Author Topic: Messages Link Christie's Aides To Bridge Lane Closures  (Read 1180 times)

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Offline flowers

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Messages Link Christie's Aides To Bridge Lane Closures
« on: January 08, 2014, 05:16:46 pm »
http://www.myfoxphilly.com/story/24394881/messages-link-christies-aides-to-bridge-lane-closures

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TRENTON, N.J. -

A top aide to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is linked through emails and text messages to a seemingly deliberate plan to create traffic gridlock in a town at the base of a major bridge after its mayor refused to endorse Christie for re-election.

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly wrote to David Wildstein, a top political appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the George Washington Bridge connecting New Jersey and New York City, one of the world's busiest spans.

Kelly wrote the email on Aug. 13, about a month before two of three local access lanes to the bridge were diverted, causing hour-long backups in Fort Lee during the first week of school. The message was among a series of emails and texts obtained by The Associated Press and other news outlets Wednesday that are the clearest sign yet that Christie aides were involved in the lane closures.

Christie, a star in the Republican Party who's considered a possible candidate for president in 2016, has denied that the lane closings were punitive and has said his staff was not involved. After the emails were made public Wednesday, he abruptly postponed a scheduled morning event.

Wildstein, a childhood friend of the governor, has resigned over the lane closings. He is scheduled to testify under oath before a state Assembly committee conducting one of three


Oceander

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Re: Messages Link Christie's Aides To Bridge Lane Closures
« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2014, 05:24:40 pm »
Ain't corruption fun!

Offline EC

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Re: Messages Link Christie's Aides To Bridge Lane Closures
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2014, 05:36:29 pm »
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Christie, a star in the Republican Party who's considered a possible candidate for president in 2016, has denied that the lane closings were punitive and has said his staff was not involved. After the emails were made public Wednesday, he abruptly postponed a scheduled morning event.

Not to worry. It was an over zealous member of staff who will fall on their sword, then quietly take up a well paying job elsewhere.
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Offline ABX

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Re: Messages Link Christie's Aides To Bridge Lane Closures
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2014, 05:47:42 pm »
Remind me again why anyone likes Krispy Creme?

Online mountaineer

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Re: Messages Link Christie's Aides To Bridge Lane Closures
« Reply #4 on: January 08, 2014, 06:25:40 pm »
This story is old news, but leave it to that idiot John D. Rockyfailure IV to weigh in.

Offline olde north church

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Re: Messages Link Christie's Aides To Bridge Lane Closures
« Reply #5 on: January 08, 2014, 07:19:26 pm »
Yeah, this is top notch stuff.  Nuthin' like Benghazi, FBI, Obamacare, nuthin' important like that.  Jump at the crumbs.
Why?  Well, because I'm a bastard, that's why.

Offline MBB1984

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Re: Messages Link Christie's Aides To Bridge Lane Closures
« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2014, 01:14:52 pm »
Typical mob boss mentality.   Those who do not endorse Pufferfish must be punished severely. 

 Of course, character should never matter in determining a nominee, it is all about winning.   :whistle:

Offline EC

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Re: Messages Link Christie's Aides To Bridge Lane Closures
« Reply #7 on: January 09, 2014, 01:31:53 pm »
Typical mob boss mentality.   Those who do not endorse Pufferfish must be punished severely. 

 Of course, character should never matter in determining a nominee, it is all about winning.   :whistle:

Thought they always reduced bridge traffic if a wide load is crossing?  :whistle:
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Christie breaks silence on bridge scandal
By Andy Soltis and Beth DeFalco, NY Post
January 8, 2014 | 11:15am


Chris Christie’s top aide ordered crippling rush-hour lane closures at the George Washington Bridge to get back at the mayor of Fort Lee for refusing to back the Jersey governor’s re-election bid, damning e-mails revealed Wednesday.

Christie, who had long denied foul play by his staff in the traffic mess, was not “cc’d” in the e-mails and claims that his closest, most trusted appointees kept him out of the loop on the plot.

“I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge,” he said in a written statement after canceling his only public appearance on Wednesday.

“What I’ve seen today for the first time is unacceptable.”

The Christie aide at the center of “Bridgegate” is his deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, who requested the lane closures in an August e-mail to Christie-appointed Port Authority executive David Wildstein.

“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” she wrote.

“Got it,” Wildstein replied.

