting aside that he’s always been too harsh and too Jersey to be a national candidate (yep, cahuenga), if you’re waiting and waiting to announce your candidacy for the presidency of the United States until you see if your top staff are going to be indicted and take you down with them, you might not be a viable candidate.
raven
Jack with the TO!
shortstop
I do plan to enjoy his loud-voiced, ultra-earnest statements after Wildstein pleads. Chris is trying to get to the bottom of this just like everyone else, you guys! And he’s just confused and, you know, disappointed that someone he barely knows would behave like this, and had he had any idea, you bet he’d have put a stop to it.
Corner Stone
That should just about do it.
Corner Stone
Being 38 and 44 in the regular season should just be F’ng embarrassing when you make the playoffs.
Matt McIrvin
@raven: The article’s claim that initial death counts are always low is strange: my experience is the opposite, that initial death counts in big disasters are usually high, because death reports get duplicated and missing people eventually turn up. Maybe they mean specifically earthquakes in rural areas.
The case I always think of is 9/11: some reports were estimating tens of thousands of dead on the first day, it was 5,000 or 4,000 for quite a while, then it got down to just under 3,000. I remember some malevolent British snarkers predicting that the number of dead was going to dwindle to less than 10.
But 9/11 was an urban event.
Breezeblock
I have reliable rumors that 3 indictments are coming down: Wildstein (now getting in front of the bulldozer), Samson and Murphy.
The Singing will be in the next 2-4 weeks, I’m thinking.
shortstop
Looking out the window at Wrigley and the stands resemble Camden Yards today.
Juju
@srv:Did you know that Lois Lerner is a Bush appointee?
Breezeblock
@Corner Stone:
Are you being Ironic? He’s been a crook from the git-go. I saw his County Freeloader shit.
Peale
@Matt McIrvin: yeah. When the original death toll figures from the japanese tsunami came out, they were low for a day or two, then ballooned up towards 100,000. Then way back down. Same with the super typhoon in the Philippines. We just won’t know at this point. But the magnitude is staggering.
RaflW
@raven: “We need leadership that brings us together rather than trying to divide us.”
That’s some serious chutzpah/delusion coming from Cruz.
Redshift
@Corner Stone:
You can continue to believe that image if you want, but there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary. He’s pulled a Rubio and refused to answer whether he agrees with his previously stated position in favor of a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. He’s flip-flopped on Common Core, on vaccinations. And more.
I’d love to hear examples of some of these “hard truths.” In his most recent public berating of a teacher at a town hall, he lied about what his administration has done on pensions, he falsely blamed pension problems on his predecessors, and he just made up a wild story about Christy Todd Whitman giving workers a “vacation” from contributing to their pensions. A little while before that, he flat-out lied about the Exxon settlement. Further back, he lied about the reasons for his canceling of the project for the new tunnel to NYC.
He has a staffer who follows him with a camera at public appearances to record him berating relatively powerless constituents and public employees and post them publicly. I don’t see that as “a little raw sometimes,” I see it as deliberate bullying that serves little purpose other than to boost his image with wingnuts who like to see their politicians sticking it to “those people.”
That doesn’t mean it’s not possible to work with him; you don’t have to like people to negotiate with them. He’s occasionally shown signs of moderation and sanity, which while a low bar is better than most prominent Republicans. But it’s not because he’s a “straight shooter” or “you know where he stands on the issues.”
askew
@Peale:
I am not stupid enough to believe her. Hillary’s record and her decades of comments tell the real story of who she is.
askew
@Breezeblock:
Wow, I hope you are right. That would be pretty shocking. GOPers always get away with this stuff.
chrome agnomen
@shortstop: maybe he can help OJ find out who killed nicloe and ron while he’s at it.
Redshift
@Juju: I’m pretty sure that’s incorrect; I don’t think she was an appointee at all.
Mandalay
@Corner Stone:
You are not well informed – Christie’s flip flopping can be Romneyesque.
Cervantes
@Redshift:
You’re right — not an appointee.
