The rats scurrying from the ship:
Outside the courthouse on Monday, Ms. Kelly’s lawyer vowed a “full airing of the facts” and to call as witnesses “everyone who was involved,” suggesting as he has before that Ms. Kelly was neither the architect of the lane closings, nor the one driving the monthslong campaign to cover them up as a traffic study instead of retribution against the Fort Lee mayor.
“The longer you have Bridget Kelly on the stand, you will obviously come to the conclusion we are saying today and have said all along, that she is not guilty,” said her lawyer, Michael Critchley.
Asked by reporters if he intended to call the governor himself, Mr. Critchley did not answer directly. “We’ll find out,” he said, then walked away with his client.
Mr. Baroni, who has made no public statements on the lane closings since he resigned from the Port Authority in December 2013, stood before a bank of microphones in front of the federal courthouse in Newark and described himself as “an innocent man.”
“I have spent my career trying to do the right thing,” he said, recalling how as a New Jersey state senator he had voted against the advice of his fellow Republicans in favor of family and medical leave, and medical marijuana, and proudly sponsored the legalization of same-sex marriage, a move that many believe cost him his seat.
“I would never risk my career, my reputation,” Mr. Baroni said, on something like a scheme to close lanes to a bridge to punish a politician.
Mr. Baroni took no questions, but in his brief statement, he vowed to testify on his own behalf at trial.
Ms. Kelly, who read a forceful statement in her own defense at a news conference Friday, stood silently by her lawyer as he spoke to reporters outside the federal courthouse Monday.
This will be fun to watch, and either they have the goods on a number of people or this is some bluster for the ages. They do know we’ve seen their emails and text messages, right?
kindness
They’re making Christie an offer he can’t refuse.
Sweeet.
Germy Shoemangler
I remember reading somewhere (I can’t remember where) that after the lane closing Wildstein was asking “Is Trenton happy?” He got the reply: “Yes, Trenton is pleased”
I read that “Trenton” was code for the Big Chicken himself.
Does anyone else know if this is true, or did I dream it?
Mike J
What I noticed in Kelly’s press conference was that she said she hadn’t broken the law. Which is not at all the same thing as saying she didn’t do any of it.
geg6
This is every bit as hilarious as I thought it would be.
Ah, Jersey, I gotta luv ya. Anything that makes PA look a little better.
Amir Khalid
@Mike J:
Is she saying that she didn’t do it, or that what she did wasn’t illegal?
JPL
@kindness: Wonder how much they will be offered to take the rap?
srv
Carly Fiorina is going to zig-zag her way to victory:
She will bring moderation to all things.
Paul in KY
Mr. Baroni may not know…
Paul in KY
@Mike J: Wonder if her defense will be that it was petty and deceitful and churlish, but it was not illegal?
Lavocat
Hey! Any updates on how Soonergrunt is doing?
Amir Khalid
@Lavocat:
Soonergrunt himself will update us, as and when it’s right for him to do so. In the meantime, let’s be patient.
JPL
@Lavocat: I haven’t seen a post in awhile but he still tweets occasionally.
https://twitter.com/soonergrunt
Mike E
@geg6:
Unpossible.
Yatsuno
@Amir Khalid: I will say this: he’s been rather active on Twitter. Otherwise I’ll let him speak for himself.
Germy Shoemangler
@srv: Perhaps she is relieved because of her corporate mindset, where you throw underlings under the bus if it benefits the bottom line?
I’m reaching here, trying to see her logic, because I doubt she’s relieved for the same reason I was relieved.
Paul in KY
@Germy Shoemangler: Excellent point. Hadn’t approached the comment from a robber baron perspective.
That probably is what she really means (your thought).
SatanicPanic
@Germy Shoemangler: Who knows, maybe she’s being sincere. Doesn’t mean she’s anything less than a terrible choice for president.