Two of three on-ramps to the bridge were closed during the morning rush from Sept. 9 to 12 — the first days of the new school year — causing hours-long backups on the streets of Fort Lee.

The delays were aimed squarely at Democratic Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, who snubbed Christie’s request for a bipartisan endorsement.

When Sokolich complained in phone calls to the PA, Kelly asked Wildstein in an e-mail if anyone returned his calls.

“Radio silence,” he replied.

On the second day of lane closures, a sender whose name is redacted wrote Wildstein, “I feel bad about the kids.”

He replied, “They are the children of Buono voters” — referring to Democrat Barbara Buono, whom Christie defeated easily in the November gubernatorial election.

The lane closures were halted after four days by a PA official appointed by New York Gov. Cuomo.

Wildstein reacted in an e-mail, saying the Christie-appointed PA chairman, David Samson, “is helping us to retaliate” against the New York officials.

The PA blamed the surprise lane closures on a “traffic safety pattern” study.

Christie denied any involvement and said in December that the closures were “not a big deal.”

But Wildstein and Bill Baroni — another Christie appointee to the PA — resigned as New Jersey officials investigated the traffic tie-up. Christie claimed it was unrelated.

Baroni got a letter from Sokolich on the fourth day of the closures, saying they had “wreaked havoc upon our community,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

The gridlock delayed emergency responders in four medical situations.

Ambulances were slow to get to a 91-year-old woman who lay unconscious in the street, and she later died of cardiac arrest, according to The Record of Hackensack.

A state Assembly committee hearing is scheduled for tomorrow in Trenton — and Wildstein is scheduled to testify. But Wildstein’s lawyer has filed a lawsuit to block the subpoena.

New Jersey Democrats were furious at the e-mails.

“These are terrible people and shouldn’t be in office,” Buono said.

“How dare you schedule a man-made traffic disaster in my community?” said Sokolich.

Sokolich, who is of Croatian descent, was also angry that one of the e-mails referred to him as “this little Serbian.”

Christie vowed to clean up the mess.

“One thing is clear,” he said in his statement. “This type of behavior is unacceptable and I will not tolerate it because the people of New Jersey deserve better. This behavior is not representative of me or my administration in any way, and people will be held responsible for their actions.”

Online DCPatriot

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Re: Messages Link Christie's Aides To Bridge Lane Closures
« Reply #9 on: January 09, 2014, 01:41:05 pm »
Frankly, I can't see how this is going to derail Christie's White House run.

It's much ado about nothing.

Now if we're talking about what's going to happen to the perps behind it....that's another matter.
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Offline massadvj

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Re: Messages Link Christie's Aides To Bridge Lane Closures
« Reply #10 on: January 09, 2014, 01:54:48 pm »
Christie is showing how things are done in New York and New Jersey.  I guess if he gets elected POTUS we can expect long delays at any airport in any city he is unhappy with.

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Re: Messages Link Christie's Aides To Bridge Lane Closures
« Reply #11 on: January 09, 2014, 02:06:55 pm »
Yeah, this is top notch stuff.  Nuthin' like Benghazi, FBI, Obamacare, nuthin' important like that.  Jump at the crumbs.

Or the IRS, Fast and Furious, illegal recess appointments and such!
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Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Messages Link Christie's Aides To Bridge Lane Closures
« Reply #12 on: January 09, 2014, 05:19:44 pm »
Christie is showing how things are done in New York and New Jersey.  I guess if he gets elected POTUS we can expect long delays at any airport in any city he is unhappy with.

He's nothing more than a fat Barack Obama.  Surrounds himself with the same sort of people and is just as thin-skinned.
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Offline olde north church

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Re: Messages Link Christie's Aides To Bridge Lane Closures
« Reply #13 on: January 09, 2014, 05:45:29 pm »
He's nothing more than a fat Barack Obama.  Surrounds himself with the same sort of people and is just as thin-skinned.

Actually, he's not.  Christie at least has the balls to face reporters.  What was Zippy's response to any of his scandals?
Why?  Well, because I'm a bastard, that's why.

Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Messages Link Christie's Aides To Bridge Lane Closures
« Reply #14 on: January 09, 2014, 07:18:56 pm »
Actually, he's not.  Christie at least has the balls to face reporters.  What was Zippy's response to any of his scandals?

The same as Christies...."this is the first I've heard of this" and "I'll get to the bottom of this."

No difference.
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776