Republicans will happily gridlock nation to spite Democrats... literally

[samoht]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25671970

"On 9 September, two of three traffic lanes to the George Washington Bridge, which connects New Jersey to Manhattan, were shut for several days....The gridlock was allegedly engineered to punish a Democratic mayor who did not endorse the governor's re-election."

This just seems to be the perfect metaphor for many parts of the Republican party's current attitude to politics and to government.

[Jason]

It's been a while since we've had a time wasting scandal. The news media companies are foaming at the mouth. We'll forget about this within a couple weeks.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Really thought Christy is one of the few Republicans who's above that. So disappointed.

Whether he truly authorized it or not, just glad he and his team isn't the one in the white house at the moment. Imagine what other vindictive things they'd do, not only to our own citizens, but also the people around the world.

Anyway, with his top campaign aids all fired, let's see how well he wins elections without them... even if this scandal failed to stop his presidential bid.

[speedpimp]

Christy is firing anyone on his staff having any knowledge or involvement in this. His Chief Of Staff got the axe today.

[Random]

Really thought Christy is one of the few Republicans who's above that. So disappointed.


Guy on one of my other boards, who is from NJ, says this is actually pretty typical for Christie.

[Mr Wonder]

Yeah it seems he's always been a bullying prick but this is a fairly serious abuse of power for literally no gain at all. Just unbridled retribution for not supporting him in a race he was never less than twenty points ahead in.

Even if you believe his "I knew nothing, it was a rogue colleague" spiel he's at best incompetent at controlling the actions of friends that he appointed. Given that the port authority guy is already pleading the fifth, and Christie's "I don't know anything about any other possible wrongdoing" in the press conference I think there's probably more to come from this.

Worst of all? The traffic impeded the search for a missing child, and a 91 year old died of cardiac arrest because the EMS unit was struggling with the traffic.

Fucking unbelievable.

[Freude am Fahren]

I wonder if someone will try to bring up manslaughter charges?

[Crazed_Insanity]

I think there's a federal investigation going on..., man slaughter charge is certain possible. However, supposedly the family of the old lady doesn't want to get into the politics of it and claiming it was her time to go anyway at 91.

Anyway, it's just not plausible that your top aid can all of a sudden go rogue without you knowing anything about it.

Kristy definitely could've gotten my vote before this..., one would think this guy must be some cool bipartisan dude being so popular in a blue state... maybe he can get the nation going...but after this incident, certainly won't vote for him anymore.

[21Kid]

I used to like Christie before this fiasco...

It's hard to pin something on someone without direct evidence. See: Scott Walker in Wisconsin

[Drachen596]

if Obama has no clue whats going on at Border Patrol or the IRS...

unless they can find a direct tie to Christie saying 'hey go do this' then how exactly do you pin the blame on him rather than some aide?(oddly, everytime i type or hear aide all i can think of is the Jared from Subway episode of South Park)

[Jason]

Am I the only one that thinks this is just "politics as usual"? I feel like this wouldn't get much play in the news if there was something real happening for the media to latch on to.

It's a shitty move, but in a country where district lines are redrawn, social services cut, regulations stirring outrage, to me a bridge being cut off for three days to gain political advantage just seems "meh".

[Kchrpm]

There is a difference between one of many organizations you are the highest executive of doing something without you knowing and your "top aide" doing something without you knowing. Doesn't mean he knew about it, but there is a difference.

[Tom Servo]

He's definitely showing that this is something he was uninvolved with via his vindictive retribution towards those who perpetrated this vindictive retribution.

[21Kid]

Jason,
To me it seems more like "LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!!!"

[KillerB]

Slate has a piece on how Al Gore's camp did basically the same thing during the 2000 Presidential primary, and he went ballistic at his staff about stopping voters from getting to the polls until they told him that, in that area, it was just stopping likely Bradley voters. Then he said "uh never mind."

In other words, I bet this happens more than you think.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Really? Somehow I'm having difficulty imagining Al Gore going ballistic. If he can really give voters the impression that he could actually go ballistic, perhaps he would've won...

Kristy's scandal is just too much.

Traffic study for 4 days and nobody has any power to terminate such bizarre study for that long when people's lives were clearly disrupted...

Boy, if he won the white house and you crossed him, he'll likely send in drones to nuke you.

Whether it happens more than we think is irrelevant. Surely lots of things in this world happen more than we're aware of. If you're going to do something this pointless, you better be super confident that nobody finds out about it. Now that it's found out, I think Kristy's pretty much done. At least i won't ever consider voting for him.

[overpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kbSzvm5cyI

[thesameguy]

Brilliant :up:

[21Kid]

:lol::up:

[21Kid]

And now...

Washington (CNN) -- Just days after dismissing two top advisers for their roles in the George Washington Bridge scandal, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie faced questions over the use of Superstorm Sandy relief funds.
CNN has learned that federal officials are investigating whether Christie improperly used some of that money to produce tourism ads that starred him and his family.

[overpowered]

It's a Jersey thing.

[The359]

Actually those ads were about how Jersey was recovering from Sandy, if I remember correctly, so I don't see how it's inappropriate to try and bring the Jersey economy back by saying the state has recovered from the disaster.

[Kchrpm]

It seems the governor passed over a lower bid for the ads, paying more for ones he could appear in while running for reelection.

Quote is from a Google+ post (https://plus.google.com/+JeremyNixon/posts/32gjM5vCB9h) that references these articles.

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/chris_christie_facing_federal_investigation_over_u se_of_sandy_funds.html

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2014/01/emails_show_state_officials_abruptly_canceled_meet ings_with_jersey_city_mayor.html

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/195233-christie-headlining-lonegan-fundraiser-this-week

[Drachen596]

thats not news.. they announced that forever ago and everyone has forgotten.

[Kchrpm]

The federal investigation? That was apparently just announced today, but maybe they're just getting it all together so they can submarine him and get a new candidate ready to go.

[overpowered]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHV0LLvhXM

[Crazed_Insanity]

That's awesome!