MattF
@Paul in KY: That’s like “cruel, but not unusual.”
jl
@srv: Maybe I am paranoid and have become very biased in my perceptions, but seems like these hopeless GOP candidates get a lot more coverage, and more positive coverage, than Sanders. And the long shot aspect is handled differently. As in what I heard some hacks say about Fiorina and Carson this morning, along the lines of ‘Hey, he/she is a long shot, and but it is a shot…. if they do it right… oohhh booyyy, this is a really interesting development in this crowded Republican field.
Edit: and same with Huckabee. He is announcing from Hope, Arkansas, don’t you know, in order to show how he can take on and beat the ‘Clinton machine’, and whew boy, that is a really interesting strategy. Trouble for HRC… hennngghhh…?
Yeesh, the stuff you hear on the radio and TV.
Maybe interesting or entertainment value, or for an expert in professional grifting and political career positioning. Not for much else.
MattF
@Germy Shoemangler: The question is not whether you dreamed it but whether it’s newsworthy.
MattF
@jl: Tsk. Sanders is so boring. Talks sense about things like economics and policy. Who wants to hear about that?
Germy Shoemangler
I saw this comment about Carly on another site, and thought I’d spread it around (pardon my redundancy):
Kay
@Mike J:
I noticed that too. That’s fine, I would expect that, but I don’t understand the rest of it. Saying “there had to be more people involved in this conspiracy!” isn’t a defense.
It’s interesting, by all means tell us all about it, but I don’t know how it helps her.
Maybe she’ll say something like she only knew one small piece and the higher-ups orchestrating it presented it as “close it down the for the traffic study”.
Germy Shoemangler
Just found out Grace Lee Whitney died. (She played Yeoman Rand on the original Star Trek, and was dismissed after a few episodes for refusing to…. well, I’m sure you all know the story)
Mandalay
@SatanicPanic:
She’s just released a campaign video. Cringe inducing, and just plain awful.
Belafon
@Germy Shoemangler: “As our country continues it’s decline, I am the person to take it there!”
dmsilev
@Mandalay: Does it feature demon sheep?
Germy Shoemangler
@Belafon: The perfect campaign slogan
@dmsilev: I envision a line of plush toy demon sheep. All proceeds (okay 50%, no… 30%) go to her campaign.
RaflW
@Germy Shoemangler:
Pretty easy to see, too. CalWashEgon manages to spin itself off as a super-liberal, highly prosperous (but dry, very dry!) country, and TexHoma becomes a US-Corp client-subsidiary that acquires Mexico in a disastrously expensive hostile takeover.
Calouste
@SatanicPanic: Any discussion of Fiorina’s (and Carson’s, Santorum’s, Gingrich’s, Romney’s, etc.) suitability for President can start and end with the fact that she hasn’t held a position of consequence for a decade.
RaflW
@Calouste: And when she did, she lost her shareholders 50% of their equity. That’s a position of consequence, alright.
Amir Khalid
@dmsilev:
Alas, no. She turns off the TV in the middle of Hillary’s announcement video (probably used without asking) and then says, “I’m running too! Blah blah blah …” Perfunctory. Tedious. Demon sheep would have livened things up a bit.
NCSteve
The Rovian Say Anything Party in action. The emails that have been published alone are enough to convict each and everyone of them, and yet they stand there indignantly claiming their innocence, asking whether we’re gonna believe them or our lyin’ eyes.
Yeah, I know it goes without saying and wtf have I been for the last twenty years, but every once in a while, it strikes me anew.
Germy Shoemangler
@Amir Khalid: I watched it on her youtube channel. “Comments disabled”
Cervantes
@Calouste:
If true, then not that different from Nixon in ’68.
boatboy_srq
@Kay: Her “defense” sounds a lot like “everyone doing it talked about it, and told me about it (in emails and such) – so of course my name is all over the place.” I suspect that either she’s getting out by being the Randian equivalent of a witness for the prosecution (supplying the overall prosecution with evidence without explicitly joining ranks with the prosecutors), or else she has dirt on somebody at least as powerful as Christie and is prepared to air it.
gratuitous
“I would never risk my career, my reputation” over something so petty as this. Unless, of course, there was a big fat paycheck in it, and I was pretty sure I could get away with it.
