The Republican Governor of the State of New Jersey has given new meaning to the term 'gridlock.'
Emails released today (Wednesday, January 8, 2014) showed that Governor Chris Christie's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, deliberately plotted to wreak havoc on the city of Fort Lee, New Jersey, once it became clear that the borough's mayor, Democrat Mark Sokolich, would refuse to endorse Christie in his reelection bid.
"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly wrote in an email on Aug. 13.
"Got it," replied David Wildstein, who was then one of Christie's top appointed officials at the Port Authority, which is run jointly by New York and New Jersey. Wildstein resigned last month.
Sure enough, a month later, there was a massive traffic problem lasting three days. On Sept. 9, the first day of school in Fort Lee, drivers found that two of the three access lanes to the George Washington Bridge -- the busiest bridge in the United States -- were closed, causing gridlock throughout the entire city that delayed all emergency and police vehicles. Among the reported emergencies that day were a missing child case and a cardiac arrest (see comments below).
Furthermore, there is ample justification to claim what I have always felt from the beginning: Governor Kristie Kreme is a verbal abuser, fosters a culture of bullying, and is unfit for public office.
Here is an editorial in today's New Jersey Star Ledger.
Mmmmm. That sounds delish!
ReplyDeleteHmmm but what about benghazi?
ReplyDeleteThe Record:
ReplyDelete“On Sept. 9, the first day of the traffic paralysis, EMS crews took seven to nine minutes to arrive at the scene of a vehicle accident where four people were injured, when the response time should have been less than four minutes, he wrote.
It also took EMS seven minutes to reach an unconscious 91-year-old woman who later died of cardiac arrest at a hospital. Although he did not say her death was directly caused by the delays, Favia noted that “paramedics were delayed due to heavy traffic on Fort Lee Road and had to meet the ambulance en-route to the hospital instead of on the scene.”
Emergency responders also were late in getting to a third medical emergency that first morning of the lane closures. It took Favia nearly an hour to arrive at a building where a person was experiencing chest pains “due to standstill traffic on Route 46 East. The Mutual Aid ambulance coming from Palisades Park and paramedics coming out of Leonia were also delayed due to the excessive traffic,” he wrote.”
No you're missing the point! Benghazi Benghazi! Birth certificate! Muslim extremist terrorist fist-bump deathpanelsFEMAcampsIRStargetingAHHHHHHHH! I'm melting!!!
DeleteThe Jersey conspiracy?
ReplyDeleteHo Hum... Remember Ben Gazie.
Preparation for 2014 and 2016 continue as the antagonists prepare for war.
Stocking up on popcorn, beer, and coffee. As the games continue.
Stocking up on barf bags!
ReplyDeleteIf I didn't think such things were standard procedure and always have been I might get exercised. Candidates are never the people they're made out to be but a product designed to sell, or perhaps a lure designed to set a hook in the public mouth. Christie's "regular guy" image is no more than a suit of clothes.
Of course a traffic jam isn't the same as inventing a false narrative about a Vietnamese attack on our ships or about a false threat from Iraq or about how one of our battleships was blown up by Spain.
Maybe the lesson is that the petty stuff, like a staged traffic jam, is more likely to get you busted than attacking an enemy of Al Qaeda for what Al Qaeda did. My advice to crooks, liars and would-be usurpers of power is to think big. If you start a war you're more likely to be a hero than not and then you can write your own false narrative and commission your own statue.
I don't know who exactly knew what about this incident, but it's disturbing. It's petty vindictiveness, to be sure, but at the same time, the real-world consequences of such behavior can be lethal. What if there's a traffic accident or some other kind of accident and the paramedics can't get through to help the victims in time? Wouldn't there be relevant criminal charges to make against the responsible parties?
ReplyDeleteI think there should be criminal charges and would be if only justice had anything to do with political affairs. There certainly would be if Obama's people had done something like it, can you imagine the fury? but dirty political tricks are as old as King Tut's used chariot and I'm not going to waste time waiting for miracles.
DeleteNothing to stop a civil suit for injured parties though.
Uno, dos, tres, quatro
DeleteBridget told David about a thing she saw.
Had two big horns and a wooly jaw.
Wooly bully, wooly bully.
Wooly bully, wooly bully, wooly bully.
David told Bridget, "Gotcha, let's take a chance.
Let's jam the bridge, come and learn to dance."
Wooly bully, wooly bully
Wooly bully, wooly bully, wooly bully.
Bridget told David, "That's the thing to do.
Get you someone really to pull the wool with you."
Wooly bully, wooly bully.
Wooly bully, wooly bully, wooly bully.
Suzy Quatro?
DeleteAnd his top officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey did indeed close the lanes as a form of retribution against the borough’s mayor.
ReplyDelete“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Christie’s deputy chief of staff wrote to David Wildstein, a top Christie appointee at the Port Authority.
Wildstein answered, “Got it.”
Dear Dog! I know politics is a dirty business, but do we have to continue to accept the fact that BIPPs [Big Important Political People] surround themselves with pubescent pettifoggers?
Didn't see his presser, but did Christie announce that Bridget Ann Kelly is now officially a "Bridget to Nowhere?" [Wish that were mine, but it isn't, found it on Wonkette.com.]
ReplyDeleteForgot to link to the comments over at Wonkette. Hilarious!
ReplyDeleteThe deeper one looks into this story, Governor Kristie Kreme has a history of political retribution:
ReplyDeleteA former governor, Richard Cody who is a Democrat, was denied a police security detail;
A Rutgers University professor was suddenly denied funding;
A state senator was "uninvited" to an event within his own district.
Or this: “You want to come up here? Come up here,” Governor Kristie Kreme said to one teacher, a fellow Republican, who hesitated until the governor’s security state troopers gave him no choice. Wagging a finger, the donut lectured the man, then dismissed him from the hall.
All staffers take their cues from their leadership. Bridget's bridge jam is certainly consistent with the thuggish style of her boss; and I find it hard to believe that donut man knew none of this.
I wish I could believe this sort of thing was the whole story - only now and only in New Jersey, but I think it's part of a long continuum of dirty business as usual in American politics on every level.
ReplyDeleteThe only positive thing I take from this is that so far it's just a scandal and not a "gate" And ain't it about time?
Christie's Biblical inspiration for his payback to Ft. Lee's mayor: "Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lard."
ReplyDelete