@Redshift:
@Redshift:
Your leg — check to see if anyone is pulling it.
Corner Stone
@Redshift:
Well, yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. He was elected, and then re-elected with a huge amount of NJ Democratic pols endorsements.
All the initiatives he had and has put forward since have to have been at least palatable to the D pol infrastructure in NJ. So that kind of backs up my aisle crossing appeal he presents, and the fact that he’s someone we can work with.
He chews out some randos sometimes but that’s just a kind of sideshow. When it comes down to it, he embraced President Obama during Superstorm Sandy, gave his own party the business for not funding repairs from that incident, and went to the mats for funding for Atlantic City. Seems pretty obvious to say we know where he stands and he’s someone we can work with, when it comes down to it.
Mandalay
@raven:
During that same speech Cruz also said this:
So much for inflaming racial tensions.
Cruz also needs to get his ass down to Miami for a couple of hours, then issue a correction to his bullshit.
patrick II
Before the Bridegate event, I actually though that Christie would have a chance at being the Republican nominee and some outside chance of winning the presidency. What I didn’t count on was the total incompetence of his administration. He has put his state employee’s retirement fund deeply in debt, New Jersey’s bonds have had their rating lowered, and he abandoned a tunnel to New York City project and invested some of that money in a failed casino.
I am amazed he was re-elected governor, but he has zero chance of being president.
samiam
“It was just a few years ago that he looked like someone who really could make a run at the White House,”
There are those razor sharp wr0ng way Cole instincts showing through again. A man truly in touch with the people.
Same guy who thinks Ron Paul has some good ideas and Griftwald is not actually grifting. I forgot all about that phase he went through where he was fawning over the fat sweaty bastard. Just another one of his hits.
Tree With Water
I bet if offered a big fat joint of quality smoke after getting that bit of bad news, Christie would have fired it up. After all, why not? It’s not like a bust could do his presidential aspirations any more harm if that report is true. In fact, a bust would probably serve to bump his polling numbers up a little bit before his inevitable indictment. A guy like Christie, who has always operated on the premise that all news is good news if you know how to bluster and bullshit, just might be able to gain some suckers sympathy.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tree With Water: Because everyone wants weed, right?
Tree With Water
@Omnes Omnibus: No, because Christie vowed to suppress the un-suppressable if elected to the presidency.
I bet you’re a tea and shawl-type person who likes things just so, aren’t you, Omni?
lefthanded compliment
@raven: Yeah, when I try to think of leaders who could help bind our wounds and unite our fractured nation, Tailgunner Ted is the very first guy who springs to mind.
Peale
@patrick II: well he was a man. He had that going for him. You couldn’t all of those elected and unelected democratic politicians and chairmen to willingly endorse the woman the primary voters chose to be their candidate.
Peale
@Mandalay: look. Can’t all you Asians and Hispanics go back to voting republican? You’re supposed to be model minorities…well not the Mexicans. But the rest of you need to come back.
Peale
@patrick II: I think it’s ‘bridgegate”. Bridegate sounds like something kind of lurid, and we don’t like the idea of tawdry scandals that make think of sexytime Chris Christie. Think of the children.
SWMBO
@Peale: Jeezus, think of the rest of us. Sexytime Chris Christie? I just threw up in my mouth a little.
AxelFoley
@gf120581:
Christie would have been exposed for the liar he is if he ran in 2012. And President Obama would have beaten the shit outta him like he did Romney.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@AxelFoley: I always thought the smart move for Christie was to sit out 2016 and spend a couple years playing the wiseman on the sidelines. I think the Bridge thing was he and his staff believing their own press, that they were an unstoppable political juggernaut that could do whatever they wanted. If he had put out the word that they were gonna graze in the tall grass for a while before their next election, I think it would have calmed them all down
Theodore Wirth
I like it and Christie will not be on the ballot. However, I contend that if that mistake happens, it will not matter to a majority of Republican voters who would view it as sticking it to some librul mayor.