But now that it appears this mean little trick is going to come back and bite these big shots in their big shot butts, everybody’s looking for the exits.
Paul in KY
@MattF: Yeah, that’s what it is…
scav
@gratuitous: That “I would never risk my career, my reputation . . . ” does rather leave open the possibility that it was nevertheless done — the whole being more a statement about the judged reasonableness of the action, and not a denial of fact exactly.
Amir Khalid
Here’s Fiorina’s site on her HP career:
Notice: she never mentions that her job performance at HP is widely considered among the worst by a corporate CEO in recent history, or that she ended up getting the sack.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: As a thought exercise, how would you write the excerpted biography to include a realistic appraisal of her job performance & the fact that she got the sack?
Calouste
@Cervantes: Well, Nixon resigned, so even he himself worked out eventually that he wasn’t suitable :)
Calouste
@RaflW: But she doubled the turnover (by buying a company of the same size).
SiubhanDuinne
@Germy Shoemangler:
Mandalay
Bridget Kelly is inviting you to donate to her defense fund.
Please give generously, for the sake of her children. The one’s she is hiding behind.
ETA: She is so fucking brazen – there is a $25 minimum for donations!
esc
I lived in Baroni’s district about 10 years ago. A lot of people there thought he was the future of the Republican Party in New Jersey. But he was wildly rumored to be gay. A person like me might have to give him credit for voting the right way on civil union and marriage issues and for not pulling a McGreevey, but not the crazies who vote in Republican primaries. I almost feel a little bit bad for him. Almost.
Germy Shoemangler
@SiubhanDuinne: Two AA batteries for the glow-in-the-dark red eyes. The kids’ll love it.
PurpleGirl
@Amir Khalid: Nor does she give examples of solutions, like shipping jobs overseas or closing domestic facilities. We need concrete examples of those decisions.
Amir Khalid
@Paul in KY:
I doubt I could, without giving away that I think her unfit to be President.
Ruckus
@Paul in KY:
She sucks sheep dongs.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: Same here. I do like Ruckus’s brevity.
rikyrah
I find this all hilarious
Mandalay
@Paul in KY:
From a San Jose Mercury News editorial:
Ouch.
Randy Khan
@Germy Shoemangler: She was a disaster at HP, but to be fair, she never actually ran Lucent, and the Alcatel merger occurred seven years after she left. By all accounts, she was a strong performer at Lucent.
In practice, there are a lot of people suited to be COOs or other high-level executives but not CEOs, and that may have been what happened with her. Of course, that’s also a perfect explanation for why she shouldn’t be President. I mean, besides the demon sheep.
srv
I destroyed a company, I can destroy America
Belafon
@srv: I am proof that women can make decisions as badly as men.
Paul in KY
@Mandalay: They must have had some fun writing up that one.
Paul in KY
@srv: That actually has a ring to it (if you were running for Poohbah of ISIL). Probably sounds pretty good in Latin.
srv
It’s a new day in Baltimore:
patrick II
@Randy Khan:
I agree, and was going to write to the point using a trite sports analogy (I can’t help it) — there have been many great football offensive or defensive coordinators who were busts as a head coach.
Carly was given her chance to lead an organization and failed.
Oh, and George Bush failed at his several tries at leading oil companies but we elected him anyhow and look how that turned out.
Calouste
@Randy Khan: When Fiorina was at Lucent, Lucent used some rather creative accounting and sales forecasting, something she, considering she was at the level right under the CEO, can’t hardly have been unaware of.
trollhattan
@Germy Shoemangler:
Awww. Always wanted to play checkers on her hairdo.
Zinsky
I hope I live to see the day that Kris KrispyKreme is perp-walked (or is it perp-waddled) into a federal penitentiary!
Tree With Water
“They do know we’ve seen their emails and text messages, right?”.
I’ve got a big enchilada theory that encompasses that question. Why should they speak the truth? Everyone also knows that Bush-Cheney (et.al.) plotted war, and war came. And most everyone ignores that fact, most especially democrats. “No one was held accountable, so no crimes were committed”. That’s what democratic party leaders essentially told people as they closed ranks, and ultimately even people that didn’t believe them didn’t much care. To hear most democratic politicians tell it, every blessed one of those involved in plotting that war were most regrettably misled. And that is a lie. It is as gross a lie as anything Dick Cheney ever uttered in furtherance of his plot to war, albeit a lie the democratic rank overlooks when tacitly endorsed by their own politicians.
Naturally political operatives conclude it pays to brazen it out and is a risk well worth running. If war criminals can succeed in broad daylight, why not them?
skerry
@srv: Reports are saying now that no one was shot, but a gun was discharged at North and Pennsylvania. One man arrested.
I was in downtown Baltimore for lunch today and saw more police standing around than I’ve ever seen. Also witnessed a convoy of about 3 dozen vehicles (looked to be national guard) get on I-83 to head out of the city. (Or I hope they were leaving the city).
James E Powell
@Amir Khalid:
Carly didn’t always make the most popular decisions at HP–but, time and time again, they would prove to be the right ones.
She was proved fucking right!
gene108
@srv:
Worked for George W. Bush on many levels
Villago Delenda Est
@jl: Huckabee has no chance. He will be eviscerated by his own past.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ruckus: DEMON sheep dongs.
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
I was trying to be pithy. But of course all things considered you are correct.
boatboy_srq
@patrick II: However much we may want responsible government, all that says to the GOTea is that Gummint Remains The Problem and that neither Shrub nor Fiorina are suitable for the role because they have left so much of their earlier employers still standing.
gene108
@Tree With Water:
Bush and Cheney never used e-mail and/or text messages and/or any other form of known written communication that could imply they did anything illegal.
Plotting war is not a crime, unfortunately.
The War of 1812, the Mexican-American War and the Spanish-American War were all instances of wars being plotted and fought on relatively thin grounds.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Germy Shoemangler: The show and I were born at right about the same time. Grew up watching it repeatedly. She was probably the reason for my lifelong attraction to blondes. My wife looks eerily like her. I can’t believe that she’s dead. For that matter, I’m having a real hard time accepting that most of the OG cast is dead…of old age, yet.
boatboy_srq
@Paul in KY: How about “Fiorina’s management style is uniquely tailored to turning any enterprise into a small business:” that one, unfortunately, will go over well with the Teahad.
Tree With Water
Kelly should announce that she has begun to write a book. A book she is still seeking a publisher for, a book that might even make a terrific movie. Kelly could spin her current plight into a very large bank account if she plays her cards right..
Germy Shoemangler
@CONGRATULATIONS!: I read Grace Lee Whitney’s autobiography a few years ago. She had a rough time of it (before and after the show).
I remember her most fondly in the “Charlie X” episode.
raven
@Ruckus: I enjoyed reading your post about split ring wheels. In the Army we used a pick and a sledge hammer to take them apart and re-assemble. When the one I mentioned blew I was behind a dump truck. I turned and the wheel was hitting the ceiling of the shop. I ran around the dump and the dude was gone. My first thought was that he had disintegrated,
skerry
CNN’s Carol Costello: “Fiorina’s Presidential Bid Is “Turning Into This Weird Girl Fight” With Clinton”
Apparently, we should only have weird boy fights for the president.
Amir Khalid
@skerry:
Fiorina’s the only one who wants to make a girl fight of this. Clinton has never so much as mentioned being a woman.
Redshift
@jl:
That is clearly true, but the one grain of justification I can see is that all of the clown car denizens seem like longshot losers, and yet one of them is going to get the nomination.
catclub
@SatanicPanic:
She is ONLY running to have a woman hurling insults at Hillary. Carson does the same for Obama and Obamacare.
Redshift
@skerry: It has seemed to me from the beginning that Fiorina’s sole selling point (as a potential VP) is “I can attack Hillary without being accused of being sexist.” Since Republicans don’t seem to be able to figure out that they can all do that just by not being sexist, it just might work.
catclub
@Mandalay: I think that if she is hoping for support in NJ, the Breckenridge, Colorado sweatshirts don’t help.
gene108
@Redshift:
That means they would have to debate on policy, which is not something they could win on in a Presidential race, because they would get actual media scrutiny, unlike in state and local races.
catclub
If no one else has mentioned that all Chris Christie stories now seem very local to just the northeast media, Here is my two cents to say that.
Tree With Water
@Redshift: “..it just might work”. It does work, but to an ever decreasing number of people. See: California republican party (from whose bowels Fiorna was blown).
catclub
Does anyone know what has happened to the American Prospect (Tapped) website? Did somebody take it over?
Ruckus
@raven:
Given the sound and force available, your first thought really wasn’t all that far out of the range of possibility.
Roger Moore
@Redshift:
Their problem is that they want to be sexist (and racist, homophobic, transphobic, etc.) without being criticized for it. You and I may recognize that as unreasonable, but that’s what the candidates want because that’s what the Republican base wants. They don’t actually want a woman- or a black, gay, etc.- on the ticket, but they do want a woman-shaped shield to protect them against criticism for their sexism.
J R in WV
@Redshift:
Yes, but what you suggest [not being sexist!] is impossible for a Republican candidate.
If you ARE sexist to your core, how can you stop, just like that?
This will work for the Democratic candidate, esp. if she is a she.
Monkeyfister
This is shaping up to be the PINNACLE of New Jersey Adult Entertainment.
They are all going to be fucking each other HARD before this scene is over.
Tree With Water
@Roger Moore: “Their problem is that they want to be sexist (and racist, homophobic, transphobic, etc.) without being criticized for it”.
Indeed. And thus was born the term, “political correctness”.
burnspbesq
Whatever else you want to say about Corzine (and there is plenty to say), at lease he wasn’t corrupt.
He didn’t need to be. He walked out of Goldman with far more money than he could ever have hoped to steal from the taxpayers of New Jersey.
danielx
Attention all rats: please don your personal flotation devices and proceed to the nearest AUSA’s office.
SiubhanDuinne
@Germy Shoemangler:
It’s so convenient that the election is just a few days after Halloween. Makes it easy to leave the scary stuff out for another few days.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mandalay:
Ouch indeed. Also, this:
BruceFromOhio
It was closing some lanes of traffic to a tunnel, and they couldn’t even get that right.
Why anyone, ever, anywhere, enables any of these people is beyond my skill to understand.
SiubhanDuinne
@srv:
@Paul in KY:
Perdidi turba possum destruere Americae.
/Google Translate
SiubhanDuinne
@Germy Shoemangler:
I don’t know the story, and the Googlz aren’t all that helpful. Can you provide the 50-cent summery, please?
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Raven, how’s the pinky finger doing tonight? Throbbing mercilessly, I’ll bet. I know you don’t drink, but hope you are willing to down a pain pill when necessary.
Renie
More indictments of corrupt NYS reps. N.Y. State Senate Leader Dean Skelos(R) indicted today and we already had Sheldon Silver (D) NYS Assembly Speaker indicted. Here in NY we spread around our corruption for all parties.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Hey! Nah, it ain’t bad. Random sharp pain but very seldom and, if I hit it the wrong way it hurts a bit. I have a splint that is keeping it immobile and I’w changed the dressing and cleaned it once. I took a pill last night and it totally fried any sleep so we’ll pass on that.
thanks
eta Call the Midwife continues to amaze!
feebog
I’ll take “bluster for the ages” for two hundred Alex. The emails are damning. Plus you have Grimma Wormtounge, I mean David Wildstein, ready to rat out both of them. Doesn’t mean there weren’t more staffers, or Christie himself in on it. But there is a reason these two have been indicted.
Snarki, child of Loki
Hey, Christie himself, in one of the early news conferences said:
“Yeah, I was out there on the George Washington Bridge, putting down the traffic cones.”
I think we should take him at his word, because Christie is an honorable man.
Paul in KY
@boatboy_srq: Well played!
Paul in KY
@SiubhanDuinne: That does sound cool! Put it in old English font & on a banner & no one (who couldn’t read latin) would know! Carly, you know you want a cool coat of